How quickly Najib gave up on his 'last resort' to clear his name

MP SPEAKS | I must congratulate former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak for landing a new job – making a cameo appearancein a South Korean television drama – as it not easy for a former leader of his 'stature' to find work.

But he probably committed the biggest blunder of his entire life when he tried to be a 'hero' on the issue of reopening of investigation into the mysterious murder of Mongolian national Altantunya Shaariibuu – striking the posture that he would order his assistant to lodge a police report against himself, so that the authorities can start investigating if he was involved in several high-profile murders while he was in power.

Najib said in a Facebook posting on Thursday night that “this was the last resort he had to take to clear his name, following repeated calls by Lim to the authorities to reopen their investigations into these cases.”

Lo and behold, Najib’s aide lodged a report the next day – but not against himself. The report was lodged against me, as if it is I who had a hand in the murder of Atantunya, deputy public prosecutor Kevin Morais, Ambank founder Hussain Najadi, DAP aide Teoh Beng Hock and Customs officer Ahmad Sarbani Mohamed.

The first police reaction was from the Sentul district police chief S Shanmugamoorthy Chinniah, who said that the police will not open an investigation into the report filed by Najib’s aide against me.

Shanmugamoorthy said “There’s nothing to investigate” and that the matter has been classified as a civil action.

“Najib wants to defend himself (against Lim's claims). There is nothing to investigate there. It is more like (a case involving) slander, but we are not investigating... Civil action can be taken,” he added.

This must have been music to Najib's ears, as the case of the mysterious murder of Altantunya would continue to be buried – but only for a few hours.

Clearly, he had not expected the inspector-general of police, of all people, to be responsible for creating a new Altantunya nightmare for him.

A few hours after the comment from the Sentul police, Muhammad Fuzi Harun said that an investigation would be initiated into the report and appropriate action taken, as it is “normal process.”

If Najib is sincere about his aide’s police report, he should welcome the IGP’s statement and regret the Sentul OCPD’s statement. But clearly he was very upset.

Totally ignoring Fuzi’s statement (which Najib would have known about), the former prime minister came out with a Facebook posting, praising the Sentul OCPD, declaring that the police had made the right move in deciding not to further investigate a police report lodged by his aide relating to several high-profile murders.

"This is right, because the truth is that I am not involved in all these cases which have been investigated thoroughly and completely and have gone through the courts for years," he said.

Then, Najib should explain why he had to undertake the charade of directing his aide to lodge the police report to reopen investigations into mysterious deaths under his tenure? Is he going to lodge a police report against his aide for false reporting?

Has Najib so quickly given up on his “last resort" to clear his name?

Najib may want to put the whole scandal of the several mysterious deaths under his tenure back under lock and key, but let me tell Najib, thanks to his own (un)doing, it is all too late – that the need to reopen the cases of these mysterious deaths, especially the foul murder of Altantunya is no more a distant thunder but is in the very forefront of national consciousness of all policymakers and Malaysians.

Let Najib stop equivocating and give a short answer: Would he agree to the reopening of investigations into mysterious deaths like the case of Altantunya, Morais, Najadi, Teoh and Sarbani?

Yesterday, I provided three reasons why there should be a reopening of investigations into the murder of Altantunya – firstly, the statutory declaration of private investigator P Balasubramanian, dated July 1, 2008, which in effect challenged the truth and veracity of various statements and denials by Najib in connection with the murder.

Secondly, the police confession on Nov 9, 2006, by former police special commando Sirul Azhar Umar, who had been convicted of the murder of Altantunya, who claims that he was only a tool in the crime.

Thirdly, the teary statement by Sirul Azhar in the Kuala Lumpur High Court on Feb 3, 2009, asking the court not to sentence him to death for Altantuya’s murder, saying he was like “a black sheep that has to be sacrificed” to protect unnamed people who have never been brought to court or faced questioning.

Today, I will provide two further reasons to reopen the investigations.

Firstly, to establish whether Najib had sent Abdul Razak Baginda a phone message to be “cool” and the nature of the telephonic messages connected to the Altantunya murder; and whether the Altantunya murder had anything to do with the Scorpene submarine scandal.

I asked Najib yesterday, firstly, whether he would join me to send a joint petition to the prime minister to reopen investigations into the murder of Altantunya; and secondly, whether he would agree to be my seconder if I move a motion in Parliament for the authorities to reopen investigations.

Now, with Najib’s latest shift of position, it is clear that Najib’s answers to both my questions would be in the negative. Or would I be wrong?

Let the parliamentary opposition leader Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang declare whether they would support, with the full complement of MPs from both parties, a parliamentary motion for the police to reopen investigations into the mysterious deaths.

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LIM KIT SIANG is the MP for Iskandar Puteri. -Mkini