Rewcastle: Jakim is Najib’s tool to mislead Malaysians

Sarawak Report in personal danger from people who have been cynically and deliberately misled during Friday sermons.

KUALA LUMPUR: It was demeaning to Malaysians for Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak to suggest that a few articles written by “one foreign white woman” could seriously undermine the power and authority of the state, according to Sarawak Report editor Clare Rewcastle-Brown. “What has undermined Malaysia and was now threatening to ‘topple’ things was the canker of unrestrained corruption which has eaten away at the authority of the state, the government’s moral authority and legitimacy,” she wrote today in a response to criticism by the prime minister.

She said the immediate danger was from “the so-called Islamic Development Department” (Jakim) and accused it of usurping Islam by turning Friday sermons in mosques into a propaganda tool for the government. “The religion is being used to convince Muslims that foreigners are insulting Malaysia and its leaders,” she wrote.

Quoting a Singapore Channel News Asia report, she said “JAKIM’s argument, is that Muslims who raised the issue of 1MDB would be making themselves victims of foreign powers.”

However, she pointed out that theft, deceit, and perversions of justice were denounced in Islamic teachings. “These are the issues being examined by the forces of law and order in Malaysia today.”

“Instead of suing us as he vowed, Najib is sermonizing us. We believe such deeply irresponsible tactics have placed the Sarawak Report in personal danger from people who have been cynically and deliberately misled.”

How was it that UK-based Sarawak Report — and not Jakim — was a danger to Malaysia, she asked, in an email listing her complaints in exercising her Right of Reply. “Is it not Najib himself that has produced that danger by mismanaging himself into this humiliating situation?”

The “issue at hand in Malaysia” was the investigation into grand-scale corruption and theft of public money through 1MDB and not obsession with her complexion, said Rewcastle. “It’s also a matter of related public money going into the account of the Prime Minister.”

The use of such monies to assist in illegally influencing the outcome of a democratic election, she added, is an issue that should concern all.

Najib’s “I value loyal people over smart people” statement was a disgraceful admission, said Rewcastle. “It’s a disgraceful admission from a man whose duty it is to ensure that Malaysians get public servants who are of the highest quality.”

“Najib has cynically and openly admitted that his only criterion was to appoint people who will worry about protecting him, not the rest of Malaysia.”

She wonders whether the Sarawak Report, a blog, has emerged as a threat to Najib because it was protected by the Rule of Law and press freedom in another country, and therefore considered so dangerous to him. “Is it because he cannot bully us like the many politicians, journalists, senior civil servants and members of the public in his own country?”

He has started rounding up many of them this week, she noted, and throwing them into cells, just for raising the issue of stolen billions through 1MDB.

“So, why this sudden hypocrisy against ‘white’ foreigners,” she asked in the email. “Najib has shown no concerns about employing at vast public expense Paul Stadlen, a ‘white’ UK national, and his ‘white’ colleagues who wrote his press releases announcing the ‘reshuffle’ last week.”

Stadlen, she recalled, originally served as the head of the US/Israeli PR company APCO. “So, why the sudden hypocrisy against ‘white’ foreigners?”

She wants to know how the Sarawak Report can become “an enemy of the state” when it has been one of the numerous publications to investigate and report on the issue of graft and abuse influencing the election outcome in Malaysia. “Why does this make us ‘an enemy of the state’ as opposed to those who are thriving from thievery?”

“Why are we being accused of seeking to ‘topple a democratically-elected government’ as opposed to those who sought to cheat the electorate of Malaysia by using foreign-borrowed funds to sway the election?”

It shows Najib himself up for his own insufferable weakness that he, the head of a sovereign government with his hands on all the levels of power, continued Rewcastle, should resort to no better excuse than making ridiculous accusations against “one white woman” who lives thousands of miles away and who has not a single shred of direct influence in his country.