Scorpene scandal causing polls delay, says PKR

KUALA LUMPUR, June 22 — The on-going Scorpene submarine inquiry in France is causing the prime minister to delay calling for elections, PKR has claimed.

PKR chief strategist Rafizi Ramli said Datuk Seri Najib Razak was worried about the political implications of the investigation due to the latter’s role in the purchase of the submarines.

“That is why he is delaying polls... no matter what date he (Najib) calls for he will lose.

“There are interesting developments (in France) which Najib won’t be able to handle if it blows up,” Rafizi (picture) told a crowd of 2,000 here last night. 

Rafizi accused Najib of “selling defence secrets” to Malaysia’s “enemies”, and told the crowd that the French probe had unearthed “proof” that the PM had done so.

“What do you call someone who does that? A traitor!” said the PKR leader to cheers and shouts of approval from the audience.

PKR has demanded PM Najib break his silence over recent revelations unearthed in the ongoing Scorpene submarine sale probe in France and answer allegations that some of his key advisers had sold the country’s defence secrets to foreigners.

Calling it “treason of the highest level”, PKR deputy president Azmin Ali told a press conference recently that Najib, the police, the military and the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) must immediately act on the allegations as it places the country’s sovereignty and security in jeopardy.

He pointed out that Najib had been defence minister when the secret defence documents were allegedly sold by the latter’s close associate, Abdul Razak Baginda, to the French for some RM142 million in 2006.

French lawyer Joseph Breham last week revealed that a highly-confidential government document on the Royal Malaysian Navy’s evaluation of the Scorpene submarines, which it was then planning to buy, was sold by Terasasi (Hong Kong) Ltd to French defence giant DCNS for €36 million (RM142 million).

Abdul Razak, a former think-tank head who was at the centre of a 2006 investigation into the murder of Mongolian translator Altantuya Shaariibuu, is listed as a director of Terasasi together with his father, Abdul Malim Baginda.

The data was purportedly for “commercial engineering” works, Breham had told a news conference in Bangkok last Thursday. The lawyer is acting for activist group Suara Rakyat Malaysia (Suaram) in the ongoing inquiry in Paris.

Suaram had filed a complaint against DCNS in a French court last month. The court’s two-man panel has asked for the shipmaker’s financial transaction reports, Breham had said.