I’m not behind Deepak, Anwar says it again

Refuting the speculation of his involvement once again, the opposition leader tells the prime minister to 'deal with it'.

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PETALING JAYA: Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim has again brushed aside claims that he and his party members are masterminding the recent exposé by Deepak Jaikishan and instead asked Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak to “deal with it”.

Asked about the accusations, especially in pro-Umno blogs that PKR had a hand behind Deepak’s re-emergence, Anwar replied with sarcasm: “I’m not surprised because I am behind everything. In fact I wrote GFI [Global Financial Integrity] and asked them to come out with the report on the RM197 billion [of illicit financial outflows in 2010].”

The opposition leader also said that if the controversial carpet businessman was revealing issues about him, the mainstream media would go to town with the issue.

“But in this country, imagine if he [Deepak] had said something about Anwar. Just 10% of what he said will be in the frontpage of Star, Utusan, everyday, for the next… 32 days,” he said.

Anwar said that the more important aspect of the issue are the serious allegations made by Deepak himself which points to complicity in several crimes.

“We go based on the facts. If you want to use the Umno method, that’s okay saying PKR members or Anwar are behind and all that; [but] look at the substantive issues raised: there is here a clear case of complicity in the crime – murder, corruption, suppressing evidence – these are criminal acts.”

“You don’t go and say somebody is behind it. Okay, go and investigate, but then you cannot cover up a crime. That is the central issue.

“Umno’s method has always been to try and say ‘look, there are some hidden hands’. So you cover up the crime? Who is Deepak? Deepak is a close family friend of Najib and Rosmah [Mansor]. Deal with it. They have to respond. What he [Deepak] is saying is very, very serious.

Deepak named Rosmah

Anwar said that Deepak must be held responsible and accountable for what he said and if it were wrong, action should be taken against him.

“I don’t, as a matter of policy, encourage people to smear as they wish. If you do so, you have to be responsible. In this case, Deepak must be held responsible and accountable for what he said. If it is wrong, it cannot be tolerated. The system cannot allow that people can cast aspersion like that,” he said.

Recently, Deepak named Rosmah as the individual asking him to approach private investigator P Balasubramaniam to make him reverse a statutory declaration (SD) he made in 2008.

Balasubramaniam’s first SD had linked Najib to the murder of the Mongolian national Altantuya Shaariibuu.

In a twist, pro-Umno blogger Papagomo more recently posted a video on his website, alleging that Deepak’s recent exposé on Najib and Rosmah was enginereed by the PKR’s de facto leader.

The two-minute clip also showed a man, purportedly Deepak, mentioning names of key PKR leaders such as Nurul Izzah Anwar, R Sivarasa and N Surendran.

The latter two, currently acting as lawyers for Deepak in an ongoing court case against a Wanita Umno leader, has denied the claims.