MP SPEAKS | I was taken aback when I read of former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak's speedy agreement to a proposal I made when campaigning for Pakatan Harapan candidate Anwar Ibrahim in the Port Dickson by-election campaign on Friday.
He agreed that several mysterious deaths which occurred during his tenure should be re-opened for investigation, and even for the establishment of special inquiries.
Among these mysterious deaths were that of Mongolian model Altatunya Shaariibuu, who was killed in a deserted area in Shah Alam on Oct 18, 2006 with her remains destroyed by C-4 explosives; deputy public prosecutor Kevin Morais who was last seen alive on Sept 4, 2015, and his body subsequently found in a drum filled with concrete; Hussain Najadi, the AmBank founder and banker who was fatally shot on July 29, 2013 in a parking lot in Kuala Lumpur; and Teoh Beng Hock, a DAP political aide to Selangor exco member, Ean Yong Hian Wah who was found dead on July 16, 2009 after falling from the 14th floor of the old Selangor MACC building while in their custody.
The question that immediately comes to mind following Najib’s exclamation that it is high time “justice is served” is why he allowed such travesties of justice to occur during his premiership and did not reopen investigations into these mysterious deaths when he had the power to do so?
Could it be that 'justice' did not matter when he was the prime minister, but only now when Dr Mahathir Mohamad is the prime minister?
For Najib’s elucidation, justice matters regardless of time or who is the prime minister. Let me remind Najib of what a Malcolm X once said: “I am for truth, no matter who tells it. I’m for justice, no matter what it’s for or against.”
It would appear that during the five months since being toppled as premier, Najib is personally heading his team of propagandists and cybertroopers to scour through all the things that have been said about him in the past nine years of his premiership, to the extent that he knows more about what I say about him than I do myself.
I was driven by his blog yesterday to check what I said about him and Najadi in 2015, since he said that I was among those who had attempted to link him to the case.
I checked and I found that this was what I said on July 7, 2015
“I call on the inspector-general of police Khalid Abu Bakar to reopen investigations into the murder of Hussain who was shot dead in broad daylight in the centre of Kuala Lumpur in Lorong Ceylon in Bukit Bintang on July 29, 2013, to ascertain whether the murder had any links with the 1MDB scandal.
“The police should investigate whether it is true that in March 2013, Hussain had reported to Bank Negara about significant amounts of money deposited into Najib’s personal accounts and subsequently about withdrawal of significant amounts of money from these bank accounts; and that Hussain lodged a police report on the above matters on 28th July 2013 when no actions were taken by Bank Negara.
“The 75-year-old Hussain was shot dead in a car park in Kuala Lumpur on 29th July 23, 2013.”
Why was it so difficult to answer these questions which I posed in July 2015, “whether it is true that in March 2013, Hussein had reported to Bank Negara about significant amounts of money deposited into Najib’s personal accounts and subsequently about withdrawal of significant amounts of money from these bank accounts; and that Hussein lodged a police report on the above matters on 28th July 2013 when no actions were taken by Bank Negara”?
A simple 'yes' or 'no' would have sufficed. Why was there thunderous silence instead?
Maybe, with so much free time on his hands, Najib can answer these questions now.
Since Najib is suddenly so enamoured with the concept of 'justice', he can probably explain why he had not sued Clare Rewcastle-Brown for her book The Sarawak Report or Tom Wright and Bradley Hope for their Billion Dollar Whale for defamation?
In page 457, Rewcastle-Brown calls Najib “a thief and a liar”, while on page 224, Wright and Hope accuse Najib of winning the 2013 general election “armed with dirty 1MDB cash”.
Both books are bestsellers, but why is Najib so quiet and inactive to seek 'justice' for his reputation and character?
Najib has been summoned to appear before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) in its reopening of investigations into the 1MDB scandal, as the report of the PAC of the 13th Parliament on the scandal was an impaired and tainted one, designed to aid and abet Najib to suppress the truth – and which had been described as “kleptocracy at its worst” by the US Attorney-General, Jeff Sessions.
Will Najib “tell all” at the PAC reopening of investigations into the 1MDB scandal, or will he clamp up, pleading that with the 49 1MDB-related charges concerning corruption, money-laundering and abuse of power against him and his wife, Rosmah Mansor, he can no longer speak freely about the 1MDB scandal?
Let’s hear from Najib on this.
Najib’s lawyer Muhammad Shafee Abdullah has said he wants the other mastermind of the 1MDB scandal, Low Taek Jho, to turn up in Malaysia to testify in his trial. He has been accused of secret meetings with the international fugitive in China, Thailand and Turkey.
Does Najib want Low to return to Malaysia to testify on the 1MDB scandal or stay far away from the clutches of the Malaysian legal system as well as many legal jurisdictions?
LIM KIT SIANG is the MP for Iskandar Puteri.
The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.
