Social contract II

I read on Utusan Malaysia July 4, 2008 that a group of fifteen, so called NGOs have lodged their police report against Malaysian Bar Council for organisng the Social Contract forum on June 28, 2008.

I've written "so called NGOs" because the group was made up of, among others, the Silat Gayung Patani Association. Doesn't their association name itself qualify them to be known as a sports association, not NGOs.

Interestingly enough, during the press conference to promote this event, I asked Mr Lim Chee Wee, the Bar Council Sec-Gen about objections from various quarters to which he responded, "Come, participate and engage". Unfortunately those groups objecting to the forum never made the effort to participate and engage with the speakers and the rest of the audience and yet they have the audacity to dmeonstrate their unhappiness through improper channels.

Sodomising Malaysians

Damn, why the hell did P Balasubramaniam implicate Najib if he did not know the individual concerned were? And this guy is a former cop with a stint with Special Branch.

Politics is the art of the possible and the characters in Malaysia are living upto it. As former cop, this guy should know better than to simply give statutory declaration. On the other hand, was he forced to retract the statements since Najib has jurisdictions over the men in blue and green. Nat had implied this in his entry. It seems that not only had he change his amendment, he even changed his lawyer.

In short as Anwar and Najib accuse and counter - accuse each other of sodomy, P Balasubramaniam has sodomised the rest of the Malaysians with his flip flop statutory declaration.

What is to become of my Malaysia?

At this juncture of time, Deputy Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak is clearly implicated in the elimination of Altantuya Shaariibuu. He is the prime minister-in-waiting in a true sense. He has denied all links to this Mongolian beauty and called P Balasubramaniam’s statutory declaration a lie. As if this wasn’t enough, Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi in a press conference called upon Malaysians not to believe the news and assured that everything in the country is stable.

These developments are much more interesting than the Clinton – Lewinsky, even though it is tarnishing the image of this country in the international arena.

On the other hand, Malaysia’s top cop, Inspector General of Police, Musa Hassan and legal adviser, Attorney General Abdul Gani Patail has been implicated in a case of hiding medical evidence of current PKR leader, Anwar Ibrahim a decade ago.

These implicated personalities are no ordinary people. In fact they represent the police and Malaysia’s foremost legal team respectively. Since both have been implicated the task of investigation has fallen upon the ACA.

What has become of our bureaucracy? It is so tainted that there would definitely erosion of public confidence over the institutions that they represent.

To add salt to the wound, the policed force is contemplating to engage the military to assist in controlling crowds. This is in light with the PROTES demonstrations on the 6.7.2008.

Are the police that incompetent that they are forced to engage the military? The ramifications of military interference into the public space are best exemplified through Pakistan. The military has practically damaged the development of democracy and even were at odds with the judiciary under President General Musharraf.

Prime Minister-in-waiting to Prime Minister-in-waiting

This is mind blowing.

First Saiful, an aide to an aide of Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim claims to be sodomised by the de-facto leader of PKR. Do take note that he has been photographed with many political leaders including an aide to Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, the current Deputy Prime Minister and PM-in-waiting. Instead of countering those allegations, Anwar Ibrahim has opened up another can of worms of Najib Razak through the statutory declaration of Balasubramaniam who was hired by Razak Baginda to keep stop Altantuya from harassing Razak Baginda. This is also means that the statutory declaration by Raja Petra previously may be true after all. Attached here is the statutory declaration made by Balasubramaniam as published by Malaysiakini:

I, Balasubramaniam a/l Perumal ... do solemly and sincerely declare as follows:

1. I have been a police officer with the Royal Malaysian Police Force, having joined as a constable in 1981 attached to the police field force. I was then promoted to the rank of lance corporal and finally resigned from the police force in 1998 when I was with the Special Branch.

2. I have been working as a freelance private investigator since I left the police force.

3. Sometime in June or July 2006, I was employed by Abdul Razak Baginda for a period of 10 days to look after him at his office at the Bangunan Getah Asli, Jalan Ampang between the hours of 8am to 5pm each working day as apparently he was experiencing disturbances from a third party.

4. I resigned from this job after 2½ days as I was not receiving any proper instructions.

5. I was however re-employed by Abdul Razak Baginda on the Oct 5, 2006 as he had apparently received a harassing phone call from a Chinese man calling himself ASP Tan who had threatened him to pay his debts. I later found out this gentleman was in fact a private investigator called Ang who was employed by a Mongolian woman called Altantuya Shaaribuu.

6. Abdul Razak Baginda was concerned that a person by the name of Altantuya Shaaribuu, a Mongolian woman, was behind this threat and that she would be arriving in Malaysia very soon to try and contact him.

7. Abdul Razak Baginda informed me that he was concerned by this as he had been advised that Altantuya Shaaribuu had been given some powers by a Mongolian ‘bomoh’ and that he could never look her in the face because of this.

8. When I enquired as to who this Mongolian woman was, Abdul Razak Baginda informed me that she was a friend of his who had been introduced to him by a VIP and who asked him to look after her financially.

9. I advised him to lodge a police report concerning the threatening phone call he had received from the Chinese man known as ASP Tan but he refused to do so as he informed me there were some high-profile people involved.

10. Abdul Razak Baginda further told me that Altantuya Shaaribuu was a great liar and good in convincing people. She was supposed to have been very demanding financially and that he had even financed a property for her in Mongolia.

11. Abdul Razak Baginda then let me listen to some voice messages on his handphone asking him to pay what was due otherwise he would be harmed and his daughter harassed.

12. I was therefore supposed to protect his daughter Rowena as well.

13. On Oct 9, 2006 I received a phone call from Abdul Razak Baginda at about 9.30am informing me that Altantuya was in his office and he wanted me there immediately. As I was in the midst of a surveillance, I sent my assistant Suras to Abdul Razak Baginda’s office and I followed a little later. Suras managed to control the situation and had persuaded Altantuya and her two friends to leave the premises. However Altantuya left a note written on some Hotel Malaya notepaper, in English, asking Abdul Razak Baginda to call her on her handphone (number given) and wrote down her room number as well.

14. Altantuya had introduced herself to Suras as ‘Aminah’ and had informed Suras she was there to see her boyfriend Abdul Razak Baginda.

15. These three Mongolian girls however returned to Abdul Razak Baginda’s office at the Bangunan Getah Asli, Jalan Ampang again, the next day at about 12 noon. They did not enter the building but again informed Suras that they wanted to meet Aminah’s boyfriend, Abdul Razak Baginda.

16. On Oct 11, 2006, Aminah returned to Abdul Razak Baginda’s office on her own and gave me a note to pass to him, which I did. Abdul Razak Baginda showed me the note which basically asked him to call her urgently.

17. I suggested to Abdul Razak Baginda that perhaps it may be wise to arrange for Aminah to be arrested if she harassed him further, but he declined as he felt she would have to return to Mongolia as soon as her cash ran out.

18. In the meantime, I had arranged for Suras to perform surveillance on Hotel Malaya to monitor the movements of these three Mongolian girls, but they recognised him. Apparently they become friends with Suras after that and he ended up spending a few nights in their hotel room.

19. When Abdul Razak Baginda discovered Suras was becoming close to Aminah he asked me to pull him out from Hotel Malaya.

20. On the Oct 14, 2006, Aminah turned up at Abdul Razak Baginda’s house in Damansara Heights when I was not there. Abdul Razak Baginda called me on my handphone to inform me of this so I rushed back to his house. As I arrived, I noticed Aminah outside the front gates shouting “Razak, bastard, come out from the house”. I tried to calm her down but couldn’t, so I called the police who arrived in two patrol cars. I explained the situation to the police, who took her away to the Brickfields police station.

21. I followed the patrol cars to Brickfields police station in a taxi. I called Abdul Razak Baginda and his lawyer Dirren to lodge a police report but they refused.

22. When I was at the Brickfields police station, Aminah’s own private investigator, one Mr Ang arrived and we had a discussion. I was told to deliver a demand to Abdul Razak Baginda for US$500,000 and three tickets to Mongolia, apparently as commission owed to Aminah from a deal in Paris.

23. As Aminah had calmed down at this stage, a policewoman at the Brickfields police station advised me to leave and settle the matter amicably.

24. I duly informed Abdul Razak Baginda of the demands Aminah had made and told him I was disappointed that no one wanted to back me up in lodging a police report. We had a long discussion about the situation when I expressed a desire to pull out of this assignment.

25. During this discussion and in an attempt to persuade me to continue my employment with him, Abdul Razak Baginda informed me that:

1 He had been introduced to Aminah by Najib Razak at a diamond exhibition in Singapore.

2 Najib Razak informed Abdul Razak Baginda that he had a sexual relationship with Aminah and that she was susceptible to anal intercourse.

3 Najib Razak wanted Abdul Razak Baginda to look after Aminah as he did not want her to harass him since he was now the deputy prime minister.

4 Najib Razak, Abdul Razak Baginda and Aminah had all been together at a dinner in Paris.

5 Aminah wanted money from him as she felt she was entitled to a US$500,000 commission on a submarine deal she assisted with in Paris.

26. On Oct 19, 2006, I arrived at Abdul Razak Baginda’s house in Damansara Heights to begin my night duty. I had parked my car outside as usual. I saw a yellow Proton Perdana taxi pass by with three ladies inside, one of whom was Aminah. The taxi did a U-turn and stopped in front of the house where these ladies rolled down the window and wished me ‘Happy Deepavali’. The taxi then left.

27. About 20 minutes later the taxi returned with only Aminah in it. She got out of the taxi and walked towards me and started talking to me. I sent an SMS to Abdul Razak Baginda informing him “Aminah was here”. I received an SMS from Razak instructing me “to delay her until my man comes”.

28. Whist I was talking to Aminah, she informed me of the following:

1 That she met Abdul Razak Baginda in Singapore with Najib Razak.

2 That she had also met Abdul Razak Baginda and Najib Razak at a dinner in Paris.

3 That she was promised a sum of US$500,000.00 as commission for assisting in a submarine deal in Paris.

4 That Abdul Razak Baginda had bought her a house in Mongolia but her brother had refinanced it and she needed money to redeem it.

5 That her mother was ill and she needed money to pay for her treatment.

6 That Abdul Razak Baginda had married her in Korea as her mother is Korean whilst her father was a Mongolian/Chinese mix.

7 That if I wouldn’t allow her to see Abdul Razak Baginda, would I be able to arrange for her to see Najib Razak.

29. After talking to Aminah for about 15 minutes, a red Proton Aeroback arrived with a woman and two men. I now know the woman to be lance corporal Rohaniza and the men, Azilah Hadri and Sirul Azahar. They were all in plainclothes. Azilah walked towards me while the other two stayed in the car.

30. Azilah asked me whether the woman was Aminah and I said “Yes”. He then walked off and made a few calls on his handphone. After 10 minutes another vehicle, a blue Proton Saga, driven by a Malay man, passed by slowly. The drivers window had been wound down and the driver was looking at us.

31. Azilah then informed me they would be taking Aminah away. I informed Aminah they were arresting her. The other two persons then got out of the red Proton and exchanged seats so that lance corporal Rohaniza and Aminah were in the back while the two men were in the front. They drove off and that is the last I ever saw of Aminah.

32. Abdul Razak Baginda was not at home when all this occurred.

33. After Oct 19, 2006, I continued to work for Abdul Razak Baginda at his house in Damansara Heights from 7pm to 8am the next morning, as he had been receiving threatening text messages from a woman called ‘Amy’ who was apparently ‘Aminah’s’ cousin in Mongolia.

34. On the night of Oct 20, 2006, both of Aminah’s girlfriends turned up at Abdul Razak Baginda’s house enquiring where Aminah was. I informed them she had been arrested the night before.

35. A couple of nights later, these two Mongolian girls, Mr Ang and another Mongolian girl called ‘Amy’ turned up at Abdul Razak Baginda’s house looking for Aminah as they appeared to be convinced she was being held in the house.

36. A commotion began so I called the police who arrived shortly thereafter in a patrol car. Another patrol car arrived a short while later in which was the investigating officer from the Dang Wangi police station who was in charge of the missing persons report lodged by one of the Mongolians girls, I believe was Amy.

37. I called Abdul Razak Baginda who was at home to inform him of the events taking place at his front gate. He then called DSP Musa Safri and called me back informing me that Musa Safri would be calling handphone and I was to pass the phone to the inspector from Dang Wangi police station.

38. I then received a call on my handphone from Musa Safri and duly handed the phone to the Dang Wangi inspector. The conversation lasted 3-4 minutes after which he told the girls to disperse and to go to see him the next day.

39. On or about Oct 24, 2006, Abdul Razak Baginda instructed me to accompany him to the Brickfields police station as he had been advised to lodge a police report about the harassment he was receiving from these Mongolian girls.

40. Before this, Amy had sent me an SMS informing me she was going to Thailand to lodge a report with the Mongolian consulate there regarding Aminah’s disappearance. Apparently she had sent the same SMS to Abdul Razak Baginda. This is why he told me he had been advised to lodge a police report.

41. Abdul Razak Baginda informed me that DPS Musa Safri had introduced him to one DSP Idris, the head of the criminal division, Brickfields police station, and that Idris had referred him to ASP Tonny.

42. When Abdul Razak Baginda had lodged his police report at Brickfields police station, in front of ASP Tonny, he was asked to make a statement but he refused as he said he was leaving for overseas. He did however promise to prepare a statement and hand ASP Tonny a thumbdrive. I know that this was not done as ASP Tonny told me.

43. However ASP Tonny asked me the next day to provide my statement instead and so I did.

44. I stopped working for Abdul Razak Baginda on Oct 26, 2006 as this was the day he left for Hong Kong on his own.

45. In mid-November 2006, I received a phone call from ASP Tonny from the IPK Jalan Hang Tuah asking me to see him regarding Aminah’s case. When I arrived there I was immediately arrested under Section 506 of the Penal Code for criminal intimidation.

46. I was then placed in the lock up and remanded for five days. On the third day, I was released on police bail.

47. At the end of November 2006, the D9 department of the IPK sent a detective to my house to escort me to the IPK Jalan Hang Tuah. When I arrived, I was told I was being arrested under Section 302 of the Penal Code for murder. I was put in the lock up and remanded for seven days.

48. I was transported to Bukit Aman where I was interrogated and questioned about an SMS I had received from Abdul Razak Baginda on Oct 19, 2006 which read “delay her until my man arrives”. They had apparently retrieved this message from Abdul Razak Baginda’s handphone.

49. They then proceeded to record my statement from 8.30 am to 6pm everyday for seven consecutive days. I told them all I knew including everything Abdul Razak Baginda and Aminah had told me about their relationships with Najib Razak but when I came to sign my statement, these details had been left out.

50. I have given evidence in the trial of Azilah, Sirul and Abdul Razak Baginda at the Shah Alam High Court. The prosecutor did not ask me any questions in respect of Aminah’s relationship with Najib Razak or of the phone call I received from DSP Musa Safri, whom I believe was the ADC for Najib Razak and/or his wife.

51. On the day Abdul Razak Baginda was arrested, I was with him at his lawyers office at 6.30am. Abdul Razak Baginda informed us that he had sent Najib Razak an SMS the evening before as he refused to believe he was to be arrested, but had not received a response.

52. Shortly thereafter, at about 7.30am, Abdul Razak Baginda received an SMS from Najib Razak and showed, this message to both myself and his lawyer. This message read as follows: “ I am seeing IGP at 11am today … matter will be solved … be cool”.

53. I have been made to understand that Abdul Razak Baginda was arrested the same morning at his office in the Bangunan Getah Asli, Jalan Ampang.

54. The purpose of this statutory declaration is to:

1 State my disappointment at the standard of investigations conducted by the authorities into the circumstances surrounding the murder of Altantuya Shaaribuu.

2 Bring to the notice of the relevant authorities the strong possibility that there are individuals other than the three accused who must have played a role in the murder of Altantuya Shaaribuu.

3 Persuade the relevant authorities to reopen their investigations into this case immediately so that any fresh evidence may be presented to the court prior to submissions at the end of the prosecutions case.

4 Emphasise the fact that having been a member of the Royal Malaysian Police Force for 17 years, I am absolutely certain no police officer would shoot someone in the head and blow up their body without receiving specific instructions from their superiors first.

5 Express my concern that should the defence not be called in the said murder trial, the accused, Azilah and Sirul will not have to swear on oath and testify as to the instructions they received and from whom they were given.

55. And I make this solemn declaration conscientiously believing the same be true and by virtue of the provisions of the Statutory Declaration Act 1960.

Balasubramaniam a/l Perumal

July 1, 2008

While Anwar Ibrahim has yet to give further statements with regards to the allegation of sodomy against him, he has planned a tour around the nation to explain his predicament, beginning with the GERAMM protest on July 6, 2008 at Padang Timur near Amcorp Mall. In relation to this the police has not rule out engagement with the military to disperse the crowd. It hasn’t come down well on the rakyat.

Apparently the incumbent Prime Minister in-waiting will have to bow down to the wishes of the Malaysian people. The inaction of the current PM would also cause him to bow out soon

Sharing the nation or renting the nation?

While I am very much aware that at this moment the Anwar sodomy case is very hot, I am diverting my attention to the social contract.

Currently reading Sharing the Nation: Faith, Difference, Power and the State - 50 Years after Merdeka by Norani Othman, Mavis C Puthucheary and Clive Kessler, I was enlightened by the fact that in the original agreement there was no such thing as the special rights for the Malays. It was special position of the Malays. The other point that struck me is that the special position had a time limit as in a contract. However UMNO has altogether changed the concept to special rights. The chapter by Dr Puthucheary also revealed how the concept of bumiputera came to be used and included Sabah and Sarawak native people. This has, over the years, created sentiments among the non Malay, non Muslims in Malaysia as they have continued to be seen as immigrants.

Interestingly if a non – Malay non Muslim converts to Islam and practices Malay lifestyle as prescribed in the Federal Constitution, he or she would be identified as Malay Muslim and enjoy privileges meant for the bumiputras. An example would be Malaysia’s well known political scientist, Dr Chandra Muzaffar. He was active in leftist politics via Parti Keadilan Rakyat rallying for Anwar Ibrahim. Though he is an Indian converted to Musllim faith, he was never seen as representing the Malaysian Indian members of the party.

Based on the above points, the question for the minority Malaysian Chinese and Malaysian Indians would be; Are we sharing the nation with the Malay Muslim majority or are we renting the nation from the Malay Muslim community? At what cost is it? Over the years the younger generations of Malaysian Chinese and Malaysian Indians have sought greener pastures in foreign lands. They wanted to share the nation not rent.

On an addition, it is noteworthy to mention here that the MCA has defended the Bar Council for organising the forum on social contract.

Anwar & the US Factor

The US has come out strongly urging that there be no political persecution against Anwar in the light of the new sodomy allegations by his former aide. It is a known fact that the US has always favoured Anwar over Dr Mahathir. So this statement from Uncle Sam is nothing surprising.

A decade ago, then Vice President, Al Gore, openly supported Anwar's call for Reformasi in the APEC summit that was hosted by Kuala Lumpur under the Mahathir administration. During the phase of Anwar's political wilderness he was offered a position as a visiting professor at Georgetown University in the US.

Most recently Alfred Wolfowitz nominated Anwar Ibrahim as one of the Top 100 leaders in the Time magazine.

My question is, would Democrat candidate, Barack Obama support Anwar? If he does, wouldn't Mr Obama's campaign be affected since he has been denying being a Muslim despite having lived and studied there? Would the Jew factor, that plays a key role in decisions, swing their support for Robert McCain of the Republicans?

These questions have no answers at this point of time but there would definitely be no harm in Obama having a close relationship with Anwar once both leaders are in the position of power. On this note also see our Home Minister rambling that Anwar complains to Uncle Sam everything something happens to him.

Anwar Ibrahim factor in PR

Li Tsin had already questioned the illogical scenario of the police report against Anwar Ibrahim for sodomy. I would like to look at it from a political perspective. Would Pakatan Rakyat(PR) be able strongly hold together?

The losers in this case would definitely be Abdullah Badawi and the BN government as pointed out by Ong Kian Meng and Oon Yeoh.

As for PR, the current status of it is similar to BBA a decade ago. The coalition has not been registered as the BN. There are no mechanisms to resolve differences as seen in the spate between Kedah MB Azizan (PAS)and Penang CM Guan Eng (DAP).

The strongest factor gluing all PKR, DAP and PAS is Anwar Ibrahim. Thus this new set of sodomy allegations against him has put the PR under the limelight instead of the BN that had been on their toes lately.