A melodrama of sex, bribery, murder

Najib Tun Razak has yet to fight an election as PM, but his future is mired in fresh troubles.

COMMENT

by Jonathan Manthorpe

Najib (Tun) Razak has been Malaysia’s Prime Minister since early in 2009, but he has yet to fight an election and speculation is now rife among the country’s chattering classes that he may not survive at the helm until the next national vote is due in April.

What is powering the rumour mill is yet more twists and turns in the melodrama of sex, bribery and murder stemming from when Najib was defence minister a decade ago.

The latest revelations place Najib far more into the centre of events that led to the murder by two of his bodyguards of the Mongolian fashion model, translator and mistress of his chief policy adviser, (Abdul) Razak Baginda.

Equally compelling is that the new allegations are coming from Deepak Jaikishan, a former confidante of Najib’s wife, Rosmah Mansor, and a man well-connected to the upper echelons of the ruling United Malays National Organization (Umno).

Local media in Malaysia is full of suggestions by unnamed Umno officials that perhaps Deepak has been put up to his revelations by Najib’s main political rival, Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin.

Other candidates for the political assassination of Najib are the bitter former prime minister (Dr) Mahathir Mohamad, and the prime minister and Umno leader Najib ousted in 2009, Abdullah (Ahmad) Badawi.

But the reality of Malaysian politics is the limited impact of the still-unresolved story of Najib’s $2-billion purchase of two Scorpene submarines from France, the $200-million facilitation fee paid to a company controlled by his aide Baginda, and the murder of Altantuya Shaariibuu after she demanded a $500,000 cut.

While it resonates with some social strata among urban voters, in heartland rural Malaysia, where elections are won and lost, tales of bribery, mistresses and murder among the political classes do not excite much interest.

And, as Najib’s political career defied the logic that one plus one make two ever since the murder of Altantuya in 2006, there is no particular reason to think it cannot survive the latest allegations.

Loose ends

Even the trial and conviction of two of Najib’s bodyguards for the murder was deftly stage managed without repercussions. The trial had not properly started when the judge dismissed the charges against Baginda, who now lives in exile in Britain. Questions about who ordered the men to kill Altantuya were never asked.

What might yet join all the loose ends of this story together is that French magistrates are investigating whether bribery was involved in the 2002 agreement to sell the submarines to Malaysia.

The latest story from Deepak story centres on a private detective named Perumal Balasubramanian, who was hired by Baginda to keep Altantuya away from his house after he jilted her and she demanded a cut of the $200-million facilitation fee.

Altantuya, who had worked as a model in Paris, acted as translator for Baginda in the negotiations with the French for the submarines.

In a sworn statement made soon after the discovery of the murdered Altantuya, whose body was blown up with military explosive after she was shot twice in the head, Balasubramanian said Baginda told him she had been Najib’s mistress first. But Najib had passed her on to Baginda because he was expecting to become prime minister and having a mistress might affect his chances.

Najib has on several occasions denied ever meeting Altantuya.

After making this statement, Balasubramanian was hauled into a police station where he was persuaded to make another statement recanting. He then swiftly left the country and is now believed to be living in Chennai, India.

However, in a number of interviews in the past few weeks, Deepak has substantiated the private detective’s original statement and also said he gave several cheques to Balasubramanian worth the equivalent of over $240,000 in all to finance his flight from the country and exile.

And, says Deepak, the source of the money to keep Balasubramanian quiet and out of the country was Najib’s younger brother Nazim Abdul Razak. – Vancouver Sun