Malaysian Ambassador to US – why Ghazzali and JJ on the short-list?

ARCHIVES 2009

By admin-s On May 25, 2009

Foreign Minister Datuk Anifah Aman told the Sunday Star yesterday that former Ambassador to the United States 1999 – 2005, Tan Sri Ghazzali Sheikh Abdul Khalid is among the four persons being considered for the plum post of ambassador to the United States.

By Lim Kit Siang

Anifah, who said he would submit the shortlist to the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak within a week, expressed “shock” that the Washington posting had not been filled for about a year when the US is the country’s biggest trading partner.

In announcing that Ghazzali is in the short-list of four persons for the top-notch dipolomatic posting to be submitted to the Prime Minister, Anifah has gone against his public claim that he would get the best people to serve the country in the various diplomatic postings abroad.

Anifah cannot be so naïve as not to know the reason why the post of Malaysian Ambassador to the US had been vacant since June 20 last year after the retirement of Datuk Rajmah Hussain, a career diplomat, or he is casting aspersion on the competence and professionalism of his predecessor as Foreign Minister, Datuk Seri Dr. Rais Yatim.

Although Anifah conspicuously refused to be reappointed Deputy Minister after the March 8 general election last year on the ground that he was senior enough to be made minister, he had previously been Deputy Minister for Plantation Industries and Commodities and had traveled extensively to Latin America, Europe, America, Africa and Asean and together with his political connections would have been privy to all the diplomatic grapevine about the strong Wisma Putra and Washington objections to Ghazzali’s re-apppointment as Ambassador to US under two Foreign Ministers, Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar and Rais despite support from the Putrajaya fourth floor.

Ghazzali was Malaysian Ambassador to US from 1999 to 2005 and left Washington under a cloud because of his connections to former Republican Party lobbyist Jack Abramoff as well as his role in the persecution of Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.

It was during Ghazzali’s previous tour of duty that the Malaysian Embassy in Washington delivered 1.2 million dollars to Abramoff to procure a 30 minute meeting in the White House between Prime Minister Tun Mahathir Mohamad and President George W. Bush in 2002.