A rattled Najib tries to figure
out how to counter allegations of criminal cover-up.
A controversial businessman and onetime family friend of
Malaysia's prime minister appears to be doing what the country?s political
opposition has been unable to accomplish for years: publicly tie the top UMNO
leader to serious and politically damaging crimes.
In a spate of interviews with opposition and independent websites
that seemingly deliver new and damaging revelations each day, Deepak Jaikishan
has now connected Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak, Najib?s brother Nazim and
Najib?s wife, Rosmah Mansor, to the politically charged cover-up of the 2006
murder of the jet-setting Mongolian beauty Altantuya Shaariibuu, itself a part
of a much bigger scandal involving ?114 million in kickbacks to top Malaysian
politicians for the purchase of French submarines.
Hand-grenade Deepak
Deepak, a stocky, bespectacled carpet dealer and real estate
speculator, resembles a man walking around holding a hand grenade with the pin
pulled. In what seems to be a fresh revelation each day, what Deepak is telling
everybody who will listen has been rumored and speculated on for years, but it
is remarkable that he is airing the charges as elections approach and doing so
seemingly without fear. The latest disclosure, made Thursday to Harakah, the
official Malay language newspaper of the opposition Parti Islam se-Malaysia,
ties Najib himself into the plot to attempt to destroy the credibility of a
witness who said he had been told Najib himself had an affair with the murdered
woman.
Whether this represents a deep split inside UMNO or the act of one
disgruntled insider who claims to have been cheated out of millions in a
business deal, the political fallout for Najib ? and especially his wife, who
is viewed by a sizable chunk of the electorate as greedy and manipulative, is
deeply damaging. Sources with ties to UMNO tell Asia Sentinel that Najib and
the political operatives surrounding him are at sea as to how to handle
Deepak?s allegations and are mainly trying to keep the story out of the
mainstream press, which is entirely controlled by the three major political
parties in control of the government. In the meantime, however, the Internet
news sites and bloggers are having a field day with the allegations.
The big question is how much public credibility Deepak has, and
whether the Altantuya murder still has any resonance six years after her death.
Reports in Kuala Lumpur said last week he had agreed to shut up in exchange for
the rescheduling of RM160 million in loans from Kuwait. But the revelations
started again earlier this week.
RM160mil loans to shut up!
The ruling national coalition has been successful in branding
almost all revelations about the case, even those taking place in French
courtrooms, as stratagems put together by the opposition. The question of race
is also involved, with UMNO branding itself as the defender of moderate Islam
against the religiously conservative Parti Islam se-Malaysia and the upholder
of ethnic Malay rights against the country?s sizeable Chinese minority, which
is solidly in the opposition?s camp.
Past UMNO strongmen, like Mahathir Mohamad, never saw their names
dragged into the mud so publicly. But the Internet ? and perhaps Najib's own
failings ? have changed the equation. What will determine the fate of the
premier is likely how this plays out in the so-called Malay heartland. But with
Internet penetration rates even in rural areas rising, it has to be assumed
that the allegations will percolate widely.
In earlier interviews, Deepak claimed that Najib and Rosmah, once
his business partner, had got him kicked off the boards of directors of 26
companies, and that he had lost a fortune on land illegally liberated from
Malaysia?s Ministry of Defense and given to a Najib political ally who had
ignored his ownership of a chunk of it .
Najib directly involved in retraction of SD
In the latest interview, with the Malay-language Harakah, the PAS
official news publication, Deepak charged that Najib, then the defense
minister, himself played a major role in the retraction of a private
investigator?s 2008 statutory declaration in which he recounted conversations
with Abdul Razak Baginda, Altantuya?s jilted lover.
Razak Baginda reportedly told the private investigator, Perumal
Balasubramaiam, whom he had hired to keep Altantuya away from him after he
jilted her, that allegedly Najib himself had had an affair with the Mongolian
translator but passed her onto him because he didn?t want a scandal when he
became prime minister. Bala passed on excruciatingly detailed allegations that
Altantuya liked anal sex and other comments.
In the interview, which has been uploaded to Youtube, Deepak said
Rosmah had telephoned him personally on July 3, 2006 to seek his help in
attempting to shut up the private detective, inviting him to the couple?s home
to meet Najib.
Najib, he said, was anxious to reverse the private detective?s
statement to attempt to head off possible action taken by his enemies within
UMNO aimed at thwarting his premiership ambitions. He didn?t identify who those
interests were, although in particular Najib?s forces were politically arrayed
against those of then Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.
Bala?s revelations added to suspicions that the first couple were
somehow involved in Altantuya?s death. Two elite bodyguards attached to Najib?s
own office later were arrested and ultimately convicted of killing the
28-year-old mother of two and blowing up her body with C4 plastic explosives.
The trial appeared to observers to be aimed by both prosecution and defense at
keeping the name of the person or persons who hired the two bodyguards a secret.
Orders from 'that couple'
According to evidence presented by French prosecutors, Altantuya,
as well as being Razak Baginda?s lover, had performed as a translator in the
late stages of the US$1 billion purchase of two diesel Scorpene submarines from
the French state-controlled defense giant DCN by the Malaysian defense ministry
when Najib was defense minister.
The documents indicate that then-French foreign minister Alain
Juppe, former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir and others had clear knowledge that
?114 million euros in ?commissions? were to be kicked back to UMNO through a
company wholly owned by Razak Baginda.
At the time of her murder, Altantuya left a letter behind in her
hotel room saying she regretted blackmailing Razak Baginda for US$500,000.
Deepak said that he was making the new revelations to urge the
Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) to take action and protect the
integrity of the institution. Balasubramahiam has repeatedly called for the
MACC to examine the allegations in his original statement.
"I'm sure there are good people in the MACC. It is impossible
that everyone only take orders from that couple. We have 28 million people in
Malaysia," he told Harakah.
Source: asiasentinel.com
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