Nothing to Hide 2.0 was a mitigated disaster

By MT Webmaster Last updated Aug 22, 2017

What Mahathir had not anticipated is that he will also be asked very difficult and embarrassing questions, which he cannot answer. He had planned to make all sorts of allegations against Najib and will declare that Najib must reply or else his silence would be taken as an admission of guilt. Mahathir’s doctrine is: you are guilty until you can provide evidence to prove your innocence.

THE CORRIDORS OF POWER

Raja Petra Kamarudin

Sunday, 13th August 2017, was supposed to be Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s most glorious moment. That was the day he was going to debate an empty chair and win the debate. Basically Mahathir was not going to face a live opponent but was just going to shadowbox with an invisible opponent (READ: Mahathir Will Be Shamelessly Shadowboxing Tomorrow).

Mahathir knew that Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak was not going to attend the debate. But he nevertheless placed a chair for Najib knowing that the chair would remain empty. Then Mahathir will be able to declare that Najib is scared, pengecut (coward), takde batu (no balls), has something to hide, and so on.

In short, Najib’s ‘no-show’ will be declared a victory for Mahathir. And if Najib turns up it will also be a victory for Mahathir. By not turning up Najib will be said to be scared to face Mahathir. If he turns up Mahathir can also say Najib is too scared to not turn up lest he be called pengecut for not turning up.

Mahathir felt whether Najib turns up or does not turn up does not matter. Both scenarios would be declared a win for Mahathir. So for Najib it would be damned if you do, damned if you don’t. The Malays call it ‘ditelan mati emak, diluah mati bapa’ (you swallow your mother dies, you spit your father dies).

Mahathir thought he would debate an empty chair and declare himself the winner, not realising that he, too, would be asked to answer difficult questions

Mahathir thought he had come up with a brilliant strategy that was foolproof and which could not go wrong. And he knew that the chances of Najib not turning up were higher than the chances of Najib turning up. After all who is Mahathir? Even though he may be an ex-Prime Minister, for all intents and purposes he is just a layman. He is not even a Member of Parliament or party president.

Undoubtedly Najib would not lower himself by attending the Nothing to Hide 2.0 debate. Najib is way up there while Mahathir is grovelling in the gutter. Najib is a Prime Minister while Mahathir is a political pariah. According to Malay tradition and customs, timba kena cari telaga, bukan telaga cari timba. Hence Mahathir must go to Najib, not Najib go to Mahathir. But then you need to be Malay to understand this and if Mahathir does not understand this that can only be because he is not Malay.

Mahathir actually prefers if Najib does not turn up. It is easier to whack someone who cannot whack back. And if Najib is absent then Mahathir is free to say whatever he likes and not face the risk of Najib replying to the allegations. It is like Mahathir blaming His Majesty the late Agong for the sacking of Tun Salleh Abas when His Majesty is buried in his grave and cannot defend himself.

Since Najib is not there to defend himself it would be easy to ‘prove’ the Prime Minister’s guilt. Najib’s ‘guilt’ is proven by his ‘silence’ — and of course Najib will be silent since he is not there. What Mahathir did not suspect is that PPBM members themselves are going to raise four questions for Mahathir to reply to (READ: The Nothing To Hide Chaos Is An Inside Job).

And Mahathir was stumped. He could not reply to those questions without either lying or implicating himself in misdeeds and transgressions. When the PPBM member came to the question regarding Memali, Mahathir was cornered. On 4th April 2014 Tun Musa Hitam had already revealed that Mahathir was in Malaysia and not in China on that fateful day, as Malaysians had been told. Hence Mahathir had lied and had tried to shift the blame to Musa.

The last time in 2006 when Mahathir was stunned and did not know what was going on

At that point the chaos started. And if you look at Mahathir’s face you could see that he was totally lost. He was stunned and was not sure what was happening. The look on Mahathir’s face was the same as when he was sprayed with mace at the Kota Bharu airport in 2006. It was the look of someone who was not sure whether he was coming or going.

They had to save Mahathir because the Memali issue was something the old man would not be able to explain. And that was the reason for the chaos. They needed to trigger chaos so that Mahathir could be rushed out of the hall without having to talk about Memali. It was the PPBM people and not so-called Umno people who started this chaos, and the reason was to save Mahathir.

Since that Sunday afternoon nothing much is being said by those who were there that day. Lim Kit Siang is one person who talks so much but he has said nothing so far about the Nothing to Hide 2.0 chaos. In fact, Kit Siang left the hall just seconds before the chaos started. Kit Siang knew what was about to happen and that was why he scooted out of the hall. This was just like on 13th May 1969 when Kit Siang ran away and hid just before the race riots started.

In the Nothing to Hide 3.0 debate Mahathir can talk about how much Petronas had to pay so that Ananda Krishnan could get one KLCC tower free of charge

So, since Mahathir loves these nothing to hide events, why not he tell us what really happened on Sunday, 13th August 2017? Why did his people trigger the chaos so that he need not reply to the question regarding Memali? What Musa said (READ BELOW) is very damaging. If Mahathir has nothing to hide can he tell us whether what Musa said more than three years ago is true or not? If it is not true why has Mahathir kept silent for more than three years and has not replied or sued Musa for lying?

Sunday’s Nothing to Hide 2.0 debate was a mitigated disaster (READ: 13th August 2017: The Day Mahathir’s PPBM Died). If was the day Mahathir was supposed to drag Najib through the mud. Instead it was Mahathir who was dragged through the mud. Because of the Nothing to Hide 2.0 debate the ghost of Memali has been resurrected. And now there are two things hanging over Mahathir’s head: the Bank Negara forex sandal and the Memali scandal.

In the Nothing to Hide 4.0 debate Mahathir can talk about the RM2 billion Petronas money used to bail out his son, Mirzan

Maybe Mahathir should organise a Nothing to Hide 3.0 debate. Then there will be three things hanging over Mahathir’s head: the Bank Negara forex sandal, the Memali scandal, and the KLCC Twin Towers scandal that Petronas was made to pay but which benefited Ananda Krishnan.

Then they should organise a Nothing to Hide 4.0 debate. Then there will be four things hanging over Mahathir’s head: the Bank Negara forex sandal, the Memali scandal, the KLCC Twin Towers scandal that Petronas was made to pay but which benefited Ananda Krishnan, and the RM2 billion bailout of Mirzan Mahathir’s Konsortium Perkapalan Berhad.

Then go for the Nothing to Hide 5.0, Nothing to Hide 6.0, Nothing to Hide 7.0, etc., debates and Perwaja, PKFZ, and many more can be added to the list. To cover all of Mahathir’s misdeeds and transgressions you will need to organise a Nothing to Hide 55.0 debate. Only then can everything that Mahathir did be satisfactorily covered.

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Musa Hitam: Memali incident a black mark in my political career

(Bernama, 4 April 2014) – Former deputy prime minister Tun Musa Hitam claimed he was not the acting prime minister on the day of the Memali incident in 1985 because the then prime minister, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, was in the country at the time.

Musa said that on that day, Nov 19, 1985, he and the then acting Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Mohd Amin Osman met Dr Mahathir at his office and Mohd Amin briefed him on what had happened.

The briefing was on the police operation in Memali, which had resulted in the deaths of four policemen and 14 civilians, he said in a statement issued here.

“At the meeting, I asked Dr Mahathir to postpone a China visit on three grounds: the incident occurred in Kedah, the home state of the prime minister; the incident involved Malays who professed Islam.

“(And) by postponing the visit to China, Dr Mahathir would have portrayed that he had given priority to and showed concern for an incident that happened in the country,” he said.

In the incident, 18 people, among them four policemen, were killed and many others were injured after the police launched an operation to arrest a religious teacher, Ibrahim Mahmud, who was popularly known as Ibrahim Libya.

(According to media reports, the clash between the police and the villagers of Kampung Memali occurred when the residents tried to prevent the arrest of Ibrahim under the Internal Security Act (ISA) for allegedly having engaged in deviant teachings.)

Musa said he made known his suggestion to table (a report on) the Memali incident in Parliament to Dr Mahathir who, at that time, insisted on going to China.

“I tabled (the report on) the Memali incident in the Dewan Rakyat on the following day (Nov 20, 1985) and convened a meeting with the media,” he said.

Musa, who was the home minister then, said he assumed responsibility and accountability over what had happened although he was not directly involved in the incident.

“… but (I) left it to the discretion of the police to undertake the operation, in terms of determining the best time, method and approach to carry it out.

“As the home minister (then), I outlined a general guide, issued a reminder and instructed the police on two things, (namely) that the law must be complied with and they should avoid violence and bloodshed,” he said.

Musa said it was not his intention to trigger new polemics in relation to Memali, but this was revived following his response to a question posed by a moderator at a discourse organised by the Kelantan state government on March 27 this year.

“I admit with frankness, sincerity and with full realisation that the black mark in my political career is the Memali incident,” he said, adding that he had been insulted, condemned and held in contempt over the incident by various quarters, particularly PAS.

“As far as I can recall, what more after I had stepped down from the ministerial post, no one from the government or even from Umno, of which I am a member, was prepared to come out with the truth.

“I had offered to attend an exclusive interview with the media specially on the subject of the Memali incident, but no media was willing to interview me.

“I realise and understand that at that time no one was prepared to face the risk of talking about matters that could be assumed as having a bearing on the position and person of a prime minister in power,” he said.

Musa said he realised that the latest development had drawn various positive and even negative comments and views, not least in the form of fresh accusations, allegations and slander, against him.

“All this while, I had been alone in my quest to get justice, but I kept praying and, finally, the discourse in Kelantan came up which I regard as God’s answer to my prayers.

“I leave everything to God, the All-Knowing, as He knows the truth and I seek His guidance and justice,” he said.