Najib finally sends 'protest' letter to S'pore to stem rising unease

Despite expensive PR, Najib failed to impress foreign leaders

Wong Choon Mei, Malaysia Chronicle

Buckling to tremendous pressure to explain why he was keeping silent over senior Singapore diplomats' comments that he was an "opportunist", among the "incompetent politicians" causing Malaysia's downfall, and that his involvement in the Altantuya murder was tarnishing the country, Prime Minister Najib Razak has finally asked his foreign minister to send a 'protest' letter.

However, the Malaysian premier stopped short of demanding an explanation or an apology in what many pundits believed was a "show" move to silence his critics and "save some face".

"He has to explain to the conservatives and the Youth in Umno why he is being so soft towards the Singaporeans when the insults they have hurled at him were so harsh," PKR vice president Tian Chua told Malaysia Chronicle.

"If he doesn't react, then the only explanation which is already on everyone's mind is that he doesn't dare to prolong the negative publicity because who hasn't heard of Altantuya and corruption in the submarines deal. This shows that despite the hundreds of million of taxpayers' money Najib has wasted on public relations, he can't fool people all the time. They can always sniff out a bad leader."

A fatal loss in credibility

After avoiding the press on Sunday, Najib had on Monday night asked Malaysians to ignore the Singaporean comments. In particular, his forgive-and-forget attitude stunned many Umno members, who in the past would have speedily marched to the Singapore High Commission and staged a noisy protest - maybe even burn a few flags.

Malaysia's bad image - the buck stops with Najib

“We can show to our neighbors, that although sometimes they make disparaging remarks about us, that Malaysians can actually achieve,” Najib had said.

However, when his minders realized that such refusal to confront the Singaporeans would be taken as an admission of guilt by his fellow Malaysians, foreign minister Anifah Aman was tasked with sending a letter to the Singapore envoy to express the country's unhappiness.

“I called the High Commissioner to my office this morning, I summoned him to my office, and handed over the letter of protest. I also explained our concern and displeasure towards what was leaked in WikiLeaks,” Anifah was quoted as telling Malaysian Insider.

Malaysian leaders hit the international headlines on Sunday after WikiLeaks passed on the information to several Australian newspapers. Comments by senior Singapore diplomats Tommy Koh, Peter Ho and Bilahari Kausikan to their U.S. counterparts were revealed on the international whistle-blower website.

In their comments, they accused Najib of being an "opportunist", directly referred his involvement in the murder case and that Malaysia was on a "decline" due to "incompetent politicians".

In particular, the remarks sparked immediate speculation as to why the Singaporeans used the term “opportunist”, and was it related to a recent rail-land swap or previous deals where Najib may have attempted to benefit himself.

In the Altantuya Shaariibuu murder case, the Malaysian premier was accused of having met the beautiful Mongolian translator at a diamond-show in Singapore, and she had helped his close friend Razak Baginda close a RM6.7 billion ringgit submarines deal that Najib had approved in his then capacity as defense minister.

From that acquisition, Baginda’s firm was awarded a side-deal worth 114 million euros and Altantuya was later found murdered in a jungle clearing in Malaysia in 2006 after harrassing Baginda for her US$500,000 share of the submarines commission allegedly paid by French vendor DCNS.

Two former bodyguards of Najib and his wife Rosmah have been sentenced to hang for her killing, but the key question asked by Malaysians remain unanswered, who ordered the killing?