Immunity for Deepak: PKR promises justice

Pakatan cannot guarantee protection for Deepak Jaikishan, but it can promise that he will be dealt with justly.

PETALING JAYA: PKR has assured businessman Deepak Jaikishan that should Pakatan Rakyat come into power, a mechanism will be set up to guarantee justice for him and others who risk persecution to expose the truth.

“We will provide enough procedure and protection for all citizens who are entitled for it and that applies to everybody, whether it is Deepak or (former inspector-general of police) Musa Hassan or (prime minister) Najib (Tun Razak),” PKR vice-president Tian Chua told FMT.

“So it is not necessary for Deepak to try and strike a bargain with Pakatan because we will ensure justice prevails regardless,” he added.

The Batu MP said this when asked to comment on Deepak’s request that Pakatan guarantee him protection as a state witness should the opposition pact win the next general election.

In return, Deepak said he would expose the alleged wrongdoings of Najib and wife Rosmah Mansor during the mammoth People’s Uprising Rally, which was held on Saturday.

However, Pakatan remained mum on the issue throughout the assembly, and Deepak merely showed up at the rally as a participant.

Tian Chua clarified that it was not up to Pakatan leaders to guarantee Deepak either immunity or protection under the Whistleblowers Act.

Instead, he stressed, it was up to the “independent mechanism” that the opposition pact put into place to decide whether Deepak was entitled to it.

“I believe that if Deepak’s cause is genuine and if he needs protection in order to expose his wrongdoings, then he would surely be entitled to protection.

“But that would be for the mechanism to decide, not us politician,” he added.

No blanket agreement now

Asked what kind of mechanism Pakatan would put into place, Tian Chua said it would be similar to that of a truth and reconciliation commission or an anti-corruption agency.

“So we cannot give a blanket agreement now [on Deepak’s immunity]. Because let’s say we appoint [Bersih chairperson S] Ambiga to head the commission, and she rules that it is legally invalid to protect Deepak because it is a case that involves murder.

“In that case, it would be useless for Pakatan to have promised him immunity,” he pointed out.

However, he urged Deepak as well as the public to continue doing what was “morally right” because a “fair judge would be able to distinguish between what is right and wrong”.

“When Pakatan puts up a fair and transparent mechanism, everybody who deserves protection, including Deepak, would be protected,” reiterated Tian Chua.

Deepak had previously alleged that he had bribed Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak’s family in order to become a party to the national defence education centre (Pupahanas) deal with Selangor Umno Wanita chief Raja Ropiaah Abdullah.

But the deal turned sour, which led Deepak to turn to the press with claims that Rosmah had asked him to interfere in a statutory declaration linking the premier’s family to the 2006 murder of Mongolian translator Altantuyaa shaariibuu.

Last week, Deepak pledged to hold a series of nine press conferences that would expose every detail in the saga, after which he would bow out of the limelight for good.