EPISODE 19: Reality and fallacy

In a related incident, Deputy Home Minister Johari Baharum was hauled in for interrogation over allegations that he had received a bribe of RM5.5 million to release three underworld bosses. The allegation was made in a one-page website that was later traced to a senior Chinese police officer named Christopher Wan, the Director of the CID.

THE CORRIDORS OF POWER

Raja Petra Kamarudin

Lim Kit Siang is up in arms (see his press statement below) about an expose byMalaysiakini today (READ HERE: http://www.malaysia-today.net/mtcolumns/special-reports/47947-bizarre-case-of-ex-igp-ag-and-an-underworld-boss), which is a rehash of a series of more than a dozen exposes made by Malaysia Today back in 2007.

Yes, that’s right. Malaysia Today had already exposed this matter five years ago. However, no one was prepared to whack the IGP, Musa Hassan, then. Now that he has retired and is a ‘nobody’ they want to whack him. One-time Deputy Prime Minister Musa Hitam calls this ‘tendang bolah yang sudah kempis’.

Read the Affidavit signed by the IGP’s ADC, Noor Azizul Rahim Taharim, in 2009. This was further to the Affidavits signed earlier by six other police officers and the two signed by underworld figures. In all these nine Affidavits, they pointed to Musa Hassan as the Chinese underworld syndicate boss -- the loan sharking, prostitution, gambling and drugs syndicate.

Do you remember another report about a police officer found shot dead in his car in Melaka? What happened to that case? Why the hush up? And what happened to the police report made by a police officer in Pahang that the MACC had kidnapped his wife and child and forced him to sign an Affidavit to fix up certain police officers who were clamping down on the Chinese underworld syndicate?

At that time Musa Hassan was still the IGP and he wanted to release the underworld bosses who were literally his partners-in-crime. Hence they forced this police officer to say in an Affidavit that the allegations against the underworld bosses were false. When the police officer refused, the MACC kidnapped his wife and child and held them to ransom. Both the police officer and his wife made police reports but no action was taken. Instead, the underworld bosses were released.

Malaysia Today had published copies of those police reports but there was absolute silence from both the government and the opposition (the police officer was not charged for making a false police report either, which means the incident is true). Instead, the police raided my house and confiscated my computer and various documents and I was brought in to the police station for interrogation, one of many such incidences over 2007 and 2008.

In a related incident, Deputy Home Minister Johari Baharum was hauled in for interrogation over allegations that he had received a bribe of RM5.5 million to release three underworld bosses. The allegation was made in a one-page website that was later traced to a senior Chinese police officer named Christopher Wan, the Director of the CID.

Yes, a very senior police officer set up that website -- or rather he paid a Blogger to do it for him. And they suspected that this Blogger was Nathaniel Tan. Do you remember Nat Tan who was working for PKR and Anwar Ibrahim and who was arrested back in 2007? (READ MORE HERE: http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2007/7/14/nation/20070714182404&sec=nation)

Nat Tan was arrested on suspicion that he was the Blogger who set up that website in collaboration with Musa Hassan and Christopher Wan who wanted to fix up their own Minister. Of course, they never revealed the real reason for his arrest. And the man who arrested him was the same Commercial Crimes Investigation Department Chief, Ramli Yusuff, whom Lim Kit Siang mentioned in his press statement below.

Investigations later proved that the RM5.5 million was not paid to Johari Baharum but to the then Prime Minister, Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. It was supposed to be election funds for the 2008 general election and it was paid in cash. Johari Baharum was merely the fall guy so that the blame for the release of the three underworld bosses would point to him and hence deflect suspicion from the Prime Minister and the IGP.

Yes, all this and much, much more were revealed by Malaysia Today five years ago. But, of course, many thought it was all just a figment of my imagination. Even when we published the nine Affidavits all these exposes were ignored. It is nice to see everyone now jumping on to the bandwagon to reveal ‘exclusive stories’. I suppose better late than never. Or is it a case of trying to lock the stable door after the horse has bolted?

Anyway, just so that you know, Umno is depending on a huge donation from the Chinese underworld and the Chinese tycoons and businessmen. Yes, even in Sabah and Sarawak the Chinese there have been told to get their cheque books ready. Umno needs RM1.5 billion to finance the coming general election.

Isn’t it ironical? The Chinese readers of Malaysia Today are foaming at the mouth while ranting and raving about Ketuanan Melayu, Pekida, Perkasa, and whatnot. The Chinese readers of Malaysia Today are foaming at the mouth and screaming ABU. Then the Chinese underworld syndicate, business tycoons and millionaires are raising RM1.5 billion to help Umno win the next general election.

And you Chinese got the cheek to call Umno Malays ‘bodoh’! Hah! How can the Umno Malays be bodoh when they can perpetuate institutionalised racism and get the Chinese to fork out RM1.5 billion to help perpetuate it? Aren’t some of you very embarrassed that you were born Chinese?

As I said: what racism are you talking about? The Chinese and Umno Malays need each other. They are like Siamese twins. One can’t survive without the other. The Chinese need the Umno Malays and the Umno Malays need the Chinese. That’s how it works.

By the way, don’t get too disheartened. In all this bad news there is still some good news. And the good news is the Chinese underworld syndicate and business tycoons and millionaires are also financing the opposition. Maybe it won’t be RM1.5 billion like in Umno’s case. But they are going to give at least a few hundred million to the opposition.

This is called ‘hedging your bets’, which the Chinese are very good at. You bet on both horses so that if the second-best horse wins you still get something back and you will not lose all your money. Who knows? Pakatan Rakyat might actually win so this would mean if the government changes you will still have friends in Putrajaya.

As Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said: the Chinese are more pragmatic and not emotional like the Malays. And I believe that.

Anyway, who will the Chinese vote for? Well, it all depends on the underworld Chinese bookies, the illegal gambling syndicate. Yes, you better believe it. The bookies can influence the swing in Chinese votes. If there is money to be made in a Barisan Nasional win then rest assured many Chinese will vote Barisan Nasional so that they can collect their winnings the following day.

That is how it is going to be. This is something the Malays have not learned yet. But trust me, the Malays are beginning to wise up to the fact that there is money to be made in betting on the outcome of the general elections.

Hah! ABU konon! The war cry should be changed to SHOW ME THE MONEY!

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Media Statement by DAP Parliamentary Leader and MP for Ipoh Timor Lim Kit Siang in Kuala Lumpur on Sunday March 11, 2012:

Are Najib and Cabinet Ministers going to keep quiet about the serious allegations of corruption and subversion of the rule of law in 2007 involving the three topmost officers of the land, the AG, IGP and DG of ACA?

Today, Malaysiakini followed up on the revelations and serious allegations by former Commercial Crimes Investigation Department (CCID) Chief Datuk Ramli Yusuf during his 60th Leap Year birthday celebrations last month that he was a victim of Attorney-General Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail's abuse of his constitutional powers with new information on the “bizarre five-year-old case allegedly involving the country's most powerful police officer, the attorney-general and an underworld figure”.

The question now is whether the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak, and Cabinet Ministers are going to keep quiet about the serious allegations of corruption and subversion of the rule of law with regard to the case in 2007 involving the three topmost officers of the land, the Attorney-General, the Inspector-General of Police and the Director-General of the Anti-Corruption Agency (before it later became Malaysian Anti-Corruption Agency).

Malaysiakini reporter Hafiz Yatim said Malaysiakin has possession of documents revealing the history of how a number of whistleblowers - whose information led to the arrest of the underworld figure in 2007 - were forced to implicate six police officers investigating the case.

The whistleblowers signed sworn statements claiming that they were turned over by a team of Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) officers.

The six police officers were subsequently charged with fabricating evidence against the underworld kingpin, but were all eventually acquitted, the last of them in mid-2011.

Najib should not only initiate proceedings for the establishment of a judicial tribunal into the serious allegations by the former CCID director that the Attorney-General, Tan Sri Gani Patail had grossly abused his powers in victimising him and other police officers concerned, but also into several bizarre train of events in 2007, including separate corruption reports being lodged against then Deputy Home Minister, Datuk Johari Baharum (who had by-passed the then Inspector-General of Police, Tan Sri Musa Hassan and instructed Ramli to conduct investigations into the underworld kingpin), Musa himself as well as the then ACA director-general Datuk Seri Zulkipli Mat Noor – with police investigating the ACA director-general while ACA investigated the IGP, clearing each other!

Ramli has told Malaysiakini that he has new evidence regarding Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim's black-eye incident and Malaysian Airlines (MAS) chairperson Tan Sri Tajudin Ramli, who is the beneficiary of another recent RM840 million government bailout.

Public interests demand that there should be a no-holds-barred judicial inquiry not only to get to the bottom of the several bizarre train of events in 2007 at the topmost levels of government, including the serious allegations of abuse of power by the Attorney-General in undermining the rule of law and victimising Ramli and other police officers, but also into the new evidence regarding Anwar's black-eye and Tajudin.