12.03.2012
Malaysian prosecutors charged a minister's husband on Monday with criminal breach of trust and embezzlement in a case that threatens to tarnish the government ahead of widely expected elections this year.
Mohamad Salleh Ismail, husband of Malaysia's Women, Families and Communities Minister Shahrizat Abdul Jalil, is the chairman of a publicly funded cattle rearing project the political opposition said was used to pay for expensive overseas trips and luxury apartments.
Mohamad Salleh could not immediately be reached for comment.
An official from the attorney general's office said Mohamad Salleh was charged with two counts of criminal breach of trust as well as two counts of misusing nearly 50 million ringgit from the 250 million ringgit project.
The 64-year-old pleaded not guilty to all counts.
The charges come a day after Shahrizat said she would resign as a minister on April 8. She will remain as the head of the women's wing of Malaysia's ruling party, the United Malays National Organisation.
The 'Cowgate' scandal, as it has been dubbed, could be potentially damaging as the farmyard connection makes it easier for poor rural Malays, who form the bedrock of UMNO's support, to relate to it than other financial scandals.
Prime Minister Najib Razak in January froze the assets of the National Feedlot Centre, which was supposed to make Malaysia 40 percent self-sufficient in beef production by 2010, and instructed the anti-corruption commission to investigate.
Yet the slow pace of the investigations, denials of wrongdoing by Shahrizat's family and fresh accusations appearing almost daily on the opposition-dominated news websites have threatened to overshadow Najib's reform pledges.
Najib's approval ratings have risen to 69 percent in February from 59 percent in August after the government handed out funds to lower income households this year.
The handouts come as Najib seeks to win back support from voters in polls that must be held by April 2013 but are likely to be called in the first half of 2012 before a looming global slowdown hits Malaysia.
Corruption and rising income and racial inequalities saw voters abandon Najib's National Front coalition, which UMNO dominates, in favour of the opposition that made historic gains in 2008.
While three government officials have faced corruption charges in Najib's campaign against graft since he took power in 2009, Malaysia has not done too well in Transparency International's corruption perceptions index.
The southeast Asian country was ranked 60th out of the 182 nations in the index last year, down four places from 2010.
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