But now the game has changed. This is no longer about ‘normal’ business losses or about being stupid. This time a real crime has been committed and it can be proven. So Mahathir and Daim are going to pay for that crime. And this is what Mahathir is trying to avoid: avoid being called a criminal and instead be called a freedom-fighter who is a victim of politically-motivated persecution.
THE CORRIDORS OF POWER
Raja Petra Kamarudin
Today, The Star reported Lim Sian See as saying that three crimes have been committed in the US10 billion Bank Negara Malaysia forex fiasco (SEE BELOW). First is losing US$10 billion gambling on the forex market. Second is lying to the Cabinet by saying that the loss was only RM5.7 billion and is merely ‘deferred expenditure’ and ‘unrealised losses’. Third is lying to Parliament, first by denying the whole thing and calling it opposition lies and propaganda, and a year later by saying that it was a very small ‘paper loss’ and not actual money paid out.
READ MORE HERE: Mahathir and Daim lied about the forex losses
The fact that Bank Negara lost US10 billion and that they lied about it both to the Cabinet and to Parliament cannot be denied because there are documents to prove this. What the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) now needs to establish is whether the entire US10 billion was lost gambling on the forex market or whether a large portion of that money was actually siphoned out and disguised as ‘normal’ forex losses.
And this is what Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, Tun Daim Zainuddin and Nor Mohamed Yakcop fear the most. Mahathir has lost money before, estimated at RM200 billion or so. But so far Mahathir has justified this loss as ‘normal’. When you invest or do business the risk of losses is always there. It could be stupidity or a miscalculation or events beyond your control or someone cheated you. But that does not make you a criminal. This time, however, it is going to be proven that Mahathir, Daim and Nor Mohamed committed a crime and they are going to have to face the consequences of that crime they committed.
READ MORE HERE: Mahathir’s money-laundering operation
Mahathir knows he needs to preempt this eventuality. So he flew to the UK over Hari Raya to meet Clare Rewcastle Brown to see how Sarawak Report can help him. Clare’s advise was: the first thing Mahathir needs to do is to warn Malaysians that Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak intends to arrest the opposition leaders just before the next general election. Then, when they doarrest Mahathir, he can allege that it is politically-motivated and claim the title of ‘Prisoner of Conscience’.
The next thing would be for Sarawak Report to come out with daily reports regarding 1MDB, the DoJ, etc., to distract Malaysians from the RCI and The Great Bank Negara US10 billion Robbery. Sarawak Report will shout and scream and try to drown out whatever noise regarding the RCI and The Great Bank Negara US10 billion Robbery. All that, in fact, has already started.
Lim Kit Siang, on the other hand, will question the Special Task Force and demand that their findings be made public to raise doubts on the whole matter so that later they can allege that the RCI is flawed. Kit Siang will also demand that a RCI for 1MDB be held. Kit Siang does not seem to realise how stupid he sounds when the government invested only RM1 million in 1MDB and that equity is still there listed in the books and has not been lost or wiped out.
Then Mahathir has to play up his health issue. In the event they arrest him, put him on trial, and convict him, he can claim ill-health and get his prison term changed to house arrest. Mahathir will be seen as too sick to be stuffed into jail and if they do put him in jail he is going to die. So, on compassionate grounds, he will be put under house arrest instead.
But that is not how Mahathir would like to spend the rest of his life — as a convicted criminal who stole billions of the nation’s money — never mind whether he spends his remaining days in jail or under house arrest. So he is trying to turn this whole thing into a political issue, just like what Anwar Ibrahim did and is still doing.
Anwar is not guilty of sodomy. He is guilty of opposing the Prime Minister. So Mahathir, too, is not guilty of robbing Bank Negara. He is guilty of opposing the Prime Minister. Anwar was trying to ‘save Malaysia’, and Mahathir, too, is trying to ‘save Malaysia’. Anwar is a ‘Prisoner of Conscience’, and so is Mahathir.
READ MORE HERE: Shaken Mahathir confesses guilt to Clare Brown
That is what Mahathir’s and Daim’s game plan is. They are trying to politicise their crime and turn the whole thing into a political issue. They are not criminals. They are victims of political persecution. They are heroes who are fighting for Malaysians, not zeros who robbed the country.
READ MORE HERE
