The Summing Up of the Rosli Dahlan Case: Issues of Justice and Integrity

by Din Merican

Finally the curtain is down on Musa Hassan. The most despised Inspector-General of Police (IGP) in the entire history of the Polis DiRaja Malaysia (PDRM) was so unceremoniously booted out. A man who had enjoyed so much power that he can inflict both physical and psychological harm on citizenry must now adapt himself to the realities of becoming a non-entity and face scorn of Malaysians. ”The evil that men do lives after them”(William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar), so let it be with Musa Hassan.

Credit to the Minister of Home Affairs

Credit must be given to the Minister of Home Affairs, Dato’ Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein for orchestrating the press conference during which the end of the Musa Hassan’s contract was announced. Hishamuddin’s lawyering skills can now be acknowledged for Hishammuddin trapped Musa Hassan nice and proper this time, after a failed attempt in March 2010 when Musa outwitted his Minister.

Hishamuddin’s lawyering skills can now be acknowledged for Hishammuddin trapped Musa Hassan nice and proper this time, after a failed attempt in March 2010 when Musa outwitted his Minister.

Musa Hassan relentlessly and shamelessly lobbied to keep his job

It was widely known within the ranks of PDRM that Musa Hassan was still lobbying very hard ,even in the eleventh hour to get a further extension when Hishammuddin dropped the executioner’s blade on him. To get that extension, Musa Hassan even created and popularised the myth that the Deputy IGP Ismail Omar was not fit to succeed him as IGP and that none of the existing Directors were ready. That is how scheming that son of an Ustaz can be.

Musa Hassan will now be remembered in the annals of PDRM’s history as the IGP who did not want his Deputy IGP to succeed him.

Surely, Musa did not need to be reminded that he picked Tan Sri Ismail Omar as Deputy IGP before he started name-calling Ismail Omar as “bongok” and “bengap”. But Musa did not care for all that.

All he cared for was to get a third extension. That was how desperate Musa was and the Mingguan Malaysia interview which he used to lambast Hishammuddin is the proof in the pudding. Musa Hassan will now be remembered in the annals of PDRM’s history as the IGP who did not want his Deputy IGP to succeed him.

Who is the REAL Musa Hassan?

Musa has also carved out many more names for himself in the history of PDRM. For starters, he has always been ambiguous about being a university graduate. Many, even Tan Sri Robert Phang, questioned him on his so-called law degree. Musa’s response was to adopt Abdullah Badawi’s “elegance silence” to such a serious allegation that he is a bogus university graduate. He was as inept as ex-Prime Minister and slumber jack Abdullah Badawi.

His fame as a police investigator was just by being the Mattress Carrier in Sodomy I. For fabricating evidence in the case against Anwar Ibrahim, he was rewarded with a mercuric rise and managed to bypass his immediate superior, Dato’ Ramli Yusuff, to become IGP. There it was Dato’ Ramli who gave him two promotions and what did he do to Dato’ Ramli? He fixed Dato’ Ramli and eliminated him from PDRM! In case you have forgotten, let me just remind you what else Musa Hassan did to become the IGP.

Tan Sri Bakri Omar Outwitted

Just before Ramadan 2005, Musa Hassan baited Tan Sri Bakri Omar’s son to monopolise the Ramadan Bazaar licence. He then used his in-laws in the then ACA to nab Tan Sri Bakri’s son for involvement in manipulating the licence and got his media friends, namely Lourdes Charles of The Star and Ruhaidini Abdul Kadir of Utusan Malaysia, to publicise that story. That was a low blow that dented Tan Sri Bakri’s reputation although his son was not charged eventually.

Musa Hassan used Lourdes Charles of The Star and Ruhaidini Abdul Kadir of Utusan Malaysia, to dent Tan Sri Bakri’s reputation although his son was not charged eventually.

Then in 2006, when Tan Sri Bakri’s wife was taken ill, Musa spread the rumour that Tan Sri Bakri was a philandering husband and was bonking a junior policewoman. That sealed Tan Sri Bakri’s fate, and he was not given an extension, but instead retired into oblivion. That was why Tan Sri Bakri was heard saying to his close friends that Musa’s picture crying on his farewell was nothing more than crocodile tears. Musa Hassan then immediately became IGP.

Musa Hassan and the Crime Syndicate

Musa’s rise as IGP was actually part of the grand design by the crime syndicate. That shadowy character BK Tan had already drawn up a “succession plan” for PDRM and that can only be achieved if Musa became IGP. Like the Mafia in the USA which moved on to legitimise their business by opening the Las Vegas casino, the illegal money lending Along syndicate knew that they could not remain with that illegal operations for long. Thus, the Along masterminds hatched a plan which would require the competing Along syndicates to come under one umbrella, the BK Tan umbrella, whose patron is the IGP himself!

Along masterminds hatched a plan which would require the competing Along syndicates to come under one umbrella, the BK Tan umbrella, whose patron is the IGP himself!

In that plan, Musa Hassan will be portrayed as doing a cleaning up job of getting rid of the Along syndicates.

The Along is like the Mafia in the USA

Whereas, in truth, all Musa did was to eliminate BK Tan’s competitors. Those who opposed BK Tan would be eliminated by being held under the Emergency Ordinance (EO) in the Simpang Renggam detention centre. In the underworld, that detention is something that is most feared. Those who played ball with BK Tan will be asked to apply for and will be given a licence to operate a legal moneylending business. Those who don’t will be detained and their business taken over by BK Tan’s allies. Now you know why the whole country was gripped by fear of the Along menace in 2006-2009.

That climate of fear was generated to send a warning to those not aligned to BK Tan that their end was near. That is how simple the “pemutihan” or legalisation of the Along syndicate was supposed to be. If you doubt this, just read what Musa Hassan’s ADC, ASP Azizul, had stated in his Statutory Declaration that Raja Petra Kamarudin (RPK) posted on Malaysia Today (MT) recently.

Musa Hassan tried to discredit Deputy Minister Johari Baharom

But Musa was not aware that by then six police rank and file operatives had already collated information that the twice EO criminal, Goh Cheng Poh @ Tengku Goh, was already enforcing that plan by using IGP Musa Hassan’s name as his badge of authority. Deputy Minister Dato’ Johari Baharom also got wind of this and directed his own officers to verify this information. Johari Baharom then directed Dato’ Ramli’s Commercial Crimes Investigations Department (CCID) to pick up Tengku Goh who was ready to spill the beans on Musa Hassan unless Musa bailed him out.

Being the UMNO politician that he is, Johari Baharom backed down and abandoned the CCID officers. In a quid pro quo, the MACC then simultaneously cleared both Musa Hassan and Johari Baharom.

To discredit Johari Baharom, Musa directed Dato’ Christopher Wan, then Director CID, to create an anonymous blog which made allegations of corruption against Johari Baharom. Musa then conspired with his buddies, Ahmad Said Hamdan of the ACA (now known as the MACC) and AG Gani Patail to frighten off Johari Baharom. Being the UMNO politician that he is, Johari Baharom backed down and abandoned the CCID officers. In a quid pro quo, the MACC then simultaneously cleared both Musa Hassan and Johari Baharom. Immediately thereafter, six rank and file officers were charged by the MACC for fabricating evidence against Musa Hassan. The mainstream media ran to town with this story.

What the mainstream media did not report later and what the public does not know is that all these six policemen have been acquitted. If they have been acquitted, wouldn’t that mean that the information that they had collated about Musa Hassan being involved with the syndicate are all true? So, Musa is the first IGP in the history of PDRM to accuse his own men in blue of trying to fix him. Ask yourself this question- what would these junior officers benefit from trying to fix their IGP?

The Unholy Trinity and the Fixing and Prosecuting Dato Ramli Yusufand Lawyer Rosli Dahlan

That was not the end of it. To strike fear that no one should ever try to go against this Unholy Trinity of Musa Hasan, AG Gani Patail and the MACC, the mainstream media was roped in to publish false stories about Dato’ Ramli being “ The RM27 Million Cop”. That was a good diversion to deflect scrutiny of the damaging information about Musa Hassan’s complicity with the crime syndicates. And the masses were swayed, including RPK, who wrote about the “turf war” in PDRM for control of the crime syndicates, as if implying that Dato’ Ramli was with Dato’ Johari Baharom as the other party seeking control of the turf.

Subsequently, even RPK tacitly acknowledged that impression was not accurate, when AG Gani and the MACC brutalised Lawyer Rosli Dahlan and charged him just one day before Hari Raya of 2007. The bigger picture then emerged that Dato’ Ramli and Lawyer Rosli Dahlan had featured prominently in the criminal case being pursued against the former Chairman of MAS, Tajudin Ramli.

The MAS Affair

The bigger agenda was to discredit these two professionals in their pursuit against the plunderers of the national airlines, MAS. RPK has produced documents which showed that Abdullah Badawi was also plundering the national airlines by forcing MAS to give out lop-sided contracts to his brother’s company LSG-Ibrahim. No wonder in an unprecedented move in 2007, Abdullah Badawi eagerly extended Musa Hassan’s contract on a two year term in one go. We now know the reason. Finally!

The bigger agenda was to discredit these two professionals, Ramli and Rosli in their pursuit against the plunderers of the national airlines, MAS.

Musa Hassan: “An Incredible Witness” (Judge Supang Lian, Kota Kinabalu Sessions Court)

All these fit in very well with Musa Hassan’s own plans to eliminate any successors in the PDRM. Thus, Musa Hassan with help from AG Gani and the MACC fixed all kinds of silly charges against Dato’ Ramli. Since then Dato’ Ramli has been acquitted of all these trumped up charges. In a turn of events, Judge Supang Lian of the Kota Kinabalu Sessions Court denounced Musa Hassan as “an incredible witness whose evidence is not to be believed”. In other words, Musa Hassan is a Liar. This was the most damning thing ever stated in a judgment against a serving head of department and never before said against an incumbent IGP. In that sense, Musa has scored a first in many things.

Musa has scored a first in many things !

Never before in the history of PDRM has an IGP accused his junior officers of trying to fix him. Never before has an IGP appeared in court as a star witness against his own Police Director in order to secure a conviction against that Director. Never before has a Judge denounced an IGP as a Liar. Never before has an IGP schemed against his own Ministry’s Deputy Minister to create a false blog to mount allegations of corruption. Never before has an IGP been named by a criminal like Goh Cheng Poh @ Tengku Goh in an affidavit to seek the criminal’s release (and the criminal was indeed subsequently released).

Never before has an IGP been accused by another senior officer, former Senior Assistant Commissioner Dato’ Mat Zin, of fabricating evidence. Never before has an IGP been accused by his own ADC, ASP Azizul, of being a Pengkhianat Bangsa. Musa Hassan has all that distinctions and more.

It was as if Musa Hassan was trying to match the distinctions of his good friend and ally, the AG Gani Patail. Only last week RPK exposed why AG Gani Patail was unwilling to prosecute the plunderers of MAS. RPK had posted pictures of AG Gani Patail consorting with Tajudin Ramli and his proxy, Shahidan Shafie. These are the very people named in several reports lodged by MASKargo’s MD Shahari Sulaiman of being responsible for the losses in excess of RM 8 billion.

Tajudin Ramli and his proxy, Shahidan Shafie, are the very people named in several reports lodged by MASKargo’s MD Shahari Sulaiman (pic)of being responsible for the losses in excess of RM 8 billion.

Who is Shahidan Shafie?

RPK had also exposed Shahidan Shafie, as a former police officer charged for corruption in 1990, who is now a successful wheeler dealer rubbing shoulders with the likes of Dato’ Seri Nazri Aziz and Dato’ Seri Zahid Hamidi, all UMNO strong men. The AG Gani Patail has yet to deny or explain why he was seen in the company of Tajudin Ramli and Shahidan Shafie and what is his relationship with these two dubious characters who have been named in the MAS’s reports. These are the kind of people we have walking in the corridors of power today.

AG Gani Patail has yet to deny or explain why he was seen in the company of Tajudin Ramli and Shahidan Shafie and what is his relationship with these two dubious characters who have been named in the MAS’s reports.

Despite all these expose’ and RPK linking the dotted lines for the MACC, all that the MACC has done to date is to keep quiet. Need we remind MACC’s Chief Commissioner Dato’ Seri Abu Kassim of his public pledge that he would resign if cases against these big fishes are not investigated?

New IGP, Tan Sri Ismail Omar: Be Your Own Man and Do the Right Thing

I am also writing this piece to remind the new IGP Tan Sri Ismail Omar that it is time he becomes his own man. It is time he stops being over polite and attributing his rise to Musa Hassan. It is time, he distances himself from Musa Hassan’s terrible record as an IGP. It is time he stops saying that he will continue with Musa Hassan’s work or legacy.

It is time the new IGP Tan Sri Ismail Omar stops saying that he will continue with Musa Hassan’s work or legacy.

Just as Malaysians are revolted by Abdullah Badawi’s tenure as Prime Minister and want that time in history to be forgotten, similarly the men in blue and Malaysians generally are eager that the PDRM must be purged of any remnant of the abuses and ills that Musa Hassan had left behind. The sooner Ismail Omar erases the stains left by Musa Hassan the better.

As it is, PDRM under the new IGP Tan Sri Ismail Omar has started winning public support and admiration with the lightning speed with which the Sosilawati murder is being solved. Malaysians are a forgiving lot and badly want to give Ismail Omar a chance to prove himself. Malaysians want a crime free country where PDRM is once again restored as the primary law enforcement agency.

Tan Sri Ismail Omar has started winning public support and admiration with the lightning speed with which the Sosilawati murder is being solved.

Malaysians want the new IGP to instil in the PDRM officers the will and culture to act in accordance with the Rule of Law. Malaysians want the IGP to act like the No. 1 Law Enforcement Officer of the country without fear or favour, and act less like a politician which Musa Hassan was. Malaysians want the IGP to break PDRM away from being one of the Unholy Trinity that it once was with the AG Gani Patail and the MACC.

Malaysians want the PDRM to be a check and balance to the AG and the MACC so that none can conspire to kill innocent witnesses like Teoh Beng Hock and then attempt to cover up the killing with such impunity. Or fix innocent citizens and professionals like Dato’ Ramli or Lawyer Rosli Dahlan. Or be a tool of oppression to stifle opposition leaders like the prosecution of Anwar Ibrahim in Sodomy I and Sodomy II. Or be an apparatus to depose a democratically elected opposition government as had happened in Perak. These are not unrealistic demands. These are legitimate expectations of a civil society. These are achievable if those entrusted with powers do not abuse them. IGP Ismail Omar can fulfil all of these expectations if he consciously stops emulating his predecessor, that despicable man named Musa Hassan.

Malaysians want the PDRM to be a check and balance to the AG and the MACC so that none can conspire to kill innocent witnesses like Teoh Beng Hock and then attempt to cover up the killing with such impunity. Or fix innocent citizens and professionals like Dato’ Ramli or Lawyer Rosli Dahlan.

Reminder to AG Gani Patail: Lawyer Rosli should be discharged without his Defence being called on September 30, 2010

Musa Hassan is gone and this should be a reminder to AG Gani that his misuse and abuse of powers cannot be perpetuated forever. I am reminding the AG Gani Patail this because Rosli’s case will be called again on Thursday September 30, 2010. Dato’ Ramli has been fully acquitted. Therefore there is no reason to just prolong this matter against Rosli. The honourable thing to do is to withdraw and apologise.

Lawyer Rosli should be discharged without his Defence being called on September 30, 2010

The public can clearly see this is nothing more than vindictive persecution of an innocent man. Just because the AG Gani Patail is vested with absolute prosecution powers under Article 145 of the Federal Constitution, it does not mean that he can use it as a tool to victimise a professional who dared question his abuses and defend a civil servant whom AG Gani and ex-IGP Musa Hassan had conspired to eliminate.

YB Salahuddin Ayub: Time to Act

If the AG Gani Patail persist with his abuses with the intent of dragging the case against Rosli just to make Rosli suffer further, I call on YB Salahuddin Ayub to raise in Parliament on Rosli’s role in pursuing the civil and criminal cases against Tajudin Ramli and the other plunderers of MAS.

I call on YB Salahuddin Ayub to raise in Parliament to ascertain Rosli’s role in preparing affidavits for the CCID and Dato Johari Baharom and yet despite that, why AG Gani Patail ordered the release of Goh Cheng Poh @ Tengku Goh, among other issues as well.

I call on YB Salahuddin Ayub to raise in Parliament if it is true that Dato’ Ramli had recommended for Tajudin Ramli to be prosecuted and why the AG Gani Patail had refused to prosecute Tajudin to this day. I call on YB Salahuddin Ayub to raise in Parliament if it is true that the twice EO detainee Goh Cheng Poh @ Tengku Goh had mentioned ex-IGP Musa Hassan’s name in his affidavit. I call on YB Salahuddin Ayub to raise in Parliament why AG Gani Patail refused to prepare affidavits for Dato’ Ramli and his CCID officers and thus abdicated his constitutional duties in that case. I call on YB Salahuddin Ayub to raise in Parliament to ascertain Rosli’s role in preparing affidavits for the CCID and Dato Johari Baharom and yet despite that, why AG Gani Patail ordered the release of Goh Cheng Poh @ Tengku Goh.

I call on all Malaysians to express contempt and revulsion at all these happenings and demand that these be stopped immediately!

A Plea to Our Prime Minister: Uphold the Rule of Law and Respect the Dignity of Difference

I would like to quote from our Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak’s speech at the 65th Session of the United Nations General Assembly(September 27, 2010) which I personally regard as his pledge before the august world body:

“I have introduced a philosophy known as 1Malaysia . 1Malaysia is a vision that seeks renewal and rejuvenation to bring all our people together in a just and harmonious relationship. 1Malaysia calls for the acceptance of diversity as a source of greater unity. We seek to celebrate our multi-ethnic and multi-religious society for strategic strength and harmony.”

A Plea to Our Prime Minister: Uphold the Rule of Law and Respect the Dignity of Difference

There can be no 1Malaysia if we continue to divide and rule, if we do not respect the dignity of difference, if we do not respect and uphold the Rule of Law, if we do not practise good governance and defend civil society, if we persist with our racist discourse and permit irresponsible leaders to preach the politics of fear of the other and racism, and if we continue to hound and persecute the innocent. Let there, Mr Prime Minister, justice for all.

Philosopher Tariq Ramadan in his latest book, The Quest for Meaning: Developing a Philosophy of Pluralism, has this to say on this subject:“What the individual must acquire at the personal level–a sense of our shared dignity and human fraternity–communities and societies must organise through laws and regulations. Every individual must be treated equally before the law, without any discrimination as to sex, colour, religion, social status or anything else. This is as much a universal principle, as an ideal…This ideal in fact means that we must always adopt a critical approach to the way societies (and governments, if I may add) apply the law. The law is not an abstraction that applies to individuals who are socially ‘free’ and politically ‘neutral’: socio-economic relations, relations of power and domination and control of the symbol apparatus and the media are so many givens that influence the equal application of the law”.

ISBN: 9780141919577 Published : 05 Aug 2010 Publisher : Allen Lane

So let the healing process begin. That requires our leaders to rise above concerns about political survival and think about the common Malaysian concern for peace, harmony and prosperity. Will you, Mr. Prime Minister, seize the moment or remain in your own comfort zone. A true leader must not be a populist in extremis because he must lead but in compliance with the Rule of Law as embodied in our sacred constitution.