Bon voyage Bourdon, Najib strikes again

The booting out of a renowned French lawyer and the Najib administration's disrespect for an individual’s fundamental rights will cost the BN a heavy price at the polls.

COMMENT

Soon after his return on July 22 from a three-nations trip, Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak boasted on national television that the elections in Malaysia are fair and clean.

Well, at least that is the impression he gave his United Kingdom counterpart David Cameron whom he met at No 10 Downing Street on July 21. Besides the United Kingdom, Najib also visited Turkmenistan and Italy, all in a span of eight days.

The idiot box however did not “cooperate” with Najib. The look on his face while relaying that bit of news was far from convincing. Maybe, just like the rakyat, Najib too knows the truth, which is that the Malaysian electoral system is fraught with manipulation and corruption and that accusations made by election watchdog Bersih 2.0 are not without basis.

Does Najib’s claim that he told Cameron there is no hanky-panky at the polls of any good to anyone? Certainly not.

Cameron, on the contrary is convinced that something is seriously wrong with the way the things are managed in Malaysia, as seen from the way the people who turned up to support the Bersih 2.0 rally on July 9, 2011, were assaulted by the police.

Six dedicated activists are still being held in solitary confinement under allegation that they instigated people to participate in the rally, thus “waging war against the monarchy”.

As far as Cameron is concerned, he is worried about the very poor human rights record that Malaysia, a former British colony, holds. It would be no exaggeration to say that Cameron was furious with Najib for the brutality displayed against the rally supporters that the British premier lost all appetite to do lunch with his Malaysian counterpart.

Najib could not care less. He instructed the police to make public “compromising” video footages of the July 9 rally in an effort to quash accusations of police brutality, a move which has made the rakyat sick to their stomach. The people’s determination to see Najib “check out” of Putrajaya is growing stronger by the day.

In so far as Najib goes, did all that affect him? Yes, it surely did. But like his fellow Malaysian politicians, Najib too seeks refuge under the “black heart and thick skinned” cloak that these politicians find indisposable throughout their political career.

Crying out loud that the electoral system in Malaysia needs no clean-up was pathetic enough, but Najib who consistently fails to get his act in order once again faltered when he made sure French human rights lawyer William Bourdon was deported back to Paris, pronto. Why the rush, Najib?

Bourdon was in Malaysia to speak at events organised by human rights NGO Suaram regarding the controversial-ridden Scorpene submarine deal.

Najib was defense minister

The deal which which was inked in 2002 during Najib’s tenure as defense minister was reported to have involved kickbacks worth RM500 million. Not only that, it was also linked to the murder of Mongolian national Altantuya Shaariibuu, whom Najib was alleged to have been involved with.

However, once Bourdon’s flight landed on July 22 at 11.40am at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport, the lawyer was escorted out of the plane by three immigration officials. He was held at the holding centre and questioned for four hours, after which he was ordered to leave Malaysia the very same day, although his return ticket to Paris was dated July 24.

Had Bourdon insisted on leaving Malaysia on July 24, he would according to the Malaysian police be held under detention until his departure date. Not wanting to put his wife at any risk, Bourdon decided to exit Malaysia on July 22, at his own cost.

The reason behind that order? Bourdon was deported for violating the terms of his social visit pass – so was the excuse given by the Immigration Department.

“I hereby declare that I have acted as the lawyer for Suaram in full respect of my duties and rules and in perfect compliance with national and international laws. I consider that this deportation decision is a breach in the right to freely exercise my profession as a lawyer,” Bourdon said in a statement.

A deal gone terribly wrong

Details of the Scorpene deal gone wrong go as follows: It all started in June 2002 when the Malaysian government signed an agreement with French DCNS and Spanish Navantia for the purchase of two Scorpene class submarines.

The agreement took place through direct negotiation with the manufacturing companies, with the service of Perimekar Sdn Bhd linked to Abdul Razak Baginda, a close aide of Najib.

Altantuya served as a translator for Perimekar. Four years after the submarines procurement, her remains were found in a secluded area in Puncak Alam, Shah Alam. Police investigation found that she was shot twice before her body was blown up using C-4 explosives.

Subsequently, Razak was charged for abetting in her murder in July 2008 but was acquitted about two months later. The prosecution team decided not to appeal against his acquittal. Najib, meanwhile ended up swearing on the Quran to clear his name.

In December 2009, Suaram filed a complaint with the French courts asking for access to information regarding government contracts signed with Perimekar and other information classified as official secrets in Malaysia.

In April 2010, the French courts accepted the request to investigate the claim of corruption for a payment amounting to 114 million euros from DCNS to Perimekar.

No end to abuse of power
Subang MP Sivarasa Rasiah and Batu MP Tian Chua who were at KLIA to meet Bourdon when he arrived from Penang were barred from doing so.

In a typical show of “power”, Malaysian authorities also failed to acknowledge the fact that Bourdon was Suaram’s lawyer on the submarine case and that his deportation would be a breach of his right to perform his duty as a lawyer.

Bourdon’s wife Lea Forestier was “very shocked and upset over the arbitrariness of the situation.”
“The only other experience of William and I being denied entry was Tunisia under Ben Ali… that was a banana republic!” Forestier was reported to have said, according to tweets from local activists.

But does the bitter experience suffered by Bourdon and Forestier make any difference to the Malaysian government? It should, for as they say “actions speak louder than words” and those very actions of Najib’s coupled with his high-handed manner in dealing with supporters of the July 9 rally have left the international community upset with him.

Needless to say, this show of power abuse and disrespect for an individual’s fundamental rights by the Najib administration will cost the Barisan Nasional a heavy price at the polls.

Najib in trouble?

To PKR vice-president Nurul Izzah Anwar, there is just one truth behind Bourdon’s unceremonious deportation – that he knows too much. Nurul claimed Bourdon may have access to important documents that could link Najib to the Scorpene purchases.

“But the French court will provide public access to the investigation papers when the case goes on trial in September,” claimed Nurul at the Ops Scorpene fund raising dinner in Petaling Jaya on July 22.

Will justice be served? Only time will tell. But for Altantuya’s sake, one hopes that it does, for only then will her soul attain moksha (release). Altantuya’s ashes, according to her father Dr Steve Shaariibu, still remain in a Malaysian court, as the case, in theory, remains unsolved.

Jeswan is a freelance journalist and a FMT contributor.