Finance Twitter : There’s nothing wrong with Mamaks. After all, they make the best “teh tarik” and “roti canai” money can buy. However, a Mamak like Abdul Azeez, who disguised as a good Muslim had been scamming the real Malay Muslims for as long as one can remember, until the downfall of the extremely corrupted and racist UMNO party, of which he is the supreme council member.

On Tuesday, Abdul Azeez Rahim and his brother Abdul Latiff Abdul Rahim were arrested and will be brought to court to face charges the following day (Wednesday, Jan 16). Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) investigators revealed that both the Baling MP and Abdul Latif were arrested in connection with investigations into graft and money-laundering.

Apparently, the Malay Muslim wannabes has been slapped with 12 charges of corruption and money laundering amounting to a staggering RM144.5 million – more than former Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi’s 45 charges of CBT (criminal breach of trust) and money laundering involving RM114 million.

This is not the first time Abdul Azeez has been arrested though? In May last year, the same month Najib regime stunningly lost power, the anti-corruption agency raided and seized RM500,000 in cash of various currencies from Azeez’s home as part of an investigation into the appointment of contractors for Tabung Haji (Hajj Pilgrims Fund) projects.

In September the same year, Azeez and his brother Latif were arrested after being called in for questioning over allegations of soliciting bribes. After his 10-day MACC remand ended, Azeez’s release saw the arrest of his own son on the same day, also on allegations of corruption and money laundering. It seems the family of Abdul Azeez, like ex-PM Najib Razak, were crooks after all.

Yes, Abdul Azeez was one of the UMNO crooks who tried very hard to be more Malay than the original ethnic Malay and more Muslim than the Arabs in the Middle East. Like Michael Jackson, who had wanted to be transform himself into a white man, this UMNO warlord was fabulously offended when he was called “thambi” (younger brother in Tamil) or “mamak”.

His desire to become a Malay Muslim was so strong that he chose to prove it by mocking and insulting the non-Muslims. He told an opposition Member of Parliament of Chinese ethnicity in 2015 to “balik tongsan” (go back to China). His outburst was both racist and derogatory; although it was hilarious coming from the mouth of someone whose forefathers came from Southern India.

To project his image as a good Muslim, he had done a marvellous job as the champion of the Palestinians, so much so he was appointed honorary ambassador for Palestine in 2012. That was why when his houses were raided by the anti-corruption officers, he conveniently claimed the RM500,000 seized was to finance a mission to Gaza, Palestine.

Unlike the Chinese, however, 52-year-old Abdul Azeez feels deplorable of his roots with regard to ethnicity and ancestry. At least Mahathir Mohamad is open about his ancestry, acknowledging it could be traced to Kerala in India. But if Azeez could even claim to possess a Master in Business Administration degree from the unrecognised Preston University, USA, he has no shame at all.

Under the previous Najib administration, bootlicker Azeez became a director of Tabung Haji (Hajj Pilgrims Fund) in 2011. After his election to Parliament in 2013, he became Tabung Haji’s chairman. It was like inviting the wolf to take good care of the sheep. The crook, together with former CEOs Ismee Ismail and Johan Abdullah, happily plundered the Hajj pilgrims’ money.

According to Singapore “The Sunday Times”, the hard-earned savings fund for Muslims to perform the mandatory hajj pilgrimage should have RM64 billion in assets, but has been found to be short of RM4 billion in deposits in 2016. The Tabung Haji management had also “faked 2017’s accounts to justify its dividend payout” of up to 6.25% just before the May 9 elections.

Interestingly, the pilgrim’s fund was used to bailout 1MDB when it was revealed that Tabung Haji, under the same leadership of Abdul Azeez Abdul Rahim, had agreed to buy one piece of land in TRX (Tun Razak Exchange) to develop a 40-storey serviced apartment block at a hugely inflated price – RM188.5 million when the one and a half acres land cost only RM4.15 million.

Among the UMNO warlords, Mr. Azeez was on top of the food chain, given tons of government projects and contracts of gigantic size. He was so powerful and greedy that Chief Secretary Ali Hamsa, Treasury Secretary-General Mohd Irwan Serigar Abdullah and even the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) were in his pocket.

Known as the “King of Mamak Gang” in the previous administration, all the roads and sewerage systems worth above RM100 million practically had his fingerprints. Even UMNO warlords had complained why the procurement of fire trucks and ambulances were awarded to Azeez Rahim on a silver platter. The crook essentially controlled all the secretaries of every government agency.

With access to unlimited funds under the Najib regime, Azeez was the man the former disgraced prime minister would approach to fix problems. As the fixer from the North, the former Tabung Haji chairman SOP would call and offer bribes to close cases – from lucky draws to buy voters to giving hard cold cash to minister to close the infamous 1MDB scandal investigation.