Not cheating, just bending the rules

The truth is, Rosli was targeted simply because he knew too much about Umno’s plundering of MAS. So, last month, the de facto Minister for Law, Nazri Aziz, asked MAS to sack Rosli as the company’s lawyer because Rosli had refused to withdraw the cases against Tajuddin. MAS has now appointed Dato’ Hafarizam Harun, Umno’s lawyer, who will facilitate the Global Settlement with Tajudin.

NO HOLDS BARRED

Raja Petra Kamarudin

Datuk Dr Wan Ismail, Dr Wan Azizah’s father, who used to work for ex-Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad to manage his psy-war (which was when I got to know him and when I received my ‘training’) once told me this:

Dr Mahathir is a doctor and a doctor knows that when a patient feels pain in one part of his/her body and you can’t seem to cure it, you just create a bigger pain in another part of his/her body. Then the patient will focus on the bigger pain and will forget about what originally ailed him/her.

We both had a good laugh and I responded: that means if you see a doctor about a stomach ache, he/she just takes a hammer and whacks you on the head and the bigger pain on your head will make you forget about your stomach ache.

Of course, in the medical world this will not quite work. But in psy-war it can.

For example, if the country is going down the drain and people start feeling the pain of the high cost of living, all you need to do is raise issues like: the Christians are trying to convert Muslims to Christianity, the Chinese are trying to take over the country and reduce the Malays to second-class citizens, Malaysia was never colonised by Britain, PAS supports Communism, Anwar Ibrahim can’t keep his dick in his pants, etc.

Then people will forget about their economic pain and will start debating all these ‘hot issues’, which is not going to help put more money in their pockets. The fact that it is more affordable to live in England than in Malaysia will be totally forgotten.

Yes, while we debate all these unproductive issues, many things can be quietly done in the background. They can quietly jack up the cost of the Penang Bridge from the original budget of RM1 billion to RM4.8 billion. They can quietly award the multi-billion Ringgit contract for the double track railway to Singapore to Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak’s golf buddy, Tan Kay Hock. They can quietly, yet again, put their fingers in the Malaysian Airlines (MAS) pie and take a second bite of the cherry.

Yes, even the Umno Bloggers are angry about the latest scam involving MAS. They already scammed it once, which cost the taxpayers RM9 billion. Now they are doing it again. And while they do that, we argue about whether the British were our colonial masters or only our protectors.

By the way, while on the subject of MAS, do you recall lawyer Rosli Dahlan who acted for MAS in suing Tajuddin Ramli? He also acted for Dato Johari Baharom, the then Deputy Minister of Home Security, Dato Ramli Yusuff, the Director of the Commercial Crimes Investigations Dept (CCID) PDRM, plus a few other CCID officers in the loan-sharking syndicate case involving Goh Cheng Poh @ Tengku Goh.

For some strange reason known only to him, AG Gani Patail refused to help the CCID to prepare their affidavits. So the task was given to Rosli who acted on behalf of the CCID.

This made the AG mad as hell. Tengku Goh was the IGP’s underworld business partner in the loan-sharking, prostitution, gambling and drugs syndicate. And the AG and IGP have an arrangement -- you cover my backside and I cover your backside. And Rosli was messing things up by acting for the CCID.

That was when the MACC went to Rosli’s office, assaulted him, dragged him from his office in handcuffs, and detained him overnight in the MACC underground cell in MACC’s HQ in Putrajaya.

The following day, on the eve of Hari Raya of 2007, they paraded him in handcuffs along the Jalan Duta Court corridors to be charged.

Rosli has since sued Utusan Malaysia, the MACC, and its rogue officers for RM50 million, accusing them of a conspiracy to fix him up. That will be an interesting case to follow when it finally comes to court.

Only in Malaysia do the crooks get away scot-free while the whistle blower gets charged. And even when the courts acquit you, the ordeal will not end there. That is, if you are not AG Gani Patail’s friend, of course.

That was what happened on 20 December 2010 when Rosli he was acquitted by the court and AG Gan Patail directed the MACC to swiftly appeal on the very same day (see the Notice of Appeal below).

After filing that Notice of Appeal, the DPPs in the AG’s Chambers assigned to handle the appeal suddenly realised that there is no basis for an appeal. So they decided to sleep on it -- hoping that, in time, AG Gani Patail would forget about it or that AG Gani would retire early.

It seems Malaysia Today’s recent revelations about AG Gani Patail’s corrupt exploits with Dato’ Vincent Lye of Ho Hup Berhad has had a backlash on Rosli. AG Gani Patail’s anger has reached an extent of paranoia that he starts seeing shadows in every corner.

Like the Malay saying, “anjing takut dengan bayang bayang sendiri”, Gani starts suspecting everyone whom he has fixed up before as having a hand in the problems he is facing on the Ho Hup corruption allegations. Already, Robert Phang is accused of being in RPK’s ‘teammate’ for publicly asking Gani Patail to step down.

Malaysia Today’s Deep Throat in the AG Chambers and the courts told of how AG Gani went ballistic when he discovered that the appeal against Rosli is now out of time. Not about to be outdone, AG Gani has now directed the MACC to resurrect the case against Rosli by asking the court to grant MACC an extension of time to revive the appeal (see the Motion to revive the Appeal below).

If you still cannot see the double standards in the criminal justice system in Malaysia, then consider this -- when Razak Baginda was acquitted of murdering Mongolian Altantuya Shaariibuu, AG Gani Patail did not see the urgency to immediately appeal against that acquittal. Instead, AG Gani Patail took pains to explain that he respected the court’s finding of fact and would not appeal. So, Razak took the first flight out to London and he has remained a free man until now.

But not so for Rosli.

And what was Rosli’s crime? Did he commit murder, rape, robbery, and embezzlement of billions of ringgit of company’s money -- like what Tajudin did to MAS? Did he receive bribes in the form of house renovations and lightings -- like what AG Gani received from Vincent Lye of Ho Hup?

What has Rosli done that AG Gani is determined to revive an already dead appeal against him?

The truth is, Rosli was targeted simply because he knew too much about Umno’s plundering of MAS. So, last month, the de facto Minister for Law, Nazri Aziz, asked MAS to sack Rosli as the company’s lawyer because Rosli had refused to withdraw the cases against Tajuddin. MAS has now appointed Dato’ Hafarizam Harun, Umno’s lawyer, who will facilitate the Global Settlement with Tajudin.

You see, Umno needs to bury this case before GE 13 is announced, which may be very soon. And one way of doing that is to sack Rosli from acting for MAS and any of the other GLCs. The MACC has done good job in making him lose that clientele.

And, as punishment for his stubbornness in acting for Dato’ Ramli, who had to be eliminated from PDRM, AG Gani will just keep Rosli busy with his own criminal case and will just keep on appealing, as that will hurt Rosli financially. A very simple but effective game plan because the government does not pay cost for criminal prosecution, regardless that it is a fixed-up case.

So you see, while we debate whether the Christians are trying to convert Muslims to Christianity, whether the Chinese are trying to take over the country and reduce the Malays to second-class citizens, whether Malaysia was ever colonised by Britain, whether PAS supports Communism, whether Anwar Ibrahim can’t keep his dick in his pants, etc., those who walk in the corridors of power are quietly pulling off their scams.

As I said, they create a bigger pain to take your mind of another pain. And Malaysia Today’s job is to keep repeating it and keep reminding you -- how tiring it may be to keep repeating the same thing -- so that you will not, as Dr Mahathir said: Melayu mudah lupa.