Who ordered killing? Can ex-PMs find out from Sirul?

Kit Siang proposes a mission for Mahathir and Abdullah.

PETALING JAYA: DAP strongman Lim Kit Siang proposed today that former prime ministers Mahathir Mohamad and Abdullah Ahmad Badawi be assigned to find out from fugitive Sirul Azhar Umar who ordered him to kill Mongolian national Altantuya Shaariibuu.

He suggested that the two former premiers report their findings to Parliament and recommend what should be done to Sirul and his accomplice, Azilah Hadri.

Lim’s statement was a follow-up to an article Mahathir posted on his blog today, in which he said it would be cruel to execute Sirul if it was true, as the fugitive has claimed, that he was acting under orders. Mahathir pointed out that Sirul was Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak’s bodyguard at the time of the murder.

Lim said the issue was one of many that had been drowned out by the controversy over PAS’ intention to enforce hudud in Kelantan. He credited the “mastermind” of the so-called “unity government” of Umno and PAS with pulling off a coup by making the hudud issue distract the public’s attention from other issues that Najib was allegedly trying to avoid.

“Yes, the hudud trap and issue has come to the aid of Najib by seemingly drowning out all the grave injustices and scandals in the country, but Najib should realise that these injustices and scandals cannot lay hidden for long or forever, so long as they remain unrectified,” he said.

“The judiciary, the Attorney-General and the Inspector-General of Police have all been guilty of first-degree dereliction of duty when they ignored the elephant in the room in the Altantuya murder case when they should have known that the two former police commandos, Azilah Hadri and Sirul Azhar Umar, could not have killed the Mongolian, whom they did not know, without a motive and a mastermind.

“Their dereliction of duty was all the more heinous and inexcusable when they should have known about Sirul’s first statement to the police on 9th November 2006, where he admitted that he was carrying out instructions when he killed Altantuya.”

Referring to Najib’s dismissal of Sirul’s claim as “rubbish”, Lim said it invited the question of how the Prime Minister could know that there were no orders for Sirul and Azilah to kill Altantuya. “While Najib could claim that he had not personally issued such an order, how could he be sure that no such order was issued by someone else?”

He said Malaysia’s good name and the international repute of the country’s administration of justice demanded that the motive behind the murder be uncovered and its mastermind exposed.