Hantu Laut
Divide et impera or in the sciences of politics and sociology "divide and rule" or "divide and conquer" if literally translated from Latin.
From Caesar,Napolean,Louis XI, the Habsburgs to colonial Europe, divide and rule have always been the maxim for maintaining a hold on to power or breaking up larger concentration of power into smaller chunks that individually would be less powerful and less effective.
Machiavelli in his book the "Art of War" denotes the same application in military strategy.Infiltrate your enemies and divide the forces by sowing the seeds of mistrust among the ranks and file and the generals.
Colonial Europe imperialist territorial expansion gave them global network of colonies, of peoples subjugation and of divide and rule that have allowed the colonisers to exploit the natural resources and the inhabitants of the colonies to the fullest.
For centuries European colonies straddled the globe with territories changing hands among the European powers either through wars, gunboat diplomacy or treaties.The European were masters and enslavers of poor and undeveloped subordinated territories.
The "sun never sets on the British Empire" it was said at its pinnacle . At its height it was the largest empire in history and for over a century, the foremost global power.It held sway a quarter of the world's population and almost a quarter of the Earth's total land area.It ruled not only the land but all of the world's great oceans as well.That was the British Empire at its greatest, the epitome of divide and rule policy.Today, the empire is gone, the endgame of divide and rule.
The birth of the Federation of Malaya from British Malaya and the eventual formation of Malaysia was no less the same process.
Sabah and Sarawak could have been given independence on its own and many Sabahans and Sarawakians think on hindsight that would be the ideal situation, but as much as I do not wish to agree with the British, it seemed inevitable that we have not much choice but to participate in the formation of a bigger nation to counter the threat of Indonesia's expansionist policy then.Due to its weakening economic power and poor military forces the Philippines which has a claim over Sabah was not seen as a threat, it was Sukarno and Indonesia that the British was worried about.
Divide and rule policy inherited from the British had made this racially diverse nation into a very ethnically divided country and existential policies that failed to bring to fruit a national identity.
The Malays remained Malays, the Chinese remained Chinese, the Indians remained Indians. The Chinese speak Chinese and some looked upon China as the motherland and 20% of the population couldn't speak the national language properly. The Indians speaks the Indian language ( mostly Tamil) and some still looked upon Indian as the motherland and sent their sons to India to marry Indian brides chosen by the parents.
The races still eye each other with suspicion and whatever discomfort they may have with each other had been under the lid for decades but has now surfaced threatening to tear the country to shred if no action is taken to stop the racist mudslingers.
On the economic front the picture is even more dreary.
Tokenism! Rampant in both Chinese controlled companies and government controlled corporations.The Chinese would not employ Malays in critical positions as they do not trust them and perceived them too slow and less competent.It became even worse in family run companies where all critical positions would be wholly Chinese and the lowest rank the preserve of the other races.
Malay run GLCs practised the same discriminatory behaviour, staffing almost the entire organisation with Malays.
The civil service, the military and the police force are almost entirely Malays.The same way the Malays are being treated in Singapore by the Chinese, critical positions are not for those whose allegiance are still questionable.The Chinese and Indians have come to accept that they would never be top brass in any of these vital organisations.Most stayed away.
The Malays, the leading political force had cleverly retained the British divide and rule policy and held sway political control for over half a century until the unexpected political tsunami in March 2008 which jolted the Malay political powerhouse.UMNO never dreamt they would be rejected so badly by fellow Malays.They were still in Lala Land till the morning after.
Breaking up and dividing the Chinese and the natives of Sabah and Sarawak into small and inert political parties gave the Malays perfect political control over the other races under the BN concept, probably, the biggest amalgamation of political parties any where in the democratic world, the brainchild of former Prime Minister the late Tun Razak Hussein.A good concept if there were fair play.
There are no less than six active Chinese based parties in the country, DAP,MCA and Gerakan in the Peninsula, SAPP, LDP in Sabah and SUPP in Sarawak.
Sabah and Sarawak also enjoyed a democratic split of the indigenous people.In Sabah, there are at least three active KDM (Kadazan Dusun Murut) based political parties, PBS, UPKO and PBRS and Sarawak has three, SPDP, PRS and SNAP.
To try register a new Malay based party or revive a defunct Malay party is almost impossible.Various attempts to revive USNO in Sabah was rejected by the Register of Societies without giving valid reasons whatsoever. USNO, still has, among the adult Malay/Muslim population in Sabah, nostalgic reminiscent of days yonder when Sabahans had full control of the state.
Since its inception Malaysia has only two active Malay political parties, UMNO and PAS.Both are competing for Malay anchorage but UMNO has the lateral influence while PAS is confined to areas where the zeal for Islam is greater.
UMNO, the doyen of Malay politics has seen its influence eroding among the Malay population and has to share the Malays votes not only with PAS but with PKR, a multi-racial party headed by Anwar Ibrahim, one of the factors responsible for dividing the Malays.
In the March 2008 General Elections some very disillusioned Malays even voted for DAP candidates to show their anger and frustrations with UMNO leaders seen as high muckety muck and corrupt.
Corruptions and ostentatious display of ill-acquired wealth by UMNO leaders,families and cronies had been the rallying call for the diminution of UMNO political influence.The other big factor for splitting of the Malay votes was Anwar Ibrahim who is seen as a victim of UMNO conspiracy.
Anwar could be immoral as can be but Malaysians are bought that he is innocent even if proven guilty.Majority of French people thought of the same of Dominique Strauss-Kahn who now looked more and more guilty of the alleged crime.
Who divide the Malays?
The answer is simple, the Malays themselves but much of the blame would squarely fall on the shoulders of former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammed, former Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and UMNO.
The division of the Malays started with the sacking and imprisonment of Anwar Ibrahim seen as trumped-up charges by many Malaysians.Very few Malaysians believe Anwar was guilty of the crimes brought against him.It was seen as Mahathir's heavy handedness in getting rid of Anwar to keep himself in power.If Anwar had been sacked without his incarceration the story would have been different.
UMNO, itself, is a big factor in dividing the Malays.The legacy of political largesse and massive corruptions in the government have made the ordinary Malays lose their appetite for UMNO.The cornucopia of wealth has become the monopoly of UMNO and the lapdogs. Even the middle class Malays, beneficiries of the NEP were embattled with such idea of breach of trust.
March 8, 2008 was a wake up call for the Chinese and Indians.Both have come to realise the unrealised political power they have. How, with a little help from the Malays they could change the political landscape.
While Sabah and Sarawak were still in their slumbers the West Malaysians woke up to a new day.A day very few expect the BN to have lost its mojo and a new dawn of change appeared on the horizon.The gradual erosion of Malay dominant.
Racial polarisation has risen alarmingly of late and the 13th General Elections would see greater polarisation.
DAP would become a very dominant player in Malaysian politics after the 13th GE.Most, if not all Chinese seats would go to the DAP.All other Chinese based parties would be decimated.
DAP, which is trying to woo Malay members and voters by recruiting and engaging prominent Malay personalities failed to excite the Malays.The Malays, other than Tungku Aziz, Zairil Khir Johari and few others, would always consider DAP a Chinese party.
The Malays, unless they consolidate before the general elections, would be divided between UMNO, PAS and PKR.
BN may still win but it could well be UMNO,Sabah and Sarawak.
"Divide and Rule" one that would come back to haunt you.
Saturday, May 21, 2011
Friday, May 20, 2011
Sex,Lies,Arrogance:Why Powerful Men Behave So Badly?
When her husband Dominique Strauss-Kahn was preparing to run for President of France five years ago, Anne Sinclair told a Paris newspaper that she was "rather proud" of his reputation as a ladies' man, a chaud lapin (hot rabbit) nicknamed the Great Seducer.
"It's important," she said, "for a man in politics to be able to seduce."
Maybe it was pride that inspired French politicians and International Monetary Fund officials to look the other way as the rumors about "DSK" piled up, from the young journalist who says Strauss-Kahn tried to rip off her clothes when she went to interview him, to the female lawmaker who describes being groped and pawed and vowed never to be in a room alone with him again, to the economist who argued in a letter to IMF investigators that "I fear that this man has a problem that, perhaps, made him unfit to lead an institution where women work under his command." Maybe it was the moral laziness and social coziness that impel elites to protect their own. Maybe it was a belief that he alone could save the global economy. Maybe nothing short of jail is disqualifying for certain men in certain circles. (See pictures of Dominique Strauss-Kahn.)
But in any event, the arrest of Strauss-Kahn in New York City for allegedly trying to rape a hotel maid has ignited a fierce debate over sex, law, power and privilege. And it is only just beginning. The night of Strauss-Kahn's arraignment, former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger admitted that the reason his wife Maria Shriver walked out earlier this year was the discovery that he had fathered a child more than a decade ago with a former member of the household staff. The two cases are far apart: only one man was hauled off to jail. But both suggest an abuse of power and a betrayal of trust. And both involve men whose long-standing reputations for behaving badly toward women did not derail their rise to power. Which raises the question: How can it be, in this ostensibly enlightened age, when men and women live and work as peers and are schooled regularly in what conduct is acceptable and what is actionable, that anyone with so little judgment, so little honor, could rise to such heights?
Crime and Culture Wars
Let's note first that Strauss-Kahn is innocent until proved guilty and, second, that if he is guilty, he is not a player — he's a predator. This was not just a French version of an American classic, the Family Values Virtuecrat, who preaches by day and trysts by night. Nor was Strauss-Kahn a fallen star like Tiger Woods or Charlie Sheen or one of the libidinous lawmakers and Luv Guvs whose confessions can be as infuriating as their sins. Strauss-Kahn was not accused of seducing his close friend's wife, like former Senator John Ensign, or patronizing prostitutes while prosecuting prostitution rings, like former New York governor Eliot Spitzer, or lying about an affair while impeaching a President for lying about an affair, like Newt Gingrich. On the spectrum that starts at randy, runs through creepy and ends in handcuffs, where DSK belonged became a matter of global dispute even before it became a matter for a grand jury. (See pictures of the career of Arnold Schwarzenegger.)
This is what the alleged victim told the police: On May 14, at the Sofitel in midtown Manhattan, the maid, a 32-year-old African immigrant, entered the $3,000-a-night suite around midday to clean, thinking it was empty. When she went into a bedroom, Strauss-Kahn emerged naked from the bathroom; when she apologized and tried to leave, according to a police spokesperson, he chased her down, grabbed her and locked the door. He tried to assault her in the bedroom before dragging her to the bathroom and making her perform oral sex. She eventually fled the suite; hotel staff called the police, who caught up with him sitting in his first-class seat on the Air France flight from JFK to Paris — where he could have been safe from extradition.
See more international news in Global Spin
With his arrest, a transatlantic culture war broke out. Strauss-Kahn was the world's wallet, a shrewd and nimble financier who had rescued the IMF from irrelevance in time to save the European economy. He was the favorite to defeat Nicolas Sarkozy for the French presidency next year. He had friends everywhere who called him far too brilliant to do anything so tawdry, as though being smart and being decent were the same thing. Newspapers in Paris couldn't decide on the headline. "Shock. Political Bomb. Thunderclap," blared the left-leaning paper Libération. The New York Daily News went with "Le Perv." The French, who forbid photographing a suspect in handcuffs on the grounds that it violates the presumption of innocence, were aghast at what followed: "Death by media," one former Socialist minister called it. "If you don't want to do the perp walk, don't do the crime," New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg fired back, which only confirmed the French objection.
Strauss-Kahn was charged with offenses including criminal sex acts, unlawful imprisonment and attempted rape, for which he could face up to 25 years. He pleaded not guilty at his arraignment; his lawyers suggested that whatever might have occurred was consensual. His wife had wired $1 million for bail, they said — but concluding that a man pulled off a flight constituted a flight risk, the judge denied it. (See seven women who chose to stand by their men.)
And so he sat in a cell at Rikers Island, a short flight but a long fall from his $4 million Georgetown home and the life he had come to lead. He was on suicide watch; the victim and her teenage daughter were moved to a safe house to protect them from the cameras — but that did not stop the French press from publishing her name and background or the New York Post from reporting that she was a widow who lives in a Bronx apartment set aside for adults with HIV, a claim her lawyer called "outrageous."
Read more: http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2072527,00.html#ixzz1Mseqrnlv
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Sabah Copycats - Circus In Town
Hantu Laut
The circus is in town.The clowns had a field day entertaining the Daily Express to a round of slapsticks and horse shits.
The front page headline screamed "Anti-Musa, anti Shafie group"
"What a waste of premium space for a group of unheard of political stragglers" said the news vendor whom I get my daily from.
We are against Musa Aman and Shafie Apdal's leadership but we support the federal leadership and we want a meeting with Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak to discuss this issue.
Leading these "Save Sabah" bunch of court jesters was out of the wood work Movement for Change Sabah chief, Abdul Razak Salam, the son of Datu Abdul Salam, brother of the late Tun Mustapha Harun, the controversial and most colourful chief minister Sabah ever had. Two Grumman executive jets and one customised Boeing 707 for his personal use.His playgrounds, the casinos of Beirut and London.
Gun-toting Salam was no less controversial when he pointed his gun and threatened the receivers who came to foreclose his Dashrun Hotel in Kuala Lumpur during the Mustapha's era.The receivers had no choice but to back off and lodged a police report but no charge was ever brought against Salam.
“We hope to change the system of cronyism that is prevalent in our political system. We will not be accepting funds from anybody who wishes to control us" said another MoCS joker.
Obviously, they must be loaded with money, not needing any financial help from anyone.
“We want to change the mentality of fear and intimidation that the government uses to turn its people to be subservient to them.”
Sabah has changed government 4 times since the formation of Malaysia which shows we are not easily intimidated or live in fear of the government except in the early days of USNO where political dissent assumed as terrorists would end up in Kepayan (Sabah version of Guantanamo Bay those days)
These are the very same people who joined Yong Teck Lee in the Batu Sapi by-election in October 2010 and promised him heaven and hell to deliver the bumiputra or rather the migrant's votes to him.
Yong lost his balls and the Batu Sapi debacle would make life harder for him in the next general elections.He would be fighting an uphill battle against DAP for the Chinese seats in Sabah.
Musa may not be the best of the bests but he knows best the business of development.Shafie is shrewd but not yet proven other than being very close to Najib and given a huge coffer for rural development.Money, would definitely buy favours, at least in Sabah, it does.
MoC Sarawak candidate Salleh Jaffarudin got skunked in the Sarawak elections and these Sabah copycats were already counting their eggs and given VIP treatment and front page headline from the papers that know Sabah best.
Story here.
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Wikileaks,Pak Lah, Najib And The Altantuya Murder
Tuesday, 17 May 2011
Asia Sentinel
Cables show the US embassy in KL feared "prosecutorial misconduct" during the sensational 2009 trial.
The US Embassy in Kuala Lumpur closely followed the trial of the accused killers of Mongolian interpreter Altantuya Shaariibuu and frequently discussed whether current Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak was involved in the killing, according to diplomatic cables supplied to Asia Sentinel by the WikiLeaks website.
The diplomats, like much of the public, also speculated that the trial was being deliberately delayed and feared what one cable calls "prosecutorial misconduct" that was being politically manipulated. The embassy officials based their concerns on sources within the prosecution, government and the political opposition.
The cables also draw attention to an intriguing allegation that then Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi may have attempted to use the proceedings to implicate Najib, a claim that was quickly hushed up in the Malaysian press.
Altantuya was murdered in October 2006 by two of Najib's bodyguards, Chief Inspector Azilah Hadri, 30 and Corporal Sirul Azhar Umar, 35. who stood trial and were pronounced guilty in April 2009. Abdul Razak Baginda, one of Najib's best friends and Altantuya's lover, was accused of participating in the murder but was freed without having to put on a defense.
The murder has been tied closely to the US$1 billion acquisition of French submarines by the Malaysian ministry of defense, which Najib headed as defense minister during the acquisitions. Altantuya reportedly acted as a translator on the transaction, which netted Razak Baginda's company a €114 million "commission" on the purchase. Reportedly she had been offered US$500,000 for her part in translating. After she was jilted, she vainly demanded payment. A letter she had written was made public after her death saying she regretted attempting to "blackmail" Razak Baginda.
French lawyers are investigating whether some of the €114 million was kicked back to French or Malaysian politicians. Despite the scandal, the US government has not publicly backed away from Najib. In April 2010, Najib visited the White House and was praised by President Barack Obama for the parliament's passage of an act allowing Malaysian authorities to take action against individuals and entities engaged in proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.
The cables are replete with accounts of a long series of meetings with opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, who repeatedly told the Americans that Najib was connected to corrupt practices in the acquisition of the submarines as well as the purchase of Sukhoi Su-MCM-30 Flanker fighter jets from Russia. Anwar also called attention to Najib's connection to the Altantuya case.
A Jan. 24, 2007 cable, marked "secret," wrote that "Perceived irregularities on the part of prosecutors and the court, and the alleged destruction of some evidence, suggested to many that the case was subject to strong political pressure intended to protect Najib."
In a Feb. 1, 2008 cable, the embassy's Political Section Chief, Mark D. Clark, wrote that a deputy prosecutor had told him "there was almost no chance of winning guilty verdicts in the on-going trial of defendants Razak Baginda, a close advisor to Deputy Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak, and two police officers. She described the trial as interminably long." (That, of course, turned out to be wrong. Sirul and Azilah were ultimately convicted and have appealed their sentence)
Clark called the trial a "a prosecutorial embarrassment from its inception, leading many to speculate that the ineptitude was by design. On the eve of the trial,Malaysia's Attorney General Abdul Gani Patail dropped his lead prosecutors and replaced them with less experienced attorneys. Similarly, a lead counsel for one of the defendants abruptly resigned before the trial 'because of (political) attempts to interfere with a defense he had proposed, in particular to protect an unnamed third party.'"
The protracted nature of the case, Clark continued, led "at least one regional newspaper to speculate that 'the case is being deliberately delayed to drive it from public view. Malaysia's daily newspapers rarely mention the case's latest developments, and it is unprecedented in Malaysian judicial history that a murder trial could drag on for seven months and still not give the defense an opportunity to present its case. Such an environment has led many to conclude that the case was too politically sensitive to yield a verdict before the anticipated general elections."
A January 2007 cable called attention to Razak Baginda's affidavit confirming that he sought the help of Musa Safri, later identified by reporters as Najib's aide-de-camp, in ridding him of the jilted woman, and in other cables pointed out that Musa had never been called for questioning.
In another cable, dated May 16, 2007, Wan Ahmad Farid Wan Salleh, a deputy home affairs minister in former Prime Minister Ahmad Abdullah Badawi's cabinet told US Embassy officials that he was "certain that government prosecutors would limit their trial activities to the murder itself and the three defendants; prosecutors would not follow up on allegations of related corruption or other suspects."
In a Jan. 27, 2007 cable, marked "Secret," embassy officials wrote that "In December we heard from one of (Anwar's) lawyers that Razak Baginda's wife was in contact with Anwar and Wan Azizah, suggesting one possible source for Anwar's information."
Razak Baginda's wife, during one of his first appearances in court, screamed that her husband "doesn't want to be prime minister." That was taken by observers as a reference to the fact that Najib reportedly had been having an affair with Altantuya but passed her on to Razak Baginda because it would be unseemly to have a mistress when he succeeded Abdullah Badawi as premier. Najib has offered to swear on the Koran that he had never met the woman.
However, in July 2008, P Balasubramaniam, a former policeman and private detective who had been hired by Razak Baginda to protect him from Altantuya, filed a sworn statement saying he had been told by the accused man that Najib not only knew the murdered woman but had an affair with her and introduced her to him, passing her on because he did not want the onus of having a mistress in the event that he would become prime minister.
In a telephone interview on May 9, Anwar, however, told Asia Sentinel that Razak Baginda's wife was not the source of his knowledge of Najib's connection and that instead he had been told of the connection by Setev Shaariibuu, Altantuya's father, who said he had wished to present evidence of Najib's involvement, but was not allowed to do so. Multiple attempts to contact Setev by Asia Sentinel have been unsuccessful.
Almost immediately after he made the statement, Balasubramaniam was picked up and driven to a police station, where he was forced to withdraw the statement and write a new one saying Razak Baginda had told him nothing of the sort. Balasubramaniam fled Malaysia for India. He later said Najib's brother, Nizam, and wife, Rosmah Mansor, had met with him and that he was offered RM5 million (US$1.48 million) to forget his statement connecting Najib to Altantuya. Balasubramaniam displayed a flock of checks drawn on the account of an associate of Najib's wife. The former private detective has made a a series of statements from outside the country about Najib's involvement.
A February 2008 cable from Political Section Chief Clark gives a hint that Abdullah Badawi himself may have been trying to get rid of Najib by forcing Razak Baginda to implicate him in the murder.
"In the latest turn of the ongoing Altantuya murder trial (reftels), accused political insider Abdul Razak Baginda, who has remained calm and composed through most of the proceedings, unleashed an emotional tirade shortly after the February 20 noon recess on the trial's 90th day," Clark wrote. "Referring to the Prime Minister by his nick-name 'Pak Lah,' Razak reportedly exclaimed: 'You can die, Pak Lah! (in Malaysian - Matilah kau, Pak Lah!) I'm innocent!' according to unpublished journalist accounts. Read more.
Asia Sentinel
Cables show the US embassy in KL feared "prosecutorial misconduct" during the sensational 2009 trial.
The US Embassy in Kuala Lumpur closely followed the trial of the accused killers of Mongolian interpreter Altantuya Shaariibuu and frequently discussed whether current Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak was involved in the killing, according to diplomatic cables supplied to Asia Sentinel by the WikiLeaks website.
The diplomats, like much of the public, also speculated that the trial was being deliberately delayed and feared what one cable calls "prosecutorial misconduct" that was being politically manipulated. The embassy officials based their concerns on sources within the prosecution, government and the political opposition.
The cables also draw attention to an intriguing allegation that then Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi may have attempted to use the proceedings to implicate Najib, a claim that was quickly hushed up in the Malaysian press.
Altantuya was murdered in October 2006 by two of Najib's bodyguards, Chief Inspector Azilah Hadri, 30 and Corporal Sirul Azhar Umar, 35. who stood trial and were pronounced guilty in April 2009. Abdul Razak Baginda, one of Najib's best friends and Altantuya's lover, was accused of participating in the murder but was freed without having to put on a defense.
The murder has been tied closely to the US$1 billion acquisition of French submarines by the Malaysian ministry of defense, which Najib headed as defense minister during the acquisitions. Altantuya reportedly acted as a translator on the transaction, which netted Razak Baginda's company a €114 million "commission" on the purchase. Reportedly she had been offered US$500,000 for her part in translating. After she was jilted, she vainly demanded payment. A letter she had written was made public after her death saying she regretted attempting to "blackmail" Razak Baginda.
French lawyers are investigating whether some of the €114 million was kicked back to French or Malaysian politicians. Despite the scandal, the US government has not publicly backed away from Najib. In April 2010, Najib visited the White House and was praised by President Barack Obama for the parliament's passage of an act allowing Malaysian authorities to take action against individuals and entities engaged in proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.
The cables are replete with accounts of a long series of meetings with opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, who repeatedly told the Americans that Najib was connected to corrupt practices in the acquisition of the submarines as well as the purchase of Sukhoi Su-MCM-30 Flanker fighter jets from Russia. Anwar also called attention to Najib's connection to the Altantuya case.
A Jan. 24, 2007 cable, marked "secret," wrote that "Perceived irregularities on the part of prosecutors and the court, and the alleged destruction of some evidence, suggested to many that the case was subject to strong political pressure intended to protect Najib."
In a Feb. 1, 2008 cable, the embassy's Political Section Chief, Mark D. Clark, wrote that a deputy prosecutor had told him "there was almost no chance of winning guilty verdicts in the on-going trial of defendants Razak Baginda, a close advisor to Deputy Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak, and two police officers. She described the trial as interminably long." (That, of course, turned out to be wrong. Sirul and Azilah were ultimately convicted and have appealed their sentence)
Clark called the trial a "a prosecutorial embarrassment from its inception, leading many to speculate that the ineptitude was by design. On the eve of the trial,Malaysia's Attorney General Abdul Gani Patail dropped his lead prosecutors and replaced them with less experienced attorneys. Similarly, a lead counsel for one of the defendants abruptly resigned before the trial 'because of (political) attempts to interfere with a defense he had proposed, in particular to protect an unnamed third party.'"
The protracted nature of the case, Clark continued, led "at least one regional newspaper to speculate that 'the case is being deliberately delayed to drive it from public view. Malaysia's daily newspapers rarely mention the case's latest developments, and it is unprecedented in Malaysian judicial history that a murder trial could drag on for seven months and still not give the defense an opportunity to present its case. Such an environment has led many to conclude that the case was too politically sensitive to yield a verdict before the anticipated general elections."
A January 2007 cable called attention to Razak Baginda's affidavit confirming that he sought the help of Musa Safri, later identified by reporters as Najib's aide-de-camp, in ridding him of the jilted woman, and in other cables pointed out that Musa had never been called for questioning.
In another cable, dated May 16, 2007, Wan Ahmad Farid Wan Salleh, a deputy home affairs minister in former Prime Minister Ahmad Abdullah Badawi's cabinet told US Embassy officials that he was "certain that government prosecutors would limit their trial activities to the murder itself and the three defendants; prosecutors would not follow up on allegations of related corruption or other suspects."
In a Jan. 27, 2007 cable, marked "Secret," embassy officials wrote that "In December we heard from one of (Anwar's) lawyers that Razak Baginda's wife was in contact with Anwar and Wan Azizah, suggesting one possible source for Anwar's information."
Razak Baginda's wife, during one of his first appearances in court, screamed that her husband "doesn't want to be prime minister." That was taken by observers as a reference to the fact that Najib reportedly had been having an affair with Altantuya but passed her on to Razak Baginda because it would be unseemly to have a mistress when he succeeded Abdullah Badawi as premier. Najib has offered to swear on the Koran that he had never met the woman.
However, in July 2008, P Balasubramaniam, a former policeman and private detective who had been hired by Razak Baginda to protect him from Altantuya, filed a sworn statement saying he had been told by the accused man that Najib not only knew the murdered woman but had an affair with her and introduced her to him, passing her on because he did not want the onus of having a mistress in the event that he would become prime minister.
In a telephone interview on May 9, Anwar, however, told Asia Sentinel that Razak Baginda's wife was not the source of his knowledge of Najib's connection and that instead he had been told of the connection by Setev Shaariibuu, Altantuya's father, who said he had wished to present evidence of Najib's involvement, but was not allowed to do so. Multiple attempts to contact Setev by Asia Sentinel have been unsuccessful.
Almost immediately after he made the statement, Balasubramaniam was picked up and driven to a police station, where he was forced to withdraw the statement and write a new one saying Razak Baginda had told him nothing of the sort. Balasubramaniam fled Malaysia for India. He later said Najib's brother, Nizam, and wife, Rosmah Mansor, had met with him and that he was offered RM5 million (US$1.48 million) to forget his statement connecting Najib to Altantuya. Balasubramaniam displayed a flock of checks drawn on the account of an associate of Najib's wife. The former private detective has made a a series of statements from outside the country about Najib's involvement.
A February 2008 cable from Political Section Chief Clark gives a hint that Abdullah Badawi himself may have been trying to get rid of Najib by forcing Razak Baginda to implicate him in the murder.
"In the latest turn of the ongoing Altantuya murder trial (reftels), accused political insider Abdul Razak Baginda, who has remained calm and composed through most of the proceedings, unleashed an emotional tirade shortly after the February 20 noon recess on the trial's 90th day," Clark wrote. "Referring to the Prime Minister by his nick-name 'Pak Lah,' Razak reportedly exclaimed: 'You can die, Pak Lah! (in Malaysian - Matilah kau, Pak Lah!) I'm innocent!' according to unpublished journalist accounts. Read more.
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