Hard to blow off stench of allegations

(The Malaysian Insider) – From Padang Besar to Tanjung Piai and across to Kudat across the South China Sea, people are talking about Musa Safri, the disappearance of P Balasubramiam and Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak’s link with the Altantuya Shaariibuu case.

Well maybe not in Parliament anymore after today.

DAP’s Gobind Singh Deo received the full brunt of the Barisan Nasional’s simple majority today when they voted to kick him out of the Dewan Rakyat for a year, hoping the innuendoes and aspersions will go away with his 12-month suspension.

The first-term Puchong MP’s crime was to cast aspersions on the incoming Prime Minister with the murder case which has rocked the political establishment since 2006.

But there are too many unanswered questions about the case and if not cleared up anytime soon, Najib could become a caricature for everything wrong about a Malaysian politician.

From Malaysia Today website editor Raja Petra Kamaruddin to opposition politicians on the stump in Election 2008 and the two by-elections since, allegations have been repeated ad nauseam that the words Altantuya, Mongolia and Najib’s name appear as many times as ‘reformasi’ and ‘takbir’.

The deputy prime minister had even sworn on the Quran to quell the allegations during the heated campaign in the Permatang Pauh by-election last year but to no avail. The innuendoes returned to haunt him in the Kuala Terengganu parliamentary by-election campaign and possibly in the next campaigns for a slew of by-elections on April 7.

While his aides insist he swore on the Quran and ended any speculation of links to the case, the testimony of the two policemen, Inspector Azilah Hadri and Corporal Sirul Azhar Umar, over his aide-de-camp Musa’s role has thrown up more questions.

The disappearance of private investigator Balasubramaniam, who recanted his sworn statement a day after making damaging allegations about Najib, has further deepened the mystery and tainted the next Umno president.

Gobind’s disappearance from Parliament will further set tongues wagging just as Najib prepares to assume Malaysia’s top political office which he had been prepared for since his father’s death in 1976.

Blowing off the stench of allegations will take more than keeping Gobind away from parliament. Najib and Barisan Nasional will have to do more than that or forever have the Mongolian beauty tagged with his name for the rest of his life.