Mahathir thinks that Najib might dissolve Parliament soon after Hari Raya so that the general election can be held around August. Hence the timing of the DoJ announcement is perfect. And if the general election is not held in August after all, and is instead held next year, Mahathir can ask the DoJ to come out with a third announcement.
THE CORRIDORS OF POWER
Raja Petra Kamarudin
Next weekend, Malaysians are going to balek kampung and the highways leading out of Kuala Lumpur are going to be choked with cars. People are then going to gather for Hari Raya to eat, drink and gossip. And Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad wants Malaysians to gossip about yesterday’s United States Department of Justice (DoJ) press announcement (READ HERE: Mahathir’s feeble attempt at reviving the dead 1MDB issue).
The 1MDB matter is practically dead. No one discusses the matter anymore. Mahathir said RM42 billion of 1MDB’s money has lesap or disappeared into thin air. He then said it could be even higher than RM42 billion, maybe even RM50 billion. He also said if Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak travels overseas he would be arrested and will be extradited to the United States to face trial.
Mahathir’s frustration is he was promised that the 1MDB matter would kill Najib. When he started the attack in December 2014 Najib was supposed to last only about half a year. When in January 2015 Najib put Arul Kanda Kandasamy in charge of 1MDB — and asked him to come out with his rationalisation and debt restructuring plan and present it to the Cabinet for approval — Mahathir realised that Najib was not going to fall that easily.
Mahathir then planned a coup for July 2015. During the 29th July 2015 Cabinet meeting, the police, the MACC and the Attorney General would wait outside the meeting room and Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin would give Najib two options. Either resign then and there, or else the police, MACC and AG would be invited into the room to arrest Najib.
Beforehand they prepared a so-called charge sheet, which will be shown to Najib, and if Najib resists he would be removed by force. They also leaked that charge sheet to Sarawak Report so that it can go viral before they make their move on Najib. Later, of course, they denied it and said that the charge sheet was a fake and a police report was made regarding this forgery.
One day before the planned 29th July 2015 putsch, on 28th July, Najib axed Muhyiddin and replaced him with Ahmad Zahid Hamidi. That caught Mahathir totally off-guard. A day before that, on the 27th July 2015, Najib got rid of Attorney General Abdul Gani Patail as well. The IGP, Khalid Abu Bakar, very wisely took the side of the winning team and his head was saved (which is why Clare Rewcastle Brown a.k.a. Sarawak Report is going all out to bring Khalid down).
The 29th July 2015 putsch, the day Najib was supposed to have been escorted to jail in handcuffs, failed. Instead the ‘six Tan Sri’ who were behind the conspiracy hit the dirt. Mahathir was furious. He tried again three months later in October with a planned vote of no confidence in Parliament and two months later with a planned ouster during the December Umno annual assembly.
Both those attempts failed as well: three strikes in a row and Najib was still standing.
By then 1MDB’s health was improving greatly and it appeared like Arul was delivering the promise he made to the Cabinet after all. 1MDB was proving to be a blunt weapon that could no longer cut Najib’s throat. That was when Mahathir decided it was time to get a foreign government involved.
READ MORE HERE
