When Mahathir loses his immunity

By MT Webmaster Last updated Oct 27, 2015

Can Hamid do this rather than talk about the enam kotak and then 17 years later not single kotak surfaces? Or is Hamid scared of making the police report because he does not really have any evidence after all and is just letting out some hot air?

THE CORRIDORS OF POWER

Raja Petra Kamarudin

Soon after Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad retired as Prime Minister and handed power to Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, questions were asked as to why the former Prime Minister plus his henchman, Tun Daim Zainuddin, were not brought before the court and charged for robbing the country of an estimated RM100-200 billion.

The reason, said all these people, is because they are both Tuns. A Tun is ‘protected’ and has immunity from the law. Hence you cannot arrest and charge a Tun. And that, say these same people, was why Dr Mahathir and Daim were given Tuns after they retired — so that they will be immune from the law and cannot be punished for what they did to the country.

I tried to explain that this is not true but the explanation fell on deaf ears. Then Tun Dr Ling Liong Sik was arrested and charged in court and all this talk about Tuns getting immunity from prosecution for past, present and future crimes ended. So what do these exponents of ‘Tuns have immunity from the law’ have to say now?

Of course, when Dr Ling was on trial, Dr Mahathir testified in court and said that he could not remember events surrounding PKFZ. That may have been the only time in history when Dr Mahathir could not remember something but that was good enough to get Dr Ling acquitted.

Now Dr Mahathir himself is under investigation and he said that he fears that the police may take action against him. The fact that his two ‘enforcers’, Khairuddin Abu Hassan and Matthias Chang, lost their ‘protection’ means that Dr Mahathir, too, may no longer have his ‘immunity’.

So will Dr Mahathir be summoned to the police station or will the police ‘give him face’ by going to his house to record his statement instead? I suppose that all depends on whether Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak wants to give him one slap or two slaps. Two slaps mean ‘you come to the police station’.

Anyway, the reason Dr Mahathir and Daim were never arrested and charged in court for allegedly ‘stealing’ RM100-200 billion of the taxpayers’ money was not because they are Tuns. It is because no one made a police report regarding the crimes they were supposed to have committed.

In 1998-1999, Anwar Ibrahim said that he has enam kotak (six boxes: and I assume large boxes) of evidence to prove that Dr Mahathir and Daim had robbed the country. In fact, this enam kotak was being shouted from the rooftops all over Malaysia. Eventually, those who kept shouting enam kotak transformed into dua belas katak, but that is another story for another time.

Nevertheless, not a single of those enam kotak ever surfaced over the last 17 years since it was revealed that these boxes exist. So where are those enam kotak that are supposed to ensure that Dr Mahathir and Daim will spend the rest of their days in jail?

And did all those people who claimed that they have in their possession the enam kotak ever make any police report? Of course, you cannot just make a police report alleging all sorts of things. You need to provide the evidence to support your police report or else you will be charged instead — for making a false police report.

Yes, that was why not one of those dozens of people who shouted from the rooftops all over Malaysia regarding the enam kotak of evidence against Dr Mahathir and Daim dared make any police report. The truth is there was no enam kotak. There was not even satu kotak. It was zilch!

And that is why Dr Mahathir and Daim were never arrested and charged. Not a single mouse dared to be the one to bell the cat. It was all talk. There was no evidence as they claimed they had in those non-existent enam kotak. The enam kotak were as phoney as those 30 Barisan Nasional Members of Parliament who were supposed to have crossed over on 16th September 2008.

The ex-Deputy Director of the Special Branch, Hamid Bador, says that no police report is required for the police to take action. And he gave his reasons why — such as crime prevention and so on.

That may be true if there is proof a crime is about to be committed or while a crime is being committed. But we are talking about a crime that is alleged to have been committed. In this case the accuser who is alleging that crime or has knowledge of that crime needs to lodge a report and explain why he or she says a crime has been committed.

In short, is it something you heard or something someone told you or is it something you witnessed or something you have evidence of?

And this was what got me into trouble in 2008. I reported something that someone told me and not something that I witnessed. So, instead of taking action on what I reported, the police took action against me. I could not prove what this person told me, and when that person turned around and denied telling me what I had reported, the police pounced on me.

Hamid Bador of all people should know this. And do you know why the police pounced on me? Yes, that is right, because a police report had been made against me. So the police had to act based on that police report that was made against me.

When I demanded to see that police report so that I can see who was the one who made the report against me, the police replied that it would be shown to me in court. But I refused to accept that cop out. I insisted they show me the police report or else I was going to walk out of there.

The police replied that if I walked out then they were going to arrest me. I said, “Go ahead and arrest me” and stood up and headed for the door. The police officer appealed for me to sit down again and said they will show me the police report.

They then showed me the police report and do you know what? Yes, the police report was made by a police officer.

So, since Hamid Bador said he has information regarding Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak’s wrongdoings and he also has information that former Attorney General Gani Patail is covering up this crime (because he himself has skeletons in the closet), then it is Hamid’s duty to lodge a police report so that based on this police report action can be taken against Najib.

Raja Petra Kamarudin RPK