The hype, the type and the kite that is LSS

If LSS aka Lim Sian See does not exist - he doesn’t - the administration of Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak would have to invent it. So, they did. Till now, we don’t know whether LSS is a he or she or in-between.

If LSS cannot gain a following - he/she can’t - they would have to pile it on. And so they did.

And, the rest as they say, is hype and sheer deceit.

The goal? Not so much to defend the indefensible, but to keep people glued to it.

Take the allegation that all debts and issues afflicting 1MDB have been cleared.

If they had been removed, why didn’t the South China Morning Post (SCMP) in Hong Kong, which carry every article on Jack Ma with the line “SCMP is owned by Ali Baba”, too remove the sordid details of 1MDB from its website?

Wouldn’t that be the gesture of a true friend? Yet, surf to SCMP at any given time, there is a special feature on 1MDB.

No other newspaper in the world has had the need to do that. But SCMP, which is indeed owned by Jack Ma, no less the digital economic adviser of Malaysia, whose advisory role is ostensibly done without pay, kept the 1MDB issue embedded in the masthead.

Then, as if unaware of the Freudian slip, LSS blurted out “which business does not operate on debt?” Exactly. 1MDB runs and operates on sheer debt. The numbers are so grotesque that any repetition here would be simply obscene.

LSS is invented to ask decent Malaysians of all ages to, well, “go fly kites”. SCMP of Jack Ma hasn’t received the memorandum obviously.

Sarawak Report did get the memo - only to be denied the right of reply. And what happened to the claim by the PM that he will “sue The Wall Street Journal? It will be the 97th day since then on Tuesday, May 16, 2017. Hasn’t happened and will never take deliverance.

Why? Because when Wall Street Journal counters with its own suit, the PM and his ilk would have to divulge all the alleged scurrilous details in a US court.

So, why not use LSS ‘animal feed’ to run rings around Malaysians? They did. The results are reams and reams of Nixon-styled denials - that the debts had all now become liabilities to which all Malaysians have to foot.

With a prime minister like Najib, who needs an enemy? Never. They would have to invent it. Because the enemy is within and under the sheet. LSS is the cover of that sheet. No pun intended indeed. (Maybe a little. Then again maybe a lot since the PM just went on stage, dressed in red, to lob its own missives at the 71st anniversary of Umno.)

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DR RAIS HUSSIN is a supreme council member and head of policy and strategy of Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu).- Mkini