The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak has continued his roller-coaster governance of Malaysia after his “Black Tuesday” of July 28.
In the “Black Tuesday” last week, Najib summarily sacked the Attorney-General, Tan Sri Gani Patail who had served three Prime Ministers for nearly 13 years and some two months short of mandatory retirement when reaching the age of 60; launched the nation’s second wave of attacks on national institutions including Parliament, the Executive, key agencies comprising the “Special Task Force on the 1MDB” such as the Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM), Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) and the Press; sacked his Deputy Prime Minister-cum-Education Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin and Rural and Regional Development, Datuk Seri Shafie Apdal for raising questions about the 1MDB scandal which Malaysians and the world have been asking; reshuffled his Cabinet with “loyal people over smart people” and form his trio of Cabinet “spin doctors” to defend him and 1MDB; and most serious of all, setting off unprecedented convulsion in the most fractured Government in the nation’s history, with one enforcement agency investigating and pouncing on another.
The Prime Minister and his UMNO lieutenants have over the weekend been on a national roadshow with UMNO members bussed in tens of thousands to declare their support and loyalty to Najib at every stop, but all these theatrics, even with the support of UMNO’s erstwhile opponent, PAS President Datuk Seri Hadi Awang, cannot hide the fact that Najib is the weakest Prime Minister in the nation’s history.
This is not just in terms of popularity rating as Prime Minister with Malaysians – which fell to 44% in January but could have plunged now to the lower 30% levels – but most important of all, plumbed the lowest depth never reached by Malaysia’s previous five Prime Miniters, Tunku, Razak, Hussein, Mahathir and Abdullah in terms of moral authority, standing and credibility as Prime Minister.
After the “Black Tuesday”, Najbi’s trio of Cabinet “spin doctors” had been busy preparing the ground to present Najib in the best possible light not only in the 1MDB scandal but also after the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) report of July 3 that government investigators have found US$700 million (RM2.6 million) deposited into Najib’s personal accounts in AmBank in March 2013, just before the dissolution of Parliament.
This was why in the past few days we have media headlines like the following:
– Najib’s accounts are not your concern, ex-DPM told
– ‘UMNO allows trust account under president’s name’
– Any politician free to accept overseas funds
– 1MDB not taxpayers’ money, says Najib
All these are clearly preparing for the final admission that the Wall Street Journal report on July 3 was correct, i.e. government investigators have found that RM2.6 billion had been deposited into Najib’s personal accounts in AmBank in March 2013, but that the RM2.6 billion came from donation and not from 1MDB funds.
The question is why the MACC has only made such an admission now, when it knew even before the WSJ report of July 2 that what the WSJ report was correct.
Furthermore, why was Najib unable to say a simple Yes or No as to whether RM2.6 billion had been deposited into his personal accounts, where the monies came from, where and to whom the monies have gone to, whether they were all used for UMNO/BN election campaign in the 13th general election, the parties and candidates who received such funding and the respective amounts, the Ministers who received such fundings and whether they will act honestyly and honourably by recusing themselves from any Cabinet discussion or decision on the matter?
Furthermore, whether there was any remainder to the funds deposited into Najib’s personal accounts after expenditures for the 13th General Elections, what was the sum remaining and where such sums had gone to as the accounts concerned in AmBank had been closed.
The admission and revelation by MACC that RM2.6 billion had been deposited into Najib’s personal accounts in AmBank have raised even more questions.
In fact, the roller-coaster developments surrounding Najib, the 1MDB scandal and his personal accounts with the deposit of RM2.6 billion from mysterious sources, as descended into deeper mystery, with the protest by the MACC special operations director Bahri Mohamad Zain whether “hidden hands” are behind the ongoing police crackdown on MACC officers, with him being questioned by a police team from Bukit Aman under Section 124 of the Penal Code for activities detrimental to parliamentary democracy.
Bahri was also puzzled by the police arrest of DPP Ahmad Sazalee Abdul Khairi in the MACC, saying: “I think the police won’t do mad work like this is if there was no instruction for them to do so.”
When the Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar can say publicly that the police will record statements from more officers from the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), Bank Negara and Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC), not excluding the Bank Negara governor Zeti Akthar Aziz and MACC number two Shukri Abdull, he is in fact giving credence to pro-Najib blogs of a major crackdown of top government officers reaching up to the Bank Negara Governor and Attorney-General for involvement in an international plot to “criminalise” the Prime Minister and topple the elected government of Malaysia.
I agree with Bahri that Malaysia has been attacked by madness in the highest reaches of government and one must wonder whether there are “hidden hands” in the current assault of the national institutions like Press, Parliament, Atttorney-General and AGC, Bank Negara, MACC and the Special Task Force investigating IMDB scandal – with the hunters becoming the hunted!
Malaysians and the world are watching the country being seized by a madness where the government is warring against itself.
Such madness must stop and Malaysians must face up to one and only one issue – for the Prime Minister Najib Razak to convince Malaysians and the world of his innocence and moral authority to continue to lead Malaysia!