THE JUSTO AFFAIR 2.0

The Third Force

Historical narratives on political conspiracies have always been tainted with acts of subversion by Fifth Columnists. In Malaysia, the Confederates of the Fifth Column engaged Dato’ Seri Najib Razak almost a year back. Their mission, it seems, was to retire the Prime Minister and supplant his government with Mahathirists.

Today, the Confederates of the Fifth Column are no longer interested in dislodging the Prime Minister from power. What they’re after is something of a very different nature, one that has to do with UMNO and not its president. But I’ll scratch the surface on that soon enough in another article. For now, let us deliberate on a possible French connection to the entire Mahathir-Najib fiasco.

The Dreyfus affair

What is happening in Malaysia today draws some parallels, if at all, with what happened in France in 1894. Back then, army captain Alfred Dreyfus was charged with treason against the French government for conspiring with the Germans to sell them secret military documents.

The Dreyfus affair, as it was called, catapulted France into frenzy over a political crisis that was clinched on a plot to topple the French government. Over the course of four years, the Dreyfus affair split France into two distinct and contending blocs; the anti-Dreyfusards, and the Dreyfusards.

The anti-Dreyfusard bloc used the press as a weapon to inflame anti-Semitism, given the fact that Alfred Dreyfus was of Jewish descent. They exploited the media and accused the French government of consorting with Jewish spies. Towards this end, the anti-Dreyfusard press was elaborate with exaggerated and falsified information to drive public perception against Alfred Dreyfus and the French government.

Meanwhile, the Dreyfusards supported Alfred Dreyfus and spoke of conspiracy by a Fifth Column to undermine the government of France. According to the Dreyfusards, evidence that was held against Alfred Dreyfus was falsified by military officials in collusion with the Minister of War, who intended to subvert democracy by toppling the French government. The anti-Dreyfusard bloc retaliated, insisting that any attempt to topple the government would be by legal means, by referendum.

Over the span of years, the plight of Alfred Dreyfus was no longer the epicentre of this raging conflict. Rather, the battle was centred on prejudices between the contending factions; the anti-Dreyfusards and the Dreyfusards.

So in 1898, the French populace stood divided on a platform of prejudices. On one hand, we had groups aligned to Dreyfus, who believed that a plot had been hatched by a Fifth Column of militarists, the War Minister and monarchists against the French government. On the other hand, we had anti-Semitists, who were more concerned with toppling the government and restoring Monarchical rule in France.

There already are some queer resemblances between the plot to overthrow Najib and the Dreyfus affair. But let’s stretch the mile a little further and see where it leads us, before we begin drawing parallels, if any, to the Justo affair.

On the 13th of August 1898, the anti-Dreyfusard bloc took a bolt from the blue when several important documents that had implicated Dreyfus of treason began to resurface. Upon closer inspection, the documents were found to be forgeries, particularly one that impeached Alfred Dreyfus for being a German agent. As a result, intelligence officer Lieutenant Colonel Hubert-Joseph Henry confessed to perjury against Dreyfus and was interned at a military prison for his crime, where he slit his throat and committed suicide.

Two military officers, General de Boisdeffre and General de Pellieux, requested immediate relieve from their duties for reasons that were never made explicit. Military officer Esterhazy, thought to be a double agent and the person Henry conspired to protect, fled to Belgium and later, to England.

On the 3rd of September 1898, Minister of War Cavaignac resigned and posted a statement throughout France. It was later discovered that Henry had falsely imputed blame to Dreyfus as a possible diversion to cover up a Fifth Column, a confederacy that was commissioned to topple the French government. Members of the Fifth Column included de Boisdeffre, de Pellieux, Esterhazy, Cavagnac, Lieutenant Colonel Georges Picquart and an attorney, Louis Leblois.

The Dreyfus affair blew wide open ancient animosities that predated to the revolution of 1789, when the Jews were disencumbered and the Catholics, persecuted. Be that as it may, the commoner, who spoke the third word, rode on conspiracy and saw the Dreyfus affair as an attempt by the Fifth Column to subvert the French government and render the Jewish populace subordinate.

The Justo Affair

There are parallels that can be drawn off the Dreyfus affair insofar as the plot to topple Najib is concerned. Both contrivances were hatched on the commonality of treason, i.e., the leak of top secret information by statutory agencies in consort with foreign elements. In both cases, there was involvement of politicians, legal attorneys and persons bound by various statutes of law.

In the case of the Dreyfus affair, the commission of treason against the French government was believed to have begun long before the arrest of Alfred Dreyfus, a French national of Jewish descent. Evidence that was fabricated against Dreyfus drew a veil over conspiracies by Fifth Columnists to topple the French government.

Likewise, the arrest of Xavier Andre Justo (the Justo affair) served as a diversion from a crime of betrayal by several individuals, now fingered as accessories to a higher order of command. These individuals were linked to several statutory agencies, the most notable among them being Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM), the Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission (MACC) and the Attorney General’s Chambers (AGC). These individuals may be liable for treason over the leak of classified documents to foreign agents.

In the case of Dreyfus, he was falsely charged with treason over the sale of top secret documents to the Germans when in fact, it was Esterhazy who had brokered these transactions. As a result, the French government was accused of consorting with a double agent to the detriment of national security. Had the government registered its support for Dreyfus, the anti-Drefusard bloc would probably have triumphed and toppled the French government.

Unlike Dreyfus, Justo was amenable to charges of criminal extortion and blackmail at the time he was said to have negotiated a felonious compact with Clare Rewcastle Brown and a certain Malaysian middleman, known to be a cock of the walk. Following negotiations, Justo may have discharged data that had been ripped off Petro Saudi’s databases into the hands of the middleman, which led to the damning attacks against the Malaysian government by Sarawak Report.

On the 25th of June 2015, a seemingly dejected Mahathir insinuated doubt over Justo’s arrest, citing “very clever propagandists” who were malicious in their deception against the former Petro Saudiemployee. It bothered Mahathir to the nth degree that Justo was arrested in Thailand for no apparent rhyme or reason, given that the latter had committed a crime in Saudi Arabia and not in Thailand.

Isn’t it ironical how Mahathir appeared to arbitrate justice at a time when charges were yet to be brought against Justo? What was more ironical was the way Mahathir drew a bead on Justo’s arrest rather than the crime Justo was charged with committing in Saudi Arabia. The said crime impinged heavily on Najib’s credibility, with import repercussions to the future of the Malaysian government.

Following Mahathir’s outburst, online media and blogging circles implied a plot by the Malaysian government to kill the messenger. Raub Member of Parliament Ariff Sabri labelled the Justo affair a ruse, while conspiracy theorists took his cue and began speaking their oracle against the Prime Minister. The fact that Najib stood silent over these allegations further intensified speculation that jammed media sensors and made the Watergate scandal look like chicken shit.

The long and short of it is this; the French government was accused of consorting with a saboteur who may have been innocent, while the Malaysian government was accused of excoriating a saboteur who was in fact a criminal.

Was there a French Connection?

There are several questions that come to mind when one begins to examine the parallels between theJusto affair and the Dreyfus affair, as well as several other issues of pertinence to the Justo affair.

1. Was it Tun Dr. Mahathir who got Clare Rewcastle Brown to blow the whistle on Justo? It remains suspect if Mahathir had hatched a plot within a plot to put a fix on Justo once the stolen data from Petro Saudi was delivered to the middleman, aforementioned herein. Was this a deliberate but failed attempt to checkmate Najib?

2. Was the Justo affair an attempt to divert attention from the leak of top secret information to foreign nationals, as in the case of the Dreyfus affair?

3. Was Mahathir’s outburst following Justo’s arrest meant as a ploy to cast Najib as a rebel Prime Minister who would stop at nothing to remain in power? Was Mahathir shedding crocodile tears to imply a conspiracy by Najib to kill the messenger?

4. Regime change has been in vogue over the past few decades and is nothing to shout about. As a matter of fact, history is littered with narratives of collusions between the French and the British to effect regime change and install pliable subordinates as leaders. As in the case of the Dreyfus affair and since 1894, the French have heavily indulged in media warfare with falsified information to drive perception among the masses. Is Clare Rewcastle Brown of the UK based Sarawak Report an accessory to the French government in a plot to truncate Najib’s term in office?

5. Is it merely a coincidence that Dato’ Seri Khairuddin Abu Hassan (publisher of 50 Dalil Kenapa Anwar Ibrahim Tidak Boleh Jadi PM) chose to lodge police reports against 1MDB at the Lyon police headquarters in France?

6. Why haven’t the French police initiated investigations into allegations that implicated Clare and Mahathir of conspiracy to procure stolen documents from Justo? Isn’t it ironic how the French police were hot on the trail of conspiracy apposite to the Scorpene submarine deal?

7. Incidentally, is Khairuddin an accessory to Mahathir when it comes to making mincemeat of the latter’s enemies? Was Khairuddin ever rewarded by Mahathir for publishing 50 Dalil Kenapa Anwar Ibrahim Tidak Boleh Jadi PM, and if yes, how was he rewarded? Come to think of it, how did Khairuddin end up being a bankrupt?

8. Will Khairuddin be rewarded by Mahathir for issuing damning statements against Najib?

9. Were Tun Dr. Mahathir, Tun Daim Zainuddin, Dato’ Seri Anwar Ibrahim, Lim Kit Siang, Azmin Ali, Rafizi Ramli, Nurul Izzah, Tony Pua, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, Tan Sri Zainuddin Maidin, Tan Sri Zeti Akhtar Aziz, Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail, Datuk Bahri Mohd. Zin and Dato’ Rohaizad Yaakob working on the commonality of treason behind a velvet curtain to discredit Najib and his government? Or perhaps, these are mere rumours?

There are just that many questions that need to be asked, and just that much time for me to ask them. As I recall, we have yet to expose the Confederates of the Fifth Column for who they really are. So let me get back to you on that before I tell you the Khairuddin story.

All in all, was there really a French connection in the Justo affair? What do you think?