With the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission failing to show up and the London press conference over, private investigator P Balasubramaniam will be making his way to Paris, where he is due to tell French authorities all he knows about Prime Minister Najib Razak’s acquisition of two costly Scorpene submarines.
In Paris, he will be meeting the French investigating team on Monday. They have indicated to Malaysian civil rights grroup SUARAM their focus will be on procurement procedures and the information Bala has on the roles played by his boss Razak Baginda and Najib, who was then the defense minister sanctioning the RM6.7 billion purchase from French firm DCNS.
“We are quite optimistic that Bala can help to move things a step closer to the truth. Because of the special position he was in, he may possess a few missing pieces of the puzzle and that will help to quicken the entire process,” SUARAM director Cynthia Gabriel told Malaysia Chronicle.
“It is very important that the probe moves as quickly as possible because it is a multi-tiered process. Once police investigations are complete, it will go back to the prosecutors and then possibly trial. But most importantly, we would stress, is that the French authorities make public all of the findings as soon as they can.”
SUARAM earlier this year lodged a complaint with the Parisian authorities after the Najib administration repeatedly refused to initiate a thorough investigation, despite public outcry over an alleged RM570 million kickback from DCNS.
This amount was booked by the defense ministry as co-ordination and support fees to a firm controlled by Baginda, who is a close friend of the Malaysian PM and his wife Rosmah Mansor. Baginda’s firm, Perimekar, has no record of any previous experience or expertise in submarines care or technology. Both Scorpenes have since been delivered, but one has serious malfunctions and still cannot dive.
Scapegoat but for whom?
As in the case of Taiwan, which also suffered corruption in deals struck with certain French defense firms, there was also a murder in the Malaysian acquisition.
A Mongolian translator, Altantuya Shaariibuu, was shot in the head and her body blown up with C4 explosives in a jungle clearing in Malaysia in 2006. Two former bodyguards of Najib’s and Rosmah’s have been sentenced to hang for her killing, but both men never met her until the night of her murder. This sparked intense speculation that there were master-minds involved. Razak Baginda was also charged for abetting the bodyguards, but he was acquitted in 2008.
In London on Wednesday, Bala agreed that his former boss was not involved in the murder, but was merely a scapegoat. But he did not say, scapegoat for whom?
“As far as I am concerned, Razak is a scapegoat. He has got nothing to do with the murder,” Bala, a former Special Branch detective, told the press conference on Wednesday.
“Yes, he (Baginda) was financing her and he had a relationship with her, but as far as I am concerned, he is innocent. In fact, my testimony in court saved him."
No smoke without fire
All eyes are now on Monday’s meeting with the French authorities. Malaysians hold little hope that their own government will do anything to revive investigations in either the murder or the graft case.
In fact, the MACC – which answers directly to Najib - was ordered to reverse an earlier decision to record a statement from Bala in London.
Najib himself has kept quiet on the issue despite public jeering at why he did not insist on an all-out investigation to clear his name.
“As the saying goes, there’s no smoke without fire. Najib and Rosmah have been implicated in very serious allegations – not just corruption but also murder. It is incomprehensible that they do not want to clear their names,” PAS legal adviser Hanipa Maidin told Malaysia Chronicle.
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