Altantuya murder: The cover-up is as heinous as the crime

The executive cannot exert its authority because it needs rogue elements in the police force and judiciary to do its dirty work, which in turn compromises their own position.

–  ES Shankar, 'Altantuya – the Malaysian scene of the crime'

In my column about the Royal Malaysian Police (PDRM) and its rather ridiculous “Islamic/Moral” test for new recruits, I wrote: “Tradecraft, ethics and enforcement are extremely difficult to navigate, especially when political interference is the norm in tottering democracies like Malaysia.”

Setev Shaariibuu, the father of Altantuya (above), said that Malaysia should come clean about the murder of his daughter. Lim Kit Siang is correct when he likens the murder of Altantuya to that of slain journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who was assassinated allegedly on the orders of Mohammad bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, in terms of brazenness and institutional complicity.

While I do not want to distract from the murder of Altantuya, these allegations by Azilah Hadri point to deeper and older concerns for the public, non-governmental organisations, activists, former politicians and, of course, former state security personnel of the massive corruption and political interference in the state security apparatus.

When Harapan first gained federal power, I wrote a piece that the first thing they should do was to discover how deep the rot was that gave us Wang Kelian. There is a reason why I thought this should be the top priority of the government.

The first is that I never bought into the propaganda that Malaysia was on the brink of collapse, and the second is that the security apparatus of the state was the hand by which all sorts of political and religious malfeasance were executed. If the Harapan regime would get cracking on this most major of institutional reforms, Harapan partisans would have the evidence that their faith was not misplaced.

While Lim Guan Eng was going on about the so-called “red files” that pointed to the corruption of the state, nobody, certainly not the vocal Harapan government, showed much interest in reforming the state security apparatus or the laws that enabled the security apparatus and their political masters to operate without oversight.

Covering up the crime is just as heinous as the murder itself. What the cover-up does, is make it possible for more state actors to carry out extrajudicial killings, embolden politicians to use the state security apparatus in any manner they see fit, and further destroy public trust in public institutions. All these are the consequences of the Altantuya slaying and its aftermath.

We have politicians from Umno, now part of the Bersatu establishment, who cannot claim to be ignorant of what went down during the time they were part of the Umno establishment. Not to mention the various pensioned and still serving state actors who are suddenly part of "New Malaysia".

If anything, the commonality between the conflicting statements from the actors involved is evidence that the state security apparatus is so compromised that various state actors collaborated with various branches of the state security and judicial apparatus to carry out the wishes of their political masters, who in turn turned a blind eye to the systemic corruption that was plaguing the service.

Reading Azilah’s (above) statutory declaration was a surreal experience for me, and probably for other former state security personnel. Here we have someone who is attempting to present himself as a patriot who loved God, King and country and was merely carrying orders because it concerned national security. I assume there are still procedures in place when it comes to dealing with national security threats and a proper chain of command to execute such measures.

What we have here is the allegation of a covert state operator who got orders from proxies and the DPM to carry out a hit on an alleged spy who has “kompromat” on the DPM, and who was abandoned by the state and convicted of murder. This is the Harapan narrative, and a convenient one at that because it does not address the systemic dysfunction, only the connivance of a much-despised partisan hate figure.

Never mind that trials of both accused were mired in the kind of political and judicial legerdemain that any independent observer would refer to as a farce.

In my interview, with ES Shankar, who has spent years meticulously researching this murder, he said what most former state security personnel acknowledge – mostly in private – “There is an incestuous relationship between the executive, the police and a cowed and emasculated judiciary, all fired by ‘ketuanism’. This is how Hitler, the Nazis and the SS/Gestapo came to power and triumphed for a few years.”

The murder of Altantuya exposes the fascist core of our political system and the unchecked, rampant corruption of our state security apparatus. Unchecked, mind you, even by the Harapan regime. If the allegations of former police commando Azilah Hadri are true and that then DPM Najib Abdul Razak ordered the hit on Altantuya, then this is an indictment not only on Najib, but on the very system that Harapan refuses to reform.

This is political theatre, after all. If the Harapan government is truly interested in discovering who killed Altantuya, it would have immediately reopened the case. Instead, we had emissaries from various political parties visiting Sirul – one of the killers – doing God knows what, instead of attempting to reform the system, using this particular case as the foundation for institutional reform.

When Home Minister Muhyiddin Yassin says this, for instance, about the formation of an Independent Police Comp­laints and Misconduct Com­mission (IPCMC): “They (PDRM) assume that with an IPCMC, the police will become the target, that police are the ones who have done so much wrong and that such a body (IPCMC) will punish them.”

What Muhyiddin is really alluding to is the reality that the state security apparatus, which for so long formed part of the triptych of political power, criminal enterprise and state security collusion, would be subject to independent oversight.

The ongoing tragedy of the Altantuya murder is that not only is the former regime suspect, but the political theatre of the recent allegations points to a disturbing axiom: nobody ever truly reaps what they sow in this country.

---

S THAYAPARAN is Commander (Rtd) of the Royal Malaysian Navy. A retired barrister-at-law, he is one of the founding members of Persatuan Patriot Kebangsaan. - Mkini