“Apandi, of all people, should know better how such allegations, debated in the court of public opinion, tend to trigger speculation and stand at odds with fundamental principles of truth and justice. Seriously, why would Apandi not seek recourse to law instead of burdening people with unnecessary rumours?”
Raggie Jessy Rithaudeen
I’d like to pick a bone with former attoney-general Tan Sri Apandi Ali.
Some hours ago, Apandi took to his Facebook with ‘something’ he referred to as a prelude to a chapter in his memoirs.
According to Apandi, sometime in January 2018, Dato’ Sri Gopal Sri Ram had come to see him personally to talk about Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak.
Apandi wrote:
He arrived at my house with a young Chinese lawyer, and upon sitting down, he launched into his long argument of why I shouldn’t have responded negatively but I countered him and explained that everything I had put in the reply was carefully thought out and argued amongst us in chambers.
Then suddenly, he said, that that was only an excuse to see me and that he had a bigger agenda at hand.
“Tun M sent me to see you.”
“He wants you to arrest Najib at his office, you go tomorrow at 2pm, we have arranged for the police in Putrajaya to do what is necessary on your instructions. We have also arranged for a magistrate to issue the remand order when he is brought before him or her.”
“Brother, you will be a hero in the eyes of the people and you will be the first AG to arrest a sitting Prime Minister.”
“Don’t worry, we have laid the ground plans, all I need now is for you to agree.”
Then I asked him, “On what grounds is he supposed to be arrested for?”
He said: “Brother, people out there are frustrated and unhappy, the fact that you arrest him, never mind the reason, will make people happy.”
Prior to the 14thgeneral election, I was loosely connected to the broader “Najib media edifice” and had no contact whatsoever with the former premier or any of his media henchmen.
I only got to know Najib personally following the collapse of the Barisan Nasional administration but decided to sever that contact later in 2018.
Why am I telling you this?
Because back then, Najib’s media team appeared to launch an offensive against Apandi over his wife’s association with a media channel, the Malaysian Insight (Insight).
From what I was made to understand, they wanted Insight to be shut down. I do not know why, though some issues related to a company that ran the channel and funding it received was floated around.
One of these issues had to do with allegations that Apandi’s wife helped bankroll Insight’s operations on a lavish RM10 million-a-year budget via Inside Media Sdn Bhd, a company said to own the channel.
According to a report, the RM20 million or so that Apandi’s wife and her partner in the RM2 company allegedly received was not reflected in any of the company’s books.
My issue with Apandi had to do with a police report his wife later lodged over the allegation and the fact that he was, at the time, the attoney-general of Malaysia.
I wrote:
Following allegations that Jahabar’s own sister, Puan Sri Faridah Begum K A Abdul Kader, helped bankroll the publication of insidiously subversive material against government via Insight, Dato’ Seri Mohamed Apandi Ali should resign as Attorney-General of Malaysia with immediate effect as his ability to act in a manner that is equitable and without prejudice is now in question.
The reason being, he would sooner or later need to exercise his discretion under Article 145 of the Federal Constitution to decide if or not to institute court proceedings against Faridah, his partner in matrimony. The need to exercise that discretion follows as a natural consequence to a police report that Faridah had lodged.
The report will likely trigger investigations into Inside Media’s methods of funding that, if found in breach of Malaysian laws, would require the filing of criminal proceedings against the shareholders of Inside Media and possibly even Jahabar himself. Question is, can we expect the AG to place the law above his personal prejudices where it concerns his wife and brother in-law?
The fact that such a question exists is reason enough to demand Apandi’s resignation with immediate effect. A recusal alone may not suffice, as the risk of there being bias should someone subordinate to the AG decide on proceedings is one the Government of Malaysia and the Yang di-Pertuan Agong can never afford. There is no saying what the AG would resort to in a possible attempt to safeguard his interests and those of his wife and brother in-law, if any.
I wrote this on the 17th of February 2017.
My conviction stays.
However, if I could go back in time, I would have minded my own business and would never have asked Apandi to resign.
That’s because I lacked direct contact with Najib or his men back then and was never able to verify ‘truths’.
For instance, when I discovered something peculiar abut a statement Arul Kanda had made, I asked to meet him. But somehow, everyone refused to put me in touch with him.
As a result of this and some other issues, following the 14th general election, I decided to branch out and gradually established a new network of associations, relying primarily on “first hand communication.”
It is then that I discovered contradictions in the ‘truths’ that were made known to me, particularly those having to do with Mahathir, PPBM, 1MDB and monies allegedly paid to politicians.
For instance, I can tell you with 1,000 per cent certainty that Mahathir never paid Lim Kit Siang and Lim Guan Eng RM500 million each just to become Prime Minister.
Likewise, Kit Siang was never paid an “additional RM100 million,” and neither did he cajole Mahathir into establishing Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (PPBM).
Truth is, there is much, much more to the PPBM story than was mentioned recently by a senior politician.
If you must know, the politician was merely advancing propaganda, the same way some people linked to him went for Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin’s jugular over a so called “love scandal.”
That having been said, prior to the general election, I was made to understand that Najib had some issues with Apandi over the latter’s “dealings” with Mahathir.
One way of putting it is this – Apandi had one foot in camp Mahathir and one foot in camp Najib. That was the impression given and the main theme of discussions in Facebook.
I have no way of knowing if this is the truth.
What strikes me as weird, though, is that a top notch lawyer like Apandi should suddenly reappear and air his grouses with Gopal Sri Ram out in the open.
Apandi, of all people, should know better how such allegations, debated in the court of public opinion, tend to trigger speculation and stand at odds with fundamental principles of truth and justice.
Seriously, why would Apandi not seek recourse to law instead of burdening people with unnecessary rumours?
Or could it be that Apandi wants Gopal’s credibility as prosecutor in Najib’s trial to be brought into question before the court delivers its final verdict?
NOTA: SAYA MEMBUAT PENGUMUMAN-PENGUMUMAN PENTING DARI MASA KE SEMASA EKSKLUSIF MENERUSI SALURAN TELEGRAM BERIKUT:
