The Phantom of the Pakatan Opera
There is much confusion over the leaked letter to the CIA supposedly sent before GE14 with some people saying Najib is treasonous for working with CIA. This 3-page letter is now making its rounds on social media.
After reading the entire letter, here are some points to note:
1. The letter is dated 4th May 2018. GE14 was on 9th May. This is only 5 days before the elections. Obviously this letter cannot be about asking CIA to intervene in the elections as there would not be enough time.
2. The letter starts with congratulating Gina Haspel on being appointed acting CIA director. She was finally confirmed and took office as CIA director on 18th May 2018. This would explain the date of the letter to be coincidentally close to GE14. The majority of the letters seems to be about updating the new director on the geo-political situation of Malaysia. You can call this an update letter to someone who has just been appointed head. The date the letter was sent was just coincidental as Gina was just appointed around that date.
3. The letter also states that it hopes that the CIA will continue supporting the BN government should BN win GE14. It does not ask CIA to intervene in the general elections at all but merely to continue its friendly relations with Malaysia’s BN government.
If the elections result turned out to be too narrow then we could have expected massive street protests disputing the results. Some foreign powers may take advantage of this and instigate chaos and destabilize our country. Asking for CIA’s support in this case of a narrow election win could be seen as a pre-emptive move to ensure CIA does not intervene or take advantage should there be a disputed GE14 and street protests.
4. Kit Siang says that Najib is the most incompetent PM ever for not being aware that such an update letter was sent by one agency.
The letter is not on Malaysia Government letterhead. The letterhead is the agency’s letter-head. It is not signed by Najib. So how is Najib involved in this?
There are millions of civil service and hundreds of agencies. As a rule, politicians do not get involved in military intelligence matters. It is thus unfair to expect Najib to know about every letter that was sent – especially if the letter seems to be merely an update letter.
By the same token, is Lim Kit Siang then saying that Mahathir is also the most incompetent PM ever since Mahathir said he was not aware that BNM was illegally gambling on forex over many years and losing RM32 billion that can no longer be recovered? Why is Kit Siang now so silent on this BNM Forex scandal? He even wrote books about it to accuse Mahathir.
5. As this is a supposedly confidential letter between two countries’ intelligence agencies, how did such a letter get leaked? One news portal reported that Mahathir’s officer confirmed this letter is authentic. Shouldn’t our government be concerned that such letters are being leaked to media presumably for political purpose to further attack Najib?
Shouldn’t our government be launching an investigation on how the letter was leaked instead of encouraging the leaking of the letter? Shouldn’t rule of law be followed?
Najib is no longer PM and BN has fallen. We should hold our new government responsible for not following rule of law and still playing politics to attack Najib with an irresponsible act of leaking military intelligence communications to the media.
