Eight years and six months since Altantuya Shaariibuu was C4-ed to death mercilessly, the chronology of events from the discovery of her remains until today puzzles even excellent investigators.

Yesterday, Lim Kit Siang and Dr Mahathir Mohamad gave two mind-boggling statements about Altantuya.

Kit Siang argued , “Two former prime ministers, Mahathir Mohamad and Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, should be sent on a national mission to Australia to find out from Sirul Azhar Umar who gave the order to kill Mongolian Altantuya Shaariibuu.”

Dr Mahathir questioned , “Who ordered the killing of Altantuya?” besides expressing how “it would be very cruel for Sirul to die for just following orders”.

It baffles the ordinary citizen why both are still raising such mundane issues after 8.5 years.

Abdullah was prime minister when Altantuya died in 2006. Surely he would have privy to the most sensitive, delicate and confidential information pertaining to the murder of Altantuya.

Surely Abdullah would not have allowed Najib Abdul Razak to become prime minister if he had known Najib was implicated in the murder. It would be utterly inconceivable and preposterous to endorse a murderer as his successor. Well, Abdullah stepped down and Najib became PM.

In the same vein of thought, surely if Mahathir had known at that time that Najib was implicated in Altantuya’s murder, he would not have handpicked Najib to succeed Abdullah (whom Mahathir personally handpicked but later told him to step down).

The fact is that Mahathir never questioned Najib then, and even selected him to succeed Abdullah. Eight and a half years down the road, Mahathir is demanding answers to a very pertinent question he should have asked Najib in 2006 before endorsing him as the sixth prime minister of Malaysia.

Why are Kit Siang and Dr Mahathir not asking how Sirul managed to escape to Australia and how Mahfuz Omar allegedly made contact with Sirul.

Surely authorities should query Mahfuz on what he knows! Why are all guns pointing only at Najib whereas many other mysteries and grey areas about the case remain either concealed or are reverberating in haunting silence?

Why can’t mature political leaders, the police and all authorities in the case come together and talk?

And that includes Dr Mahathir, Abdullah and PM Najib.

Reveal the truth openly instead of running down leaders and in the process, erode our country’s international standing and business confidence.