When Abdullah Ahmad Badawi took over the leadership reins from Dr Mahathir Mohamad in 2003, he had promised to come down hard on corruption.

Recalling this period in the wake of former Felda chairperson Isa Samad's arrest, Lim Kit Siang wondered if this was a re-run of a pre-general election tactic.

Prior to the 2008 general election, he said the then minister in the Prime Minister's Department Rais Yatim announced that the Abdullah administration would net “18 sharks” for corruption.

“But not a single 'shark' was netted to be convicted and sentenced in the whole five-year Abdullah premiership and all the 'lightning and thunder' about eradicating corruption by netting and nailing the 'sharks' ended in a whimper without any results,” he added in a media statement...