YOURSAY | Muhyiddin, the accuser must prove claims

YOURSAY | ‘Lim need not do a single thing except to sue your pants off’.

Tax exemption legal tussle: Prove it, Muhyiddin tells Guan Eng

Kilimanjaro: I am surprised at the apparent ignorance of former prime minister Muhyiddin Yassin. When questioned on an unrelated matter, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim explained the reason why he had not replaced the MACC head, Azam Baki.

From the number of cases that recently emerged, including one related to a ministry, it is understandable Pakatan Harapan ministers did not wish to poke their noses into the decisions taken by independent bodies, despite being under certain ministries.

This is where Muhyiddin gets trapped. For one, he should have respected the decision of the Inland Revenue Board. There are appeal procedures under the Investment Tax Allowance, including appeals to civil courts and that is the appeal process that the aggrieved party should have resorted to.

Is the appeal directly to the PM? Was this predicated on the basis of a favour that the party expected from the then PM? And then the next minute you see a handsome donation pouring into the party’s account.

By the way, there is still one lingering doubt. Instead of appealing to the then finance minister Lim Guan Eng, why did he appeal to the PM? Or if he indeed appealed to the finance minister, what was the outcome?

Or was the aggrieved party made to believe that the then PM was waiting for the appeal to him? All this talk of a Muslim foundation fits neatly into the pigeonhole of “the scheme of things”.

Lest the former PM is ignorant, the tax charge is on profits, which becomes chargeable under certain circumstances.

Funny isn’t it - he is talking about the ‘twists’ of LGE. Rather, l am wondering otherwise. The hands-off approach of LGE was right - both in terms of sense and deed.

Vijay47: Muhyiddin or whatever you choose to call yourself these days, I am not surprised that you again reaffirm the general belief that you lack in those assets called grey cells that make the brain tick; my only surprise is that you do so with such open glee. Ahh well, to each his own, I suppose.

Basic law dictates that Lim does not have to prove anything you accuse him of. Since you are the one who alleges that he is the officer who revoked Albukhary Foundation’s tax-exempt status, it is you who must provide evidence to support your allegation.

Lim does not have to do a single thing except apply slightly more advanced law and sue your pants off should you be unable to put your money where your mouth is.

By the way, Muhyiddin, you seem very concerned that Lim is the one who revoked the tax-exemption status. As the Latin legal phrase asks, “So what?”.

Since when is it an illegal act for the Minister of Finance to withdraw any beneficial status in undeserving cases? Incidentally, such authority lies with the director-general of Inland Revenue, not that I expect you to make a fine distinction.

Proarte: Who in the IRB made the decision? Isn’t that a simple enough question to answer? He or she is allowed to do so without reference to the finance minister. So, this is a non-issue that has been given a wicked racial slant by the desperate “Malay First” Muhyiddin.

PN’s bankrupt politics wants to make the anti-Malay label against the DAP a Chinese chauvinist party stick. So Muhyiddin needs Lim Guan Eng to be the villain. It would be malu (shameful) if a Malay was responsible. Let us hope no one in the IRB has been bribed to implicate LGE.

What is amazing is the notion that raising much-needed revenue through tax from a billionaire like Al-Bukhary is considered “harming the Malays”.

Taxes from the wealthy go to pay for services that every citizen needs which include poor Malays. Isn’t a redistributive tax system standard practice across the world in civilised societies?

In fact, if LGE was responsible, he should be praised for raising taxes from the rich to benefit the poor Malays - a present-day “Chinese Robin Hood”! Muhyiddin is really scraping at the barrel.

Mazilamani: Who is providing Muhyiddin with the news that LGE the then finance minister revoked the AlBhukary Foundation’s tax exemption? The PM, LGE, and maybe foundation founder Syed Mokhtar Albukhary himself also denied it.

Syed Mokhtar should be the person fighting for the tax exemption as the concerned party, but why is Muhyiddin dipping his nose into the matter? Or rather fighting on behalf of the foundation? Or is Muhyiddin shooting in the dark to bring down innocent lives?

Lèon Moch: In ancient times, people accused of witchcraft have been asked to prove they are in fact not witches or did not indulge in witchcraft.

Since it is quite impossible to produce hard evidence that something does not exist or did not happen, a method was devised by the prosecutor to determine if an accused person is a witch.

She would be tied up in heavy chains and thrown into the river. If she sinks and drowns and dies, then that is considered proof that she is not a witch.

But if she manages to escape the chains somehow and survives, then it is considered proven that she is a witch and will be burned to death at the stake as punishment.

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