Lim Kit Siang

Najib must live with the reality that for the rest of his life, he will be haunted and hounded by the Altantunya Shaariibuu murder case so long as there is no full investigation to ferret out the motive and mastermind of the heinous killing

The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak today played the role of a victim and complained that the revival of the Altantuya Shaariibuu murder is part of a foreign plot to topple him, similar to the toppling of Iraq’s Saddam Hussein.

He pointed out that Saddam was ousted by the United States based on false claims that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction.

He said:

“Now look at Iraq today. They had no proof and yet they invaded the country.

“Now the Americans have regretted their actions and the Bush name can no longer be accepted.”

Najib is doing himself no service by likening himself to Saddam Hussein, as if claiming that he was being victimised in the same way that Bush Senior had victimised Saddam.

Is Najib suggesting that he is being victimised by Obama or his predecessor as US President, Bush Junior?

May be Najib should clarify and explain what he is trying to say.

Be that as it may, Najib must live with the reality that for the rest of his life, he will be haunted and hounded by the Altantunya Shaariibuu murder case so long as there is no full investigation to ferret out the motive and mastermind of the heinous killing.

This has nothing to do with any international conspiracy theory whether involving the foreign media or otherwise, or to use Najib’s own words “top to the bottom and inside and outside the country”, allegedly to topple the country’s leadership but because of gaping holes in the conviction of two former special commandos, Sirul Azhar Umar and Azilah Hadri for Altantunya’s murder.

Everybody in the country now know that both the convicted murderers had not known Altantunya before the gruesome killing, and that there could be no motive for them to murder Altantunya.

The question everybody is asking is what was the real motive and the mastermind of the murder.

Malaysia does not have a high literacy rate – over 99 per cent – for nothing.

This is why the questions about the motive and whether and who was the mastermind for Altantunya’s murder are on everybody’s mind, and ordinary Malaysians do not need an international conspiracy to topple the nation’s leadership to be asking these questions themselves.

Malaysia can have no closure on the Altantunya murder case, Altantunya’s soul cannot rest in peace and Najib can never enjoy unquestioned respect, credibility and legitimacy from Malaysians and the world unless and until there is a no-holds-barred investigation into Altantunya’s murder which addresses the questions as to the motive for the murder and whether there was any mastermind to the heinous deed.