The Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak has accused Al Jazeera’s 101 East current affairs programme “Murder in Malaysia” on the 2006 murder of Mongolian Altantuya Shaariibuu as part of an international conspiracy to topple him.
The attorney-general Mohamned Apandi Ali yesterday issued a statement declaring that Najib was never implicated during the course of the trial over Altantunya’s murder.
He said the murder trial was comprehensive with all relevant witnesses being called to testify.
He said: "Every piece of evidence and testimonies of witnesses were subjected subsequently to intense curial scrutiny by both the Court of Appeal and the Federal Court.”
The inspector-general of police, Khalid Abu Bakar meanwhile is on a war-path, vowing to investigate the Al Jazeera journalist Mary Ann Jolley (photo) under Section 505 (b) of the Penal Code related to “statements with the intent to cause, or is likely to cause, fear or alarm to the public” as well as her informants, although Khalid did not explain how the police is going to investigate the Australian-based journalist as she had been deported from Malaysia in June while carrying out investigations on her programme.
The newly-appointed Communications and Multimedia Minister Salleh Said Keruak blogged that Najib does not have to prove his innocence in Altantuya’s murder case as it is up to the courts to prove him guilty, pointing out that the courts had even exonerated Najib’s associate Abdul Razak Baginda regarding the murder!
With such a “friend and fervent supporter” like Salleh, Najib does not need enemies.
Salleh’s response to the call by former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad that Najib should clear his name in the Altantuya murder case is unbelievably obtuse.
Salleh was even so naïve as to ask what other way is Mahathir suggesting that Najib clear his name, questioning “Is there another method other than through the courts?"
Salleh really over-reached himself when he pressed on and asked whether Mahathir was saying that the Malaysian courts cannot be trusted.
I cannot answer for Mahathir but the response from the majority of Malaysians is that they have no trust in the courts when dealing with high-profile political cases of this nature!
Instead of making mysterious accusations of an international conspiracy to topple Najib, Malaysians want to know whether the prime minister, his Ministers, the attorney-general and the inspector-general are involved in a conspiracy pretending not to understand the real nature of national and international concerns about the Altantuya Shaariibuu murder case?
The question everyone is asking, whether nationally or internationally is: What was the motive for Altantunya’s (photo) murder and whether and if so who was the mastermind of her gruesome killing, as both the convicted murderers, ex-police commandos Azilah Hadri and Sirul Azhar Umar, had never known Altantunya before the murder.
Al Jazeera has stated that it stands by the work of its journalist Mary Ann Jolley in her 30-minute documentary, with the network’s spokesperson from its Doha headquarters denying any ulterior agenda apart from a “detailed and thorough report into a murder mystery that continues to have many unanswered questions”, as well as reporting “new developments” relating to Sirul currently in detention in Sydney, Australia.
With the Al Jazeera programme, re-opening many questions which have been on the minds of Malaysians in the past several years, the prime minister, the Cabinet, the attorney-general and the inspector-general of Police must re-open investigations to find answers to the unanswered questions, or even to have a Royal Commission of Inquiry to allow for convicted murderers Sirul and Azila to testify and to resolve the mystery of Altantuya’s murder.
If as claimed by the attorney-general, Najib is never implicated in Altantunya’s murder, why is the prime minister and the authorities so unwilling to re-open investigations into the motive of Altantuya’s murder which is the only solution and exorcism available to liberate Najib from continuing to be haunted and hounded by the ghost of the Altantuya murder case?
Lim Kit Siang is the DAP parliamentary leader and MP for Gelang Patah.
