WHY DID DR MAHATHIR MAKE NAJIB THE PM?

So Mahfuz should stop wasting his time with Sirul. Instead, he should focus on Azilah and Dr Mahathir. These are the two people who really have the answers. And the other three are Pak Lah, Radzi and Musa. Pak Lah has spoken but the other two have thus far not. So it is time that they, too, speak so that Malaysians will know the truth.

NO HOLDS BARRED

Raja Petra Kamarudin

The prime mission of PAS Member of Parliament Mahfuz Omar is to find out the name of the person or persons who instructed Sirul Azhar Umar to commit murder. Sirul, argued Mahfuz, only acted on instructions and, therefore, should not be blamed.

This is the same defence the Nazis used when they were tried for exterminating six million Jews during WWII.

Mahfuz has been relentlessly trying to reach Sirul by phone and when that failed he flew to Australia with Sirul’s family to meet him and to get his statement or confession regarding where his orders came from, which seems to have also failed.

Further to that, Mahfuz brought Sirul’s mother to meet Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad to enlist Tun’s help in getting to the bottom of this mystery so that the person or persons ‘above’ Sirul can be brought to justice.

Dr Mahathir has admitted that Sirul used to be his bodyguard when he was Prime Minister and during all that time he has never known Sirul to have committed any crime, let alone murder.

The significance of Dr Mahathir’s statement is that Sirul was the Prime Minister’s bodyguard. And, after Dr Mahathir retired, Sirul became Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s bodyguard.

This effectively places Sirul as Pak Lah’s and not Najib’s bodyguard. So, in such a situation, how do we establish the chain of command when police officers work strictly based on a chain of command unless they go rogue?

In fact, Sirul himself admitted that he took instructions from Azilah Hadri in this cautioned statement of his:

“Pada 19/10/2006 jam lebih kurang 8:30 malam semasa saya berada di rumah saya di Kota Damansara, Tuan Azilah menghubungi saya melalui telefon bimbitnya dan meminta saya ke rumah Razak dengan segera dan Tuan Azilah juga telah memberitahu perempuan Cina telah membuat kacau di depan rumah Razak.”

So it was Azilah who called Sirul and who instructed him to go to Abdul Razak Baginda’s house to help solve a matter with a ‘Chinese woman’. This, by Sirul’s own confession, was the chain of command.

Sirul further admitted that Azilah told him they were going to be paid between RM50,000 to RM100,000 to ‘solve the case’ in his cautioned statement as follows:

“Kemudian saya bersama Tuan Azilah menaiki kereta saya jenis Satria no. pendaftaran WEA 4717 dan kemudian terus untuk mencari Hotel Malaya. Dalam perjalanan ke Hotel Malaya Tuan Azilah ada bercakap berkenaan ganjaran RM50 hingga RM100 ribu jika berjaya selesaikan kes, tetapi saya dan Tuan Azilah gagal mencari hotel tersebut walau pun telah berpusing pusing berberapa kali.”

So this establishes the motive of the murder: money. But the person or persons who were allegedly paying them was never revealed. Either Sirul is not talking or he does not know because Azilah never told him. Hence we can assume that only Azilah knows the identity of this person or persons while Sirul does not.

So why is Mahfuz chasing Sirul when he should instead be chasing Azilah who is very much in the country and not under detention in Australia?

Azilah himself admitted that it was he who instructed Sirul in his testimony as follows:

Kamarul: The prosecution contended that you killed or eliminated the Chinese woman. What is your motive to do anything of that sort?

Azilah: I do not have any motive and why would I do something stupid like that? I am a police officer.

Azilah also testified that he sought assistance from Sirul who was his subordinate as the latter was a good worker.

Azilah added that Sirul never received instructions from anyone else other than himself on the task to advise the Chinese woman to stop harassing and threatening Abdul Razak.

Azilah further agreed that his request for Sirul to be outside Abdul Razak’s house on the evening of October 19 was outside the scope of this task but said he asked Sirul to come along just in case the Chinese man who accompanied the Chinese woman would be there.

Hence Azilah has corroborated Sirul’s story that it was he (Azilah) who instructed Sirul. And this further strengthens Sirul’s story that he took orders from Azilah.

Probably Mahfuz can focus his effort on Azilah instead and try to meet him to get to the bottom of the matter. It has already been established that Azilah ordered Sirul so it would be a waste of time in trying to squeeze this information from Sirul when both Sirul and Azilah have confirmed who gave the order.

Furthermore, whatever Sirul may have to say is purely hearsay because he will only be able to tell Mahfuz what Azilah had told him and not more than that. And in such a situation the ‘maker’ would need to testify to establish whether what the person giving hearsay evidence is telling is true or not.

If what you are going to reveal is merely what you claim you were told, this is no bloody good. The person who allegedly told you that piece of information needs to confirm or deny it, as the case may be. Hence the key to this whole thing is Azilah and not Sirul. It was Azilah who said it, not Sirul. Sirul is just repeating what he alleges Azilah told him.

Nevertheless, Mahfuz has created quite a bit of excitement and his trip to Australia plus his meeting with Dr Mahathir has really stirred things up and has re-opened interest in the Altantuya Sharibbbuu murder. With Dr Mahathir’s pledge to seek justice for Sirul and with Mahfuz’s announcement that he is going to help the family apply for a pardon from HRH the Sultan of Selangor, this matter has, again, become front-page news.

Other than Azilah, there are three more people who can assist Dr Mahathir and Mahfuz in their effort to get to the truth and to see justice done. These people are:

The Prime Minister at the time of the murder: Abdullah Ahmad Badawi

The Home Minister at the time of the murder: Mohd Radzi bin Sheikh Ahmad

The Inspector-General of Police at the time of the murder: Musa Hassan

All these people would know what happened. Pak Lah has already said that Najib Tun Razak is not involved in Altantuya’s murder. For him to say that would mean he knows what really happened because he has or had access to the information such as the police investigation report and so on. If not, Pak Lah would not have so boldly made that announcement.

And for Pak Lah to know this information it would mean he got this information from the Home Minister and/or the IGP. So, the conclusion would be, other than Pak Lah, two other people would also know what happened.

Pak Lah has spoken and he has cleared Najib. Mahfuz and/or Dr Mahathir should now speak to Radzi and Musa and find out from them whether they had told the Prime Minister then, Pak Lah, what really happened. If not why would Pak Lah announce that Najib was not involved?

Another very crucial fact is that, in 2008, Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah’s people (Nik Azmi Nik Daud a.k.a. Bul to be exact) asked me to sign a Statutory Declaration to say that the Military Intelligence head had revealed that Rosmah Mansor was present during the time that Altantuya was murdered.

I asked John Pang to confirm this with Ku Li and he did and he said that the story is true and that not only Ku Li knows about it but Anwar Ibrahim does as well.

I then contacted Anwar and only after he confirmed the story did I sign the SD. And in my SD I said that this is what the head of MI had said but then the police need to investigate whether it is true or not because coming from me it is pure hearsay and was not only second-hand but third-hand information.

A copy of this SD was handed to Dr Mahathir who then called Sanusi Junid to his office to show him what I had signed. When he read what I had written, Sanusi almost fell off his chair and Dr Mahathir commented that Raja Petra has broken the legs of our horse so we may need to find a new horse.

And this new ‘horse’, of course, was Ku Li. Later, Dr Mahathir was convinced that the allegation against Najib was not true and the following year he agreed for Najib and not Ku Li to take over from Pak Lah.

What did Dr Mahathir find out which convinced him that Najib was not guilty? At first, after I signed the SD, Dr Mahathir was taken aback. He even showed Sanusi the SD and contemplated dropping Najib as his candidate for new PM. Then Dr Mahathir reversed his decision and dropped Ku Li instead in favour of Najib.

When Dr Mahathir supported Najib for PM in 2009 did he do so convinced that Najib was guilty or did he do so convinced that Najib was not guilty? And if he was convinced that Najib was guilty why did he make him PM? And if he was convinced that Najib was not guilty what convinced him of that and is he now no longer convinced?

So it looks like Dr Mahathir is more crucial to this whole thing compared to Sirul. Sirul only knows what Azilah told him, which is not much, and he has already revealed what Azilah told him, which is hearsay anyway.

The more important person is Azilah. He must confirm whether he did tell Sirul what he (Sirul) claims he (Azilah) told him. And even more important, Azilah must reveal what he did not tell Sirul, such as where his orders came from, because Sirul does not know this and even if he did it would be hearsay.

And top billing is Dr Mahathir. He had to choose between Ku Li and Najib as Prime Minister and he chose Najib. Why did he choose Najib instead of Ku Li? Did he choose Najib in spite of the allegations or did he choose Najib because he had confirmation that the allegations were not true?

So Mahfuz should stop wasting his time with Sirul. Instead, he should focus on Azilah and Dr Mahathir. These are the two people who really have the answers. And the other three are Pak Lah, Radzi and Musa. Pak Lah has spoken but the other two have thus far not. So it is time that they, too, speak so that Malaysians will know the truth.