Was Balasubramaniam Razak Baginda’s nominee? (part 1)

 

Okay, so Razak met Alantuya in 2004 and this was when they started their relationship. Then Razak met Bala in 2006 when he needed help to end his relationship with Altantuya. But Didier met Bala in 2000 and he identified Bala as one of the Perimekar team members. There is something very wrong with this story. But which story is the wrong one? Did Didier lie to the French National Police? Or are the others lying instead?

THE CORRIDORS OF POWER

Raja Petra Kamarudin

On page 4 of document 146, one of the 153 documents that were submitted to the French court investigating the Scorpene submarine contract, the French National Police said as follows:

In the chapter entitled ‘Commercial Partners’, Didier Arnaud said, “On l August 2000, we signed a cooperation business contract with THOMSON INTERNATIONAL ASIA defining our respective responsibilities. Whatever one may think about the appropriateness of such an agreement, it seems certain that this must be made for the success of the operation. The PERIMEKAR team has evolved over the past year, and with the eviction of Tan Sri Razali and Pintar group, Suhaidi bin Sulaiman, Rosli Rahman and BALA SUBRAMANIAM took charge of PERIMEKAR, also supported by Ismail Noor who had sidelined Jasbir CHAHL.”

You can see the original French National Police report below.

Now, if you can remember, Cynthia Gabriel of Suaram revealed Jasbir Singh Chahl’s name on 16th June 2012 in the following report:

A right hand man of defence analyst Abdul Razak Baginda, Jasbir Singh Chahl, is the first Malaysian to be subpoenaed as a witness in the Scorpene case hearing currently underway in France.

“Jasbir Singh is a central figure in the negotiation and procurement process. He is the first person to be served with a subpoena,” said Suaram director Cynthia Gabriel during Suaram’s Ops Scorpene fund raising dinner held at Petaling Jaya Civic Centre last night.

Gabriel claimed that Jasbir would be required to cooperate and reveal information on what had transpired in the Scorpene submarine deal that was purchased in 2002 via French submarine maker DCNS. (READ MORE HERE)

Jasbir Singh Chahl is supposed to be the initiator of the submarine idea back in 1999 when Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad was Malaysia’s Prime Minister, Tun Daim Zainuddin the Finance Minister, and Najib Tun Razak the Defence Minister. The French National Police has, in fact, mentioned these names in their report to the French court (marked in red below).

However, Jasbir was kicked out of Perimekar not long after that. He then sued Perimekar for a couple of millions and the case was settled out of court. According to the reports, he was paid an undisclosed sum of money to settle this case out of court.

Now, it was then when Abdul Razak Baginda was supposed to have appeared onto the scene, after Jasbir was ousted (the word the French used was ‘sidelined’). And the French National Police quoted Didier Arnaud as saying that the Perimekar team had ‘evolved’ over the last one year since 1999, which means, Perimekar had ‘changed hands’.

However, there seems to be something wrong with this story. First of all, Razak was supposed to have appeared onto the scene after Jasbir was kicked out. Hence, in what way was Jasbir considered Razak’s ‘right hand man’? Secondly, Jasbir was pissed off that he was kicked out and he sued the company. The company then settled the suit out of court, which means there is a basis for Jasbir’s claim -- that he was the initiator of the submarine deal.

This whole episode appears more like a ‘hostile takeover’ than anything else. And this hostile takeover resulted in a suit, which was settled out of court. In what way, then, would Jasbir be considered Razak’s right hand man? There seems to be something wrong here.

A further point to note is that Abdul Razak Baginda’s name does not appear in the list of names (‘L'équipe PERIMEKAR’ or ‘the PERIMEKAR team’), as reported by the French National Police. However, private investigator P. Balasubramaniam’s name is. And what is interesting is that the French National Police listed Bala’s name in bold and in CAPITAL letters.

Why was Bala’s named bolded and capitalised while the others were not? Is the French National Police trying to draw the court’s attention to this particular name? Yes, that is certainly a most interesting point and one that needs further investigation.

Another interesting point is that Didier Arnaud told the French National Police that Bala was one of the members of the Perimekar negotiation team since back in 2000. But back in 2000 Altantuya Shaariibuu and Razak Baginda had not met yet. They did not meet until a few years later, at the end of 2004. Then, in 2006, Razak tried to break off his relationship with Altantuya but she would not let him go. And that was supposed to be when Razak first met Bala, in 2006 when he needed Bala to help solve his ‘problem’ with Altantuya.

Okay, so Razak met Alantuya in 2004 and this was when they started their relationship. Then Razak met Bala in 2006 when he needed help to end his relationship with Altantuya. But Didier met Bala in 2000 and he identified Bala as one of the Perimekar team members.

There is something very wrong with this story. But which story is the wrong one? Did Didier lie to the French National Police? Or are the others lying instead?

In part 2 of this report we will talk about Bala’s testimony and in part 3 regarding how I first met Bala and what happened thereafter.

EXTRACT OF THE FRENCH NATIONAL POLICE REPORT TO THE COURT (document D146)

Cotes 51 à 54 : un compte rendu mensuel de avril 2001 de Didier ARNAUD (Kuala-Lumpur) dans lequel ce dernier informe sa hiérarchie (CASTELLAN, KURKDJIAN, FOUGERON, MENAYAS, FAURA...) de la situation avant le début des négociations : «Depuis A POU le début, il est clair que les quatre acteurs principaux sont : Le Premier Ministre (Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad), le Ministre des Finances Tun Daim, le Ministre de la Défense Dato Sri Najib et le Chef d'Etat Major de la Marine. Les contacts avec les trois premiers sont efficaces à en juger par les résultats tangibles obtenus. La situation olitique, un certain nombre de rumeurs persistantes sur d'éventuels changements, militent pour une action rapide denotre part; notre partenaire PERIMEKAR insiste beaucoup sur ce point... les contacts avec la marine me semblent pouvoir être améliorés...une action dans ce sens va être menée auprès de PERIMEKAR. »Dans le chapitre intitulé « partenaires commerciaux » Monsieur Didier ARNAUD indique « Le ler aout 2000, nous avons signé un contrat de cooperation commerciale avec THOMSON INTERNATIONAL ASIE qui définit nos responsabilités respectives. Quoi que l'on puisse penserde l'opportunité d'un tel accord, il me semble certain que tout doit être entrepris pour le succès de l'opération entamée... L'équipe PERIMEKAR a évolué depuis un an avec l'éviction de de Tan Sri razali et du groupe Pintar : Suhaidi bin sulaiman, Rosli Rahman et BALA SUBRAMANIAM, la prise en main de PERIMEKAR par Ismail Noor a aussi accompagné la mise sur la touche de JASBIR CHAHL. L'articulation d'une partie du groupe Mafira, dato Jaffar principalement et de l'ancienne équipe Pakar Logistik : Dato Ramli et Captain Koh dans le groupe TERASASI me semble devoir être reconsidérée et une concertation de ma part avec François DUPONT va se faire ces iours ci.