New Foreign Minister, Datuk Anifah Aman broke new ground when he admitted internationally the credibility problem faced by the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak because of the Mongolian Altantuya Shaariibuu C4 murder case but he failed to bring it to a closure.
It was remarkable that Anifah raised the subject although he was not specifically asked about the Mongolian murder case in his joint press conference with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Washington on Friday, as the question posed to him was for his comment on Parliamentary Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim facing another sodomy trial, starting from July 1 and fixed for 24 days, which the US State Department in the annual human rights report described as “politically motivated”.
Apart from declaring “utmost faith in our judicial system”, Anifah launched into a political attack on Anwar. Anwar had responded to it through his lawyers.
What interests me is that without being asked specifically, Anifah raised the Altantuya Shaariibuu C4 murder case, yet failing to address the host of serious questions and allegations haunting and hounding Najib about his involvement in the murder case.
Since Anifah has internationally admitted to Najib’s credibility problem stemming from the Altantuya Shaariibuu C4 murder case, is he prepared to propose at the Cabinet the establishment of a Royal Commission of Inquiry or even an independent international inquiry to once and for all clear Najib of all the haunting and hounding allegations dogging the Malaysian Prime Minister, whether in international circles or even inside the country?
Two other issues which Anifah adverted, though tangentially, in his joint press conference with Hilary Clinton were the independence of the judiciary and corruption in Malaysia, but he failed to give any convincing case that in both instances, Malaysia is making progress in achieving greater national and international confidence in restoring a just rule of law and a truly independent judiciary as well as improving in national integrity efforts to eradicate corruption.
Anifah should be better prepared to make a convincing case to the international community that Malaysia has reason to be proud of improvements in restoring national and international confidence in the independence, impartiality and integrity of the judiciary as well as in combatting corruption as both are important factors in determining Malaysia’s international competitiveness to attract foreign investments.
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