It has been more than a month since retired Kuala Lumpur CID chief Mat Zain Ibrahim made a statutory declaration on Malaysia's loss of Pulau Batu Puteh to Singapore and sent copies to several people, including Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak - and he wonders why no action is being taken.

The former top cop is concerned that there has been no action in any way from Najib for his call that a royal commission of inquiry (RCI) be established to investigate the matter.

gerakan egm 261013 najib 3 Mat Zain told Malaysiakini that it appeared to him that Najib was protecting Attorney-General Abdul Gani Patail and ignoring his call in his SD, which was made on Oct 7, in which pressed for a tribunal against Gani for his alleged misconducts as well as for an RCI on the Pulau Batu Puteh matter.

"If a senior federal minister can be charged with murder and convicted, if a Lord President of the Supreme Court can be brought before a tribunal and be removed from office and disgraced, and if an IGP can be charged with assaulting a detainee and fined and jailed... what is so great about this Gani Patail?" Mat Zain asked.

In these examples, he was referring to former youth and sports minister Mokhtar Hashim, who was convicted of murdering former Negri Sembilan state assembly speaker Mohd Taha Talib, the former Lord President Salleh Abas during the Umno debacle in 1988, and former Inspector-General of Police Abdul Rahim Noor in Anwar Ibrahim's black-eye incident.

Besides Najib, Mat Zain sent the SD, which is about his meeting with senior lawyer Muhammad Shafee Abdullah and former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, to the Chief Secretary to the government Ali Hamsa, Solicitor-General Idrus Harun and Inspector-General of Police Khalid Abu Bakar.

So far, only Khalid has responded to the SD, saying the allegations made in it would be best looked into by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission.

‘Najib sprang into action on Bala's SD'

Mat Zain said he was pondering the silence to his SD compared with the late P Balasubramaniam's statutory declaration, where Najib allegedly sprang into action, resulting in the former private investigator retracting it and making a second SD.

NONE "When Bala's SD came out on July 3, 2008, Najib and his family members engaged a very senior lawyer to draft the infamous second SD, all of this within 24 hours of the private investigator exposing his first SD.

"It was learned four months later that the senior lawyer was appointed as a panel member of the newly formed Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission. A year or so later, Najib ‘got' the ‘Tan Sri' title for the said lawyer.

"What can be concluded from Najib's reactions to the two SDs (Bala's SD and his) is that Najib is only prepared to protect his very own, his wife's and family's interests, while the interests of the ordinary citizens, Yang di-Pertuan Agong and country are of the lowest priority or of no concern to him," Mat Zain emphasised.

Balasubramaniam's lawyer Americk Sidhu revealed during the Bar Council AGM earlier this year that Najib had directed Cecil Abraham to draft Balasubramaniam's second SD.

Cecil is now the subject of action by the Advocates and Solicitors Disciplinary Board.

Carpet businessman Deepak Jaikishan , who was once close with Najib's wife Rosmah Mansor, also revealed in an interview with Harakah that Najib had a hand in Bala's second SD.

During the appeal of the two police Special Action Unit officers Chief Inspector Azilah Hadri and Corporal Sirul Azhar Umar against their conviction for the murder of Mongolian beauty Altantuya Shaariibuu, deputy solicitor-general II Tun Abdul Majid Tun Hamzah said Najib was not tied with the murder case.

Najib has also sworn that he was not involved in the Altantuya case, while Rosmah has also denied in her biography that they had been involved in the matter.

‘Gani should be treated like anybody else'

Mat Zain said it appeared to him that for Najib, Gani ought to be protected at any cost, even to the extent of destroying the credibility of all the essential government institutions.

"Najib will... To him, Gani can commit no offence, even if he has been in the wrong in the Pulau Batu Puteh case that resulted in the loss of our territory.

"It is as if Gani is more important than Prophet Muhammad... the PM may have a point there... the prophet does not have the power, exercisable at his discretion, to institute, conduct or discontinue any proceedings for an offence, as stated in our constitution, whereas Gani has."

Mat Zain claimed that he had on several occasions in his meetings and letters pointed out that notwithstanding the powers conferred on Gani as attorney-general under Article 145(3) of the federal constitution, the country's attorney-general is not exempted from any criminal proceedings if he had committed a crime.

"If Gani has committed a crime, he has to be treated like any other criminal. If he is convicted for any of them, he has to be punished, as provided for in that particular provision of the law," he said.

"We can understand if people like Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi or former women, family and community development minister Sharizat Abdul Jalil are very scared of Gani. But what about the other ministers, past or present? Why are they also afraid?" Mat Zain asked.