So, it was Mokhzani Mahathir and Tun Daim Zainuddin who in 1995 were behind the submarine contract and the final decision was made in 2001 and the contract signed in 2002. Najib took over as Prime Minister in 2009 long after everything was over. But then they point their fingers at Najib who was not in charge until seven years later. And this is what the French police investigation revealed.
THE CORRIDORS OF POWER
Raja Petra Kamarudin
Changing horses in midstream literally means someone who is trying to move from one horse to another while crossing a stream and refers to someone who makes major changes after something has already begun. And that is what Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad is currently doing. In fact, Mahathir has changed horses in midstream many times over the last four years since 2013 when he discovered that all his horses turned out to be donkeys in the end.
And Mahathir is, yet again, changing horses in midstream when he suddenly woke up to the realisation that his strategy of using the 1MDB issue to bring down Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak is not succeeding. It is now 33 months since he fired the first shot against 1MDB by asking Khairuddin Abu Hassan to lodge a police report in December 2014, which was supposed to be the beginning of the end for Najib. And the end was supposed to be about seven months later in July 2015.
Yes, 33 months ago a seven-month program was launched. And in July 2015 Muhyiddin Yassin was supposed to have taken over as the seventh Prime Minister of Malaysia while Mukhriz Mahathir would resign as the Kedah Menteri Besar and would become the new Deputy Prime Minister. Then a by-election would be held so that Mukhriz could become a Member of Parliament, a prerequisite for him becoming the eighth Prime Minister.
However, the July 2015 coup failed and they tried again in October and again in December, both which also failed. The second coup attempt in October 2015 was supposed to be a vote of no confidence in Parliament and the December 2015 coup was supposed to be a vote of no confidence in the Umno assembly.
On 3rd February 2016, Mukhriz was removed as the Kedah Menteri Besar and, on 29th February, Mahathir merajuk (sulked) and resigned from Umno. Mahathir had played right into Najib’s hands because that is what Najib wanted. Sacking Mahathir would help the old man gain sympathy but if Mahathir resigns, yet again, on his own accord, then he would not be able to gain any political mileage.
In Malay culture they call this talak tiga and if you want to come back you need to look for a Cina buta (blind Chinaman). And that blind Chinaman that Mahathir went to see is Lim Kit Siang — which, again, is precisely what Najib wanted to see happen. The worst thing that both Mahathir and Kit Siang could do was to go to bed together after what they had both said about each other these last 50 years or so. Malays call this jilat balik kahak (licking back your phlegm). And this is precisely what Mahathir and Kit Siang did: they licked back their phlegm which they had been spitting out for 50 years.
It was then that Mahathir realised the 1MDB issue was not going anywhere. Even with Sarawak Report and the US media hitting non-stop and the RM50 million budget to buy off the media and bloggers Najib would still not fall. He needed the US government to help bring Najib down and that was when Mahathir sent Matthias Chang and team to the US to meet his contacts there. Mahathir agreed to donate US5 million to the Clinton election campaign if the US Department of Justice (DoJ) can hold a press conference and announce that the US government is now investigating the allegations against 1MDB.
Mahathir was hoping that the DoJ involvement could help bring Najib down after almost 20 months of trying unsuccessfully. But now Mahathir knows that even with the DoJ involvement that is not going to happen. And, to make matters worse, there are certain changes happening in the US that are going to impact the Clinton election campaign and the investigation might prove that Mahathir donated US$5 million to the Clinton election campaign just before the DoJ called for that press conference on 1MDB in July 2016.
The questions that the investigation is now asking is whether Mahathir bribed the Clinton election campaign to get the DoJ to hold a press conference on 1MDB in July 2016. And if it is a legitimate donation and had nothing to do with getting the DoJ to hold a press conference on 1MDB then why the need to camouflage that donation through a third party? If the donation is above board you do not need to hide it, just like Najib did not hide the RM2.6 billion donation he received from the Arabs.
The way the US$5 million donation was made and the links to the DoJ appears like Mahathir ‘bought’ the July 2016 DoJ press conference. And that is going to come out soon once the investigation against the Clinton election campaign proceeds.
So the DoJ action against 1MDB is going to work against Mahathir once the secret of the US$5 million donation becomes public knowledge. And Mahathir will also need to explain why he tried to hide that donation if it is not a bribe? Mahathir now wishes he never brought the DoJ and Clinton election campaign into this matter because it is making it look even worse for him.
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