Mahathir’s vendetta: the Joker in the pack (part 1)

By MT Webmaster Last updated Nov 19, 2016

But that was then. The proceeding sections help advance a possible conspiracy that may have triggered Mahathir’s fallout with Najib. I have a sneaking suspicion that the animosity between the two has nothing to do with 1MDB and just about every cat Mahathir has since pulled out of his bag.

Raggie Jessy

The social media has been abuzz with news of a conspiracy to oust Prime Minister Dato’ Seri Najib Razak by artifice. The thesis that advances this conspiracy seems consequential to widespread discontent by powerful men believed aligned to former Premier Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamed.

Judging from editorials, the social media appears to have departed from ethical trajectories, taking on new dimensions with sensational and suppositious reporting. Thus it became necessary to structure a probable premise for the atmosphere of distrust being conjured against Najib’s administration. It is for this reason above all else that this article was written.

The first part to this article is pertinent to its crux, which establishes a possible controversy that may have triggered the scathing attacks by Mahathir against Najib.

1. In politics, the earth spins westward

In life, it really doesn’t matter what others think you are. It’s whom you are that matters. And in politics, the earth spins westward. With this in mind, let us move on with the rest of this article.

Some time back in August 2008, someone asked Tun Dr. Mahathir a question that put into words what everyone wanted put into words but didn’t have the guts to do so. That is to say, someone asked Mahathir why nobody from UMNO’s supreme council dared to fly in the teeth of Khairy Jamaluddin.

Actually, that pretty much hit the nail right on the head. Back then, speculation was rife of an UMNO novice who wielded an enormous clout on the powers that be. Chat rooms were abuzz with rumours of this newcomer, who had the final word when and where it concerned matters of policy and security. And you know how it is with rumours; they go around the world before the truth finally gets its boots on and sets itself on a mission towards redemption.

At any rate, whispers from the alley were of Khairy’s dominion of influence. Such was his worth that everyone and his brother in UMNO wanted to be seen as Khairy’s affiliate more than he or she did, a people’s representative. So they had Khairy listed as dignitary in functions they hosted, stopping short only of rolling out the red carpet. They did, because none was so foolish as to summon the Prime Minister’s son-in-law to contest.

Well, that was how rumours went. And going by these rumours, Khairy clearly afforded the leverage of his father-in-law in getting things done. But, as it turned out, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi wasn’t exactly the pillar of strength Khairy could have hoped for. Being the sitting duck he was, Abdullah had bloggers and online media portals heaving heavy sighs down his neck, making quite a monkey of him. And this brought Khairy’s every manoeuvre under media scrutiny, with purported conspiracies that drove him straight into Mahathir’s black book.

You see; it doesn’t really matter if Khairy did or did not do whatever it is these portals accused him of doing. What matters is the perception derived by the people from these portals, which tore him to pieces during Abdullah’s tenure as Prime Minister. Like I said, in politics, the earth spins westwards; it is not whom you are that matters, but what the people think of you that does. And that is precisely what many editorials set out to do in the first place: to drive perception against Khairy.

Now, I couldn’t possibly be sure, of course. But it became morally imperative that I corroborated rumours that once hovered around Khairy with what may possibly be the smoking gun behind Mahathir’s assaults on Najib.

2. Of Khairy and Adlan Benan Omar

There was once an article doing its rounds on the internet. According to the article, Khairy was to have represented UMNO youth in a debate against PKR’s Adlan Benan Omar and Dr. Dzulkifly Ahmad on ‘Cabaran ekonomi Malaysia selepas September 11.” The story goes, that Khairy pretty much chickened out at the eleventh hour.

The author insinuated that Khairy dared not strive in contention against the late Adlan, who was deemed to be well versed in history and law. Now, though the veracity to this narration is suspect to me, it does raise an important question. Just who was Adlan Benan Omar, and to what extent was his relationship with Khairy?

I think we’ll just have to ask Raja Petra Kamarudin (RPK) that question. Actually, I did. So for the moment, let us contemplate on a possible scenario that may have triggered Mahathir’s intractable animosity against Khairy himself.

RPK related to me how Mahathir had wanted Khairy out of the political limelight over reports linking the latter with Singapore’s intelligence unit. It seems Mahathir was told that both Khairy and Adlan were recruited by the M16, a British Intelligence agency that furnishes the British Government with foreign intelligence. This happened roughly around the time both Khairy and Adlan were pursuing their respective degrees in the United Kingdom.

RPK went on to explain to me how Dato’ Seri Kalimullah Hassan was fingered as the person who had recruited both Khairy and Adlan into Singapore’s Intelligence Division. Kalimullah, a dignitary once associated with the New Straits Times, was no stranger to controversy himself. He was accused in 2011 of being the person behind the Malaysian Insider, an online news portal many from within the government appear to denounce.

And it was Kalimullah who once wrote an article that partly attributed UMNO’s dismal performance during the 2008 General Elections to Dato’ Seri Hishamuddin Hussein. According to Kalimullah, Hisham’s infamous brandishing of the Keris during the 2005 General Assembly may have affected UMNO’s show during the polls. So when the chips were down, Kalimullah seemed to wade into Hisham by picking holes in the latter’s plot. But as Kalimullah himself once put it, that is politics. There isn’t much honour in politics, no matter your stripe.

Ironically, Kalimullah’s criticism came a year ahead of the 2009 UMNO General Assembly and elections, the year Hisham vacated his position in the youth division. And it was the same year that Khairy contested UMNO youth’s captaincy against Dato’ Seri Mukhriz Mahathir and Dr. Mohamed Khir Toyo.

To be continued…