The day Gani Patail dug his own grave

By MT Webmaster Last updated Feb 19, 2016

Now tell me, after that thesis I just did above, can any sane lawyer tell me that I am not better than even those so-called qualified lawyers? Let any lawyer tell me that drafting a charge sheet seven months before the completion of the investigation and even before it can be established that a crime has been committed is standard practice and is being done by every country all over the world.

THE CORRIDORS OF POWER

Raja Petra Kamarudin

(Bernama, 12 February 2016) – The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) is giving priority to the Auditor-General’s Final Audit Report on 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) and is preparing its own report to Parliament.

PAC chairman Datuk Hasan Arifin said the Auditor-General would be tabling his report to the PAC on Feb 24 and 25.

“Today, PAC listened to the testimonies of former 1MDB chairman Tan Sri Bakke Mohd Salleh and former 1MDB chief executive officer Datuk Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi.”

“After the tabling of the Auditor-General’s Final Report, if it is really necessary and if there are grounds towards helping the PAC to obtain more information to prepare the PAC’s Report on 1MDB to Parliament, then the PAC will consider calling additional witnesses,” he said in a statement here yesterday.

Hasan said PAC’s membership comprised representatives from Barisan Nasional who are from Umno, MCA, Gerakan, PBB and Upko and the opposition (PKR, DAP and PAS). He urged the people to be confident and not doubt the transparency of the PAC’s report on the dealings of the sovereign wealth fund.

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“G25 welcomes the announcement made by the Attorney General to drop the charge under the Sedition Act against University of Malaya law lecturer, Associate Professor Dr Azmi Sharom,” said the Malay Mail Online today.

Yes, this is the same Attorney General, Mohamed Apandi Ali, who Mat Sabu, the President of Parti Amanah Negara, said was AG yang paling bodoh dalam dunia (the stupidest AG in the whole world).

While applauding the move to drop the sedition charge against Azmi, at the same time these people are very upset that the Attorney General has not arrested and charged Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak for stealing RM42 billion of 1MDB’s money.

According to Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, RM42 billion of 1MDB’s money has disappeared into thin air. And, also according to Dr Mahathir, RM2.6 billion of this RM42 billion eventually resurfaced and appeared in Najib’s personal bank account.

So, what more does this AG paling bodoh dalam dunia need? The evidence is all there. Just arrest Najib and get the IGP to handcuff and blindfold him and beat him to the point of death like they did Anwar Ibrahim in September 1998. After that they can always fabricate some sort of evidence if there is not enough evidence to convict Najib and to sentence him to jail.

Actually, I am sure this new Attorney General, Apandi Ali, can do a better job than the mess that the previous Attorney General, Abdul Gani Patail, found himself in. The previous Attorney General, Gani, blundered so badly that even a first-year law student would cringe. And this was mainly because the ANC (Anti-Najib Campaign) was so wishy-washy and did not have a clear strategy in how to bring down the Prime Minister.

When they launched the attack on Najib in December 2014, they were not really sure how far they could go with this and from which direction the attack should be made to get a clear shot.

And this is precisely why you need to study the Art of War. The ANC did everything that it should not have done while Najib did nothing. And when Najib did nothing this gave the ANC semangat because they thought this meant Najib was on the run and was incapable of fighting back.

Then, the following month in January 2015, Najib appointed a new CEO for 1MDB and gave him the job of sorting everything out. Basically, the job of the new CEO was to rationalise the affairs of 1MDB and embark upon a debt-reduction exercise.

For the next three months the attacks continued although 1MDB already had a new boss and this new boss was sorting out the affairs of 1MDB. The ANC did not want to wait and allow time for the new 1MDB boss to sort out the affairs of that company. They wanted 1MDB to fail so that this can be used as a catalyst to oust the Prime Minister.

That was when Najib realised it was not really about 1MDB after all. What they wanted was his head on a silver platter and 1MDB was merely the ‘sword’ to decapitate him. Hence whatever is going to happen with 1MDB really did not matter in the end. No amount of ‘good news’ regarding 1MDB is going to pacify the ANC and even if there was good news they would say these are all lies.

After becoming aware that the game plan was entirely different from what the ANC was saying, Najib started strengthening his defences. And we have spoken about this at length in the pervious article: Who should be PM, Najib or Mahathir? (READ HERE).

Najib knew that at the end of the day this is all about politics and not about good governance and so on (as what the ANC is telling the gullible and naïve Malaysians) — so he would need to look for a political solution. And so Najib started working on that political solution — one of the many that he embarked upon was to bring Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and Hishammuddin Tun Hussein (the other two Umno Vice Presidents after ANC’s Shafie Apdal) to Saudi Arabia to meet the donors of the RM2.6 billion

On 10th May 2015, Najib announced in Sabah that he is not going to bow to any pressure to resign.

“I only bow down to party members and the people. As long as the party members support me, and as long as people give their trust, I shall continue to serve,” Najib said to a 40,000-strong crowd in Kota Belud, Sabah.

“Obviously one voice (Dr Mahathir) cannot be greater than the voices heard from the crowd here, in Kota Belud and the mandate given by the people. Was he (Dr Mahathir) not tested? There was the test of Team A and Team B, (where Dr Mahathir) almost lost. More than 50% of Umno members back then demanded for his resignation. What was his reply? ‘Even if I win by a single vote, I will continue to be the prime minister.’ A great answer.”

That was Najib’s counter-shot, which, in short, was Najib’s declaration of war and his pledge to not surrender and that he is taking no prisoners. ‘No quarters asked and none given’ would be more or less how the military strategists would put it.

The following day, on 11th May 2015, during Umno’s anniversary celebration, Najib fired his second shot to demonstrate that it is going to be an all-out war with no prisoners taken and a fight to the last man.

“Outside, there are all sorts of stories, all sorts of things being made up by those who want to split us up, those who want to sow doubt among us, those who want to poison our minds – they do not love Umno.”

In short, Najib just called the ANC traitors to the party.

To make sure that the battle-line is very clear and that there is no confusion regarding friend and foe, two days later, on 13th May 2015, during the Cabinet meeting, Najib practically told the entire Cabinet to speak out now or forever hold your peace. In other words, Najib pointed to the door and told all those who are not with him that they can walk out the door and never come back.

No one did and even Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin kept his head down and would not look Najib in the eye. Politically, Najib had won the day. Over just three days — between 10th May and 13th May — Najib took on his adversaries and the ANC and dared them to come out and fight. But no one dared because they knew that they could not take Najib on politically and win: giving new meaning to Sun Tzu’s Art of War about knowing your enemy.

They just did not know Najib as they thought they did and in just three days Najib demolished the entire conspiracy. And that was when I suddenly become so awed by this man who I, too, once opposed. Anyone who can demolish an entire army that had surrounded him and had their knives at his throat in just three days deserves my support. Even the great ‘political guru’ Dr Mahathir could not do that. He had to first kill Umno to kill his enemies.

Realising that Najib was actually quite an astute politician after all, contrary to what they had originally thought, and that Najib was strengthening his political defences pretty well, which they had never expected, they decided to try to bring down Najib another way. Basically they will try to use the legal channel instead of the political route.

The following day, on 14th May 2015, Gani Patail told MACC’s Deputy Director of Investigation, Dato’ Sazali Salbi, to draft a charge sheet against Najib. You can read about that episode in the article Najib was supposed to resign on 29 July 2015 (READ HERE).

And the 14th of May 2015, the day that the ANC thought they had successfully placed Najib is his coffin and only needed a few nails to hammer it shut, was the beginning of the 74-day countdown towards the day when Gani was going to be slaughtered instead on 27th July 2015.

On 2nd July 2015, at 4.42pm EST to be exact, the Wall Street Journal published a report regarding 1MDB, which the ANC had fed them. Sarawak Report was then told to pick it up and keep harping on the matter, if possible every single day until Najib falls. They were also promised that more ‘secrets’ would be provided as they go along.

Then, in that same month of July 2015, they formed a Task Force to investigate the affairs of 1MDB based on the revelation by the Wall Street Journal and Sarawak Report, information that had come from them in the first place.

The irony of this whole thing is: the expose by the Wall Street Journal was made on 2nd July 2015, followed by the expose by Sarawak Report after that. The Task Force to investigate 1MDB was formed only after that and in July 2015. However, the charge sheet was drafted much earlier on 14th May 2015.

It was clear from this sequence of events and from the timeline that the charge sheet was a Red Herring (cannot call it fake because it exists, although it merely existed as a ‘prop’ to use against Najib to force him to resign). And it was clear that Gani was playing around with the charge sheet and that he did not really have a case.

Normally a charge sheet is prepared after the investigation has been completed and after it has been established that a case does exist. Any first-year law student can tell you that. Nowhere in the world do you prepare a charge sheet first and then launch an investigation (and based on a newspaper report on top of that) and then ‘tailor’ the investigation to fit in to the charge sheet.

So, you have decided that a crime has been committed, and you have decided what the nature of that crime is, and you have already prepared the charge sheet, and now you have to launch an investigation and ‘guide’ that investigation to make everything fit in nicely.

Is this what is called putting the cart before the horse?

And then, soon after that, on 27th July 2015, His Majesty the Agong, who could no longer tolerate all these shenanigans, signed the letter terminating the services of Gani Patail. Anyway, Gani was not well enough to work, unless he could buy a new kidney, so better he just rest than stress himself out and end up in an early grave.

And, two days after that, on 29th July 2015, Muhyiddin Yassin followed Gani into retirement.

And, another two days after that, on 1st August 2015, the MACC deputy public prosecutor, Ahmad Sazilee Abdul Khairy, was arrested and the following day, 2nd August 2015, his office was raided where they found the draft copy of that charge sheet.

On the following day, 3rd August 2015, the MACC Chief Commissioner, Tan Sri Abu Kassim Mohamed, announced that the RM2.6 billion was actually a donation after all and was not stolen from 1MDB.

On the following day, 4th August 2015, MACC made a police report saying that the charge sheet is a fake. In a way it was a fake because it was a ‘stand-alone’ charge sheet that was not related to any crime. In other words, the charge sheet was drafted before an investigation was launched and before it could be determined whether any crime had been committed.

Finally, in December 2015, after completing the investigation, MACC sent its report to the Attorney General, exactly seven months after Gani Patail told Sazali to draft the charge sheet.

Raja Petra Kamarudin RPK