The Third Force interview with Raja Petra Kamarudin

THE THIRD FORCE

Following is an interview conducted by TTF with Raja Petra Kamarudin:

Q: I am sure you have been asked this question many times before. Your critics call you a traitor and a turncoat. What is your response?

A: Those who supported the British during the American War of Independence (which the British called a rebellion) were also called traitors and turncoats. If the British had won the war these American traitors and turncoats would instead have been called patriots. But the Americans won, so those on the side of the British remain traitors and turncoats. As far as history is concerned the pro-British Americans were on the wrong side of history.

Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah and his Team B comrades, who later formed and/or joined Semangat 46, were mentioned on the Umno website as traitors who tried to destroy the party and Malay political interest. Later, when Semangat 46 closed down and most of the ex-Semangat 46 people rejoined Umno, that part of Umno’s ‘history’ was deleted from the website.

History is written by the victors and is merely your interpretation of events. Joginder Singh Jessy called the Indian insurrection of 1857 as the Indian Mutiny or the Indian Rebellion. Rebellion and mutiny are negative words. Why did Joginder not call it the Indian War of Independence like what they call the American fight with the British as the American War of Independence?

Well, that is because the British won and the Indians lost so the British decide what to call it. And the Indians who lost were traitors while Gandhi who opposed the British 100 years later is not also called a traitor. Why?

So do not be too concerned about what they call me. After all many Chinese view Chin Peng and his bunch of killers as heroes. So do we really care what these same Chinese think of me? The Chinese love Mat Sabu because he said the Communist Terrorists were freedom fighters. And he even got arrested for saying that. What if Mat Sabu had said he agrees with what Ibrahim Ali of Perkasa says? Will the Chinese still consider him as their hero?

I have long ago stopped worrying about what the Chinese think or say about me. Would you care about what ISIS or the Taliban think or say about you? And if ISIS or the Taliban say you are a great person would you get very excited about that and feel you are the luckiest man alive? These people are so small-minded if they think their opinions mean so much and have great value.

Q: You used to oppose Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak and now you support him. Why?

A: Yes, I used to oppose Najib when he was the Deputy Prime Minister. But that is politics. DAP, PAS, and PRM also used to bitterly and ferociously oppose Anwar Ibrahim when he was in government. But when Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad sacked Anwar from Umno and the government in September 1998, the DAP, PAS, and PRM leaders went running to Anwar’s house in Damansara and fell over each other trying to show they are Anwar’s biggest supporter.

And have we forgotten that Britain’s greatest Prime Minister in history, Winston Churchill, also changed sides and jumped parties? So in politics you may support one side or one person during  a certain time and then reverse your stand later for a specific reason. And is Mahathir not currently the darling of the opposition? How do you explain that?

In 2006 we made a deal with Mahathir that we (‘we’ meaning the bloggers from both sides of the political divide) would work with him to oust Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and replace him with Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah. Not long after the March 2008 general election, Tengku Razaleigh called us for a meeting to inform us that Mahathir had played us out. He was not going to allow Tengku Razaleigh to become the new Prime Minister. Instead Najib was going to become Prime Minister.

Tengku Razaleigh’s boys such as John Pang, Nik Azmi Nik Daud a.k.a. Bul, Aspan Alias, and a few more (who I will not reveal their names at this stage since they have maintained their peace with me and have not attacked me) then sat down to come out with a plan on how to block Najib from becoming Prime Minister so that Tengku Razaleigh can become Prime Minister instead.

And that was when they came out with the plan to link Najib to the murder of Altantuya Shaariibuu. Since Razak Baginda was associated with Najib that would not be too difficult. All we needed was a good story to create that link and that ‘good story’ was that Najib’s wife, Rosmah Mansor, was at the scene of the crime the night Altantuya was murdered and her body blown up with C4.

Nik said since I was the only blogger in the group I should be the one to carry the story. But it should not be just a story. It has to be in the form of a Statutory Declaration (SD) to make the story more believable because no one will sign a SD unless it was true since you can get sent to jail if you sign a false SD.

In case I get arrest and charged for signing a false SD, Nik will produce a Military Intelligence report to back me up, which can be used as evidence to support what I say and prove that I am telling the truth. I was not charged for signing a false SD, though, but for Criminal Defamation, and that so-called ‘Military Intelligence report to back me up, which can be used as evidence to support what I say and prove that I am telling the truth’ never came through. Nik’s excuse is that they destroyed the file and the evidence no longer exists.

Of course, Nik was just conning us and taking all of us for a ride, which he is very famous or infamous of doing. I mean, he once told Tengku Razaleigh he has 60 nominations for the Umno Presidency when in the end not even one nomination came in. If out of the promised 60 nominations Tengku Razaleigh got just 20 or 30 that is not too bad. But from 60 to zero is a bit crazy. And Nik spent tens of millions of Tengku Razaleigh’s money campaigning for zero nominations. Did he really spend the money campaigning or did he pocket the money?

Nik actually convinced Tengku Razaleigh he was going to win the Umno Presidency by bringing a fortune teller to Tengku Razaleigh’s office who told Tengku Razaleigh his crystal ball says he is going to be the next Prime Minister. And Tengku Razaleigh was excited with this forecast and told many people about what the fortune teller said. And this is the man who wants to become Malaysia’s next Prime Minister. The scary thing is he still wants to become Prime Minister and thinks he still has a chance to become Prime Minister. What a bunch of idiots.

So, yes, I opposed Najib back in 2008. But I opposed Najib because of Mahathir and not because I had anything personal against Najib. We supported Mahathir to oust Abdullah because Mahathir said Tengku Razaleigh will replace Abdullah as Prime Minister. But when Mahathir played us out and pushed Najib for Prime Minister instead, we then tried to destroy Najib so that he would be disqualified and Tengku Razaleigh could still become Prime Minister.

However, after Tengku Razaleigh and his boys let me take the fall alone and did not back me up as promised for linking Najib to the murder of Altantuya, I no longer wanted anything to do with them. I told them if they send a soldier out to do a job, and if that soldier gets into trouble, it is their duty to try to save that soldier and not allow him to get slaughtered. Tengku Razaleigh and his boys, however, washed their hands of me and refused to even meet my wife when she tried to meet them after I got arrested. My wife was so angry she cursed Tengku Razaleigh and said many nasty things to Nik, which are not suitable to be repeated here.

So now I support Najib because the other side are slime-balls and scum of the earth. Whatever you might say or think about Najib he cannot be as bad or worse than those who are trying to oust him. Let me put it this way. Even the west found Stalin better than Hitler and is it not the Chinese DAP people who say it is better to support the lesser of the two evils? So I am doing precisely what the Chinese DAP people say we should do. So what’s the big deal?