GANI'S REAPPEARANCE RAISES TALK MURDERED DPP MORAIS INVOLVED IN DRAFTING OF 'NAJIB CHARGE SHEET'

A hale if not hearty-looking Gani Patail, who was removed as attorney-general on July 27 on ostensibly health grounds, appeared at his first public engagement, a Bar Council-organised forum, at which he virtually said that “what you see is what you get”.

What the audience at the forum on Sosma, the controversial new law on combating terrorism which critics say is being misused, and a ravening press got to see of the former AG must have fortified speculation that his removal was for other than health reasons.

Gani’s elliptical comments did nothing to discourage that speculative strain:

“I am functioning very well, but bear this in mind: When I was sitting there in the office, too, I was already on dialysis. I think I had some dealings with presidents and past presidents when I was on dialysis.”

The remarks must have put paid the theory that Gani was retired for health reasons. In fact, he arrived at the retirement age last month when he turned 60, the age for civil servants who are not on contract to the government to retire.

Gani clocked out last month with nary a word to the press.

Yesterday, at the Bar Council forum in Kuala Lumpur, when drawn on the subject of his removal, he was not reticent but neither was he voluble.

He seemed to be saving his comments for another day for when asked by the forum’s moderator, Andrew Khoo, if he would care to comment on matters unconnected to the topic, Gani was proper if cagey: “My good friend, I think it would be fair to reserve it for another day. Otherwise I would be boring to you in the future.”

Right now, concern for Gani’s relevance to a revelatory future is not as critical as the veracity of speculation about his recent past.

Gani Patail

This speculation holds that his removal was because he had caused a charge sheet to be drawn up against Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak in connection with the entry of RM2.6 billion from an alleged Middle Eastern donor into Najib’s personal bank accounts.

The government had denied this speculation; Gani’s quiet on the matter, enforced or voluntary, has had the effect of heightening the speculation.

Upon the conclusion of the forum yesterday, Gani told a hungry press that he was sure he would see them soon, which could only mean that he is not retreating into some gulag of silence and mystery.

Similar shroud on Morais case

It appears a similar shroud has descended on the post-life scenario of murdered deputy public prosecutor Anthony Kevin Morais.

The body of Morais, who was allegedly abducted on the way to work on Sept 4, was found by police in Subang Jaya on Sept 16. A drum containing his body and filled with cement was retrieved from a site.

One of the first things the police said at the media conference to announce the find was that Morais’ case had nothing to with 1MDB.

This only served to fuel speculation, for in the version of Morais’ death intimated to the press, the DPP was a victim of killers allegedly hired by a doctor who was on a RM700,000 corruption rap.

This version was received with the scepticism it deserved: Would somebody on a RM700,000 corruption charge want to resort to murder and would the forcible removal of the DPP somehow free cripple the prosecution’s case against the one accused of graft?

Kevin was close to Gani

Gani Patail’s first public appearance after his removal as AG was at the morgue of the KL Hospital, where he confined himself to saying that Morais was a “good officer”.

Morais was known to be close to Gani, a tie which stirred speculation as to whether the deceased could have been involved in the drawing up of the charge sheet that the word on the grapevine said was being drafted at the time Gani was removed.

Today, two months after his disappearance and several weeks after his body was found, Morais’ remains have not be claimed by his relatives because they say the autopsy report does not state the cause of death.

This is more than strange because several people, including the doctor, have been charged in connection with Morais’ alleged murder.

Gani Patail’s refusal to be drawn on the circumstances surrounding his removal as AG may be due to his judgment that this is not the right time to make a clean breast of things.

But the recent, mystery-shrouded past cannot lie quiet under a cloud of unknowing. - M'kini