Mr and Mrs Najib’s trips cost RM17 mil

From 2008 to June this year, Najib and his wife Rosmah Mansor travels have cost RM17 million.

KUALA LUMPUR: Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak and his wife Rosmah Mansor spent slightly more than RM17 million of taxpayers’ money on travels from 2008 to June this year.

The figures were released by the Prime Minister’s Department in Parliament today in reply to a question from PKR Batu MP Tian Chua.

Najib and Rosmah’s travels in 2008 amounted to RM1.7 million, RM4.81 million the next year, RM5.41 million in 2010 and RM5.42 million up to June this year.

The opposition has in the past accused the ruling coalition of siphoning off public money to finance hefty private travels of the two, an allegation the government has denied.

Compared to her predecessors, Rosmah is seen as being more involved in government affairs, giving rise to the perception that she wields strong influence in her husband’s administration.

Rosmah, however, has denied the allegation.

In its reply, the Prime Minister’s Department said there were no specific allocations for the expenses of a prime minister’s wife.

“The PM’s Department only finances expenses involving the PM’s office,” it stated.

Meanwhile, the travel expenses of Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin and his wife was 100% lower than that of Najib and Rosmah’s.

From 2008 to June this year, RM8 million was spent on their travels.

Some RM2.7 million was spent in 2008, RM609,185 the next year, RM1.38 million in 2010 and RM3.27 million up till June this year.

Syed Jaymal Zahiid

Wikileaks: Najib and the Altantuya murder

Altantuya

The US Embassy in Kuala Lumpur closely followed the trial of the accused killers of Mongolian interpreter Altantuya Shaariibuu and frequently discussed whether current Prime Minister Najib Razak was involved in the killing, according to diplomatic cables supplied to Asia Sentinel by the WikiLeaks website.

The diplomats, like much of the public, also speculated that the trial was being deliberately delayed and feared what one cable calls "prosecutorial misconduct" that was being politically manipulated. The embassy officials based their concerns on sources within the prosecution, government and the political opposition.

The cables also draw attention to an intriguing allegation that then Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi may have attempted to use the proceedings to implicate Najib, a claim that was quickly hushed up in the Malaysian press.

Altantuya was murdered in October 2006 by two of Najib's bodyguards, chief inspector Azilah Hadri, 30 and corporal Sirul Azhar Umar, 35, who stood trial and were pronounced guilty in April 2009.

Abdul Razak Baginda

Abdul Razak Baginda, one of Najib's best friends and Altantuya's lover, was accused of participating in the murder but was freed without having to put on a defence.

The murder has been tied closely to the US$1 billion acquisition of French submarines by the Malaysian Defence Ministry, which Najib headed during the acquisitions. Altantuya reportedly acted as a translator on the transaction, which netted Razak Baginda's company a 114 million euros (RM534.8 million) "commission" on the purchase.

Reportedly she had been offered US$500,000 for her part in translating. After she was jilted, she vainly demanded payment. A letter she had written was made public after her death saying she regretted attempting to "blackmail" Razak Baginda.

French lawyers are investigating whether some of the 114 million euros was kicked back to French or Malaysian politicians. Despite the scandal, the US government has not publicly backed away from Najib.

In April 2010, Najib visited the White House and was praised by President Barack Obama for the Parliament's passage of an act allowing Malaysian authorities to take action against individuals and entities engaged in proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

The cables are replete with accounts of a long series of meetings with opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, who repeatedly told the Americans that Najib was connected to corrupt practices in the acquisition of the submarines as well as the purchase of Sukhoi Su-MCM-30 Flanker fighter jets from Russia. Anwar also called attention to Najib's connection to the Altantuya case.

Prosecution ineptitude by design?

A Jan 24, 2007 cable, marked 'secret', wrote that "Perceived irregularities on the part of prosecutors and the court, and the alleged destruction of some evidence, suggested to many that the case was subject to strong political pressure intended to protect Najib."

In a Feb 1, 2008 cable, embassy's political section chief Mark D Clark wrote that a deputy prosecutor had told him "there was almost no chance of winning guilty verdicts in the on-going trial of defendants Razak Baginda, a close advisor to Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak, and two police officers. She described the trial as interminably long." (That, of course, turned out to be wrong. Sirul and Azilah were ultimately convicted and have appealed their sentence).

Clark called the trial a "a prosecutorial embarrassment from its inception, leading many to speculate that the ineptitude was by design. On the eve of the trial, attorney-general Abdul Gani Patail dropped his lead prosecutors and replaced them with less experienced attorneys.

Similarly, a lead counsel for one of the defendants abruptly resigned before the trial 'because of (political) attempts to interfere with a defence he had proposed, in particular to protect an unnamed third party.'"

The protracted nature of the case, Clark continued, led "at least one regional newspaper to speculate that 'the case is being deliberately delayed to drive it from public view'. Malaysia's daily newspapers rarely mention the case's latest developments, and it is unprecedented in Malaysian judicial history that a murder trial could drag on for seven months and still not give the defence an opportunity to present its case.

"Such an environment has led many to conclude that the case was too politically sensitive to yield a verdict before the anticipated general elections."

A January 2007 cable called attention to Razak Baginda's affidavit confirming that he sought the help of Musa Safri, later identified by reporters as Najib's aide-de-camp, in ridding him of the jilted woman, and in other cables pointed out that Musa had never been called for questioning.

In another cable, dated May 16, 2007, Wan Ahmad Farid Wan Salleh, a deputy home minister in former prime minister Ahmad Abdullah Badawi's cabinet told US Embassy officials that he was "certain that government prosecutors would limit their trial activities to the murder itself and the three defendants; prosecutors would not follow up on allegations of related corruption or other suspects."

In a Jan 27, 2007 cable, marked 'Secret', embassy officials wrote that "In December we heard from one of (Anwar's) lawyers that Razak Baginda's wife was in contact with Anwar and Wan Azizah, suggesting one possible source for Anwar's information."

Razak Baginda's wife, during one of his first appearances in court, screamed that her husband "doesn't want to be prime minister." That was taken by observers as a reference to the fact that Najib reportedly had been having an affair with Altantuya, but passed her on to Razak Baginda because it would be unseemly to have a mistress when he succeeded Abdullah as premier. Najib has offered to swear on the Quran that he had never met the woman.

However, in July 2008, P Balasubramaniam, a former police officer and private detective who had been hired by Razak Baginda to protect him from Altantuya, filed a sworn statement saying he had been told by the accused man that Najib not only knew the murdered woman but had an affair with her and introduced her to him.

In a telephone interview on May 9, Anwar, however, told Asia Sentinel that Razak Baginda's wife was not the source of his knowledge of Najib's connection and that instead he had been told of the connection by Setev Shaariibuu, Altantuya's father, who said he had wished to present evidence of Najib's involvement, but was not allowed to do so. Multiple attempts to contact Setev by Asia Sentinel have been unsuccessful.

Almost immediately after he made the statement, Balasubramaniam was picked up and driven to a police station, where he was forced to withdraw the statement and write a new one saying Razak Baginda had told him nothing of the sort. Balasubramaniam fled Malaysia for India.

He later said Najib's brother, Nizam, and wife, Rosmah Mansor, had met with him and that he was offered RM5 million to forget his statement connecting Najib to Altantuya.

Balasubramaniam displayed a flock of checks drawn on the account of an associate of Najib's wife. The former private detective has made a series of statements from outside the country about Najib's involvement.

'You can die, Pak Lah'

A February 2008 cable from political section chief Clark gives a hint that Abdullah Badawi himself may have been trying to get rid of Najib by forcing Razak Baginda to implicate him in the murder.

"In the latest turn of the ongoing Altantuya murder trial, accused political insider Abdul Razak Baginda, who has remained calm and composed through most of the proceedings, unleashed an emotional tirade shortly after the Feb 20 noon recess on the trial's 90th day," Clark wrote.

"Referring to the prime minister by his nick-name 'Pak Lah', Razak reportedly exclaimed: 'You can die, Pak Lah! (in Malaysian - Matilah kau, Pak Lah!) I'm innocent!' according to unpublished journalist accounts.

Last day of Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. Najib Abdul Razak takes over as prime minister in Putrajaya"Local newspapers and the government news service Bernama reported the fact of the outburst, but did not print Razak's statements. The short-lived exception was the English language newspaper The Sun, which included the quotations from Razak in its early morning Feb 21 edition.

"Sources at newspaper confirmed to us in confidence that the Ministry of Internal Security compelled The Sun to withdraw and recall thousands of copies of their first run paper in which the original quote was included. Prime Minister Abdullah serves concurrently as Minister of Internal Security."

During the trial, Clark wrote, Razak Baginda, "appeared uneasy throughout the morning session of court on Feb 20. Razak's father, Abdullah Malim Baginda, had whispered something to him shortly before the trial had begun for the morning and apparently upset the accused.

Razak had remained quiet throughout the morning hearings, but just after the noon recess was called and as he was leaving the courtroom he kicked and banged the door and yelled, 'You can die, Pak Lah! Die, Pak Lah! I am innocent. I am innocent.' He was later seen crying before his lawyer while his mother attempted to comfort him.

"Speculation is rife in Malaysia's online community concerning what it was that set off Razak Baginda outburst, including conspiracy theories alleging the Prime Minister's Office had urged Razak to implicate Deputy Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak ... in return for sparing Razak a guilty verdict and its mandatory death sentence," officials wrote.

The cable goes on to write, "Regardless, the Internal Security Ministry would want to limit any possibly inflammatory reference to the prime minister at the trial, and particularly at this juncture due to the proximity of Malaysia's general election to be held on March 8. Any connection between the prime minister and the murder trial would be scandalous.

"The GOM (government of Malaysia) reportedly has worked hard to 'drive (the case) from public view' ... and is not about to allow the case to influence the coming elections."

- Asia Sentinel

French probe ignites interest

When Najib Abdul Razak was Malaysia’s Defense Minister from 2000 to 2008, his grand plan to upgrade the nation’s armed forces included the purchase of three submarines from the French defense shipbuilder, DCN.

Little did he know at the time, that the spectre of Altantuya Shaariibuu, the Mongolian who served as translator for the Malaysian government, would surface like one of the faulty submarines which refused to submerge and still haunt him five years later.

Next month, the inquiry by Parisian prosecutors on behalf of the Malaysian human rights organization Suaram, will be confined to bribery allegations involving the Scorpene submarines and will not look into the 2006 murder of Altantuya.


Altantuya had served as a translator in Paris for the Malaysian government's US$1 billion purchase of three French submarines. The deal was brokered by a firm owned by Abdul Razak Baginda, who belonged to Najib’s inner circle and which netted Baginda a €114 million commission.

The 28-year-old Mongolian was also Razak Baginda's jilted lover, and in a letter found after her death, she admitted she was attempting to blackmail Razak Baginda for US$500,000.

Altantuya was shot in October 2006 and her body was blown up with military explosives by two bodyguards attached to Najib's office. When Altantuya kept pestering Baginda for money, at his home, Baginda asked Najib's chief of staff, Musa Safri, to help keep her away from him.

Chief Inspector Azilah Hadri and Corporal Sirul Azhar Umar who served as bodyguards in the elite police unit supervised by Najib, were sent to apprehend Altantuya.

The two men were aided by Lance Corporal Rohaniza Roslan, who was Azila's former girlfriend. They packed Altantuya into a red Proton Wira from whence she was never seen alive again.

The private detective hired by Baginda, an ex-policeman called P. Balasubramaniam aka Bala, was detailed to prevent Altantuya from harassing him.  Bala swore in a detailed statutory declaration that Baginda told him Altantuya had been Najib’s lover initially but when he had designs on becoming Prime minister, Baginda took over as her lover to prevent Najib from further sexual scandals.

Bala also said that Baginda told him she liked anal sex. In the declaration, Bala said he had seen text messages from Najib after Altantuya’s disappearance advising Baginda to “be cool” and that the matter would soon be resolved.

After delivering his statutory declaration, Bala was forced to withdraw the document. After this, Bala and his entire family disappeared.

Meanwhile, Baginda was acquitted in November 2008 and left Malaysia for England.

However, High Court Judge Zaki Yasin said that the two bodyguards were “unbelievable” as “each blamed the other” and convicted the two of murdering Altantuya sometime between Oct. 19 and Oct. 20, 2006. Zaki said, “They failed to raise any reasonable doubt of the prosecution's case”.

The case is mired in controversy as there was no attempt to establish their motive for killing her despite a confession by one of them, which was not allowed in court, but which said they would be paid a large sum of money to get rid of her.

In Sirul's cautioned statement, he said that Azhar informed him that Najib's chief of staff, Musa Safri, had ordered them to pick up the young woman.

Azhar’s first suggestion was the Hotel Malaya, where Altantuya and her cousin and friend were staying, to kill them all. The presence of closed-circuit cameras prevented this from happening.

How deep and to what extent is Musa's involvement?

In addition, what is the relationship of these two men with Najib?

The press conference in London, in July 2010, held by Bala and his team of lawyers, was supposed to be a platform to discuss issues raised during a scheduled interview of Bala by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC). When the MACC cancelled at the last minute, their non-appearance generated more questions than answers.

According to lawyer Manjeet Singh Dhillon, “What we intended to do if MACC had turned up in London, was for Balasubramaniam to highlight a whole series of events surrounding this Altantuya matter that pointed to the centre of a conspiracy web. A conspiracy at the very highest level to keep out all references to Najib.”

So next month, in Paris, the sordid details of Najib’s submarine deals will surface. Back in Malaysia, our attention will focus on the two bodyguards, charged with Altantuya’s murder.

Some say that the two are convenient scapegoats. Others say that it is curious their faces were hidden from the glare of journalists and say this is because the men will have an identity change and be free to rejoin society under an assumed name. Many questions remain unanswered.

In fact, we have no proof that they men are who they claim to be. No one knows them and has vouched for them. Who knows if they are masquerading as Azilah and Sirul? At the end of the day, it does not matter who the men really are.

It is all a smokescreen for in our part of the world, those in charge of dispensing justice end up protecting those in power. We expect criminals to be experts at keeping secrets and telling lies, but few expect those who are entrusted with keeping law and order, to lie.  Governments of all types have a tendency to manipulate information and hide the truth.

Not convinced? Remember the Bank Bumiputra scandal in 1980 when a Bank Bumiputra official was murdered to prevent information about corrupt practices from being unearthed? Bank Bumiputra lost millions and had to be bailed out by taxpayers money. The country that prosecuted one of the accused was Hong Kong.

No, not Malaysia. We tend to shield the guilty.    

-  Malaysia Chronicle