Najib to clean up mess before party polls

In the Jews, Najib and Rosmah look to pin fallout from RM24mil ring?

As anticipated, a massive clean-up has begun for Prime Minister Najib Razak, starting with his wife Rosmah Mansor and her alleged RM24.4 million diamond ring. The main purpose - to defend his very shaky UMNO presidency ahead of party polls due next year.

Although the country is also headed for snap elections widely expected to be held in October or November 2011, Najib appears more concerned about his personal power as more leaders from both within UMNO and BN turn to his deputy Muhyiddin Yassin for guidance after a series of governance and political blunders by his administration.

Meanwhile, pundits expressed disappointment that Najib would again revert to Jew-bashing in a bid to get Rosmah and himself off the hook. Although news of the garagantuan diamond ring had shocked everyday Malaysians, not many have doubts that the first couple had more than enough money to make such a purchase, which in US terms is worth $8 million.

What the pundits are alluding to is of course, the Scorpenes corruption scandal, in which Najib has been accused of benefiting through his close friend, Razak Baginda, a commission allegedly paid by vendor DCN in the form of a maintenance deal worth 114 million euros or RM570 million. Against such an amount, $8million is but a drop in the ocean, and critics remind the Scorpenes was just of the many deals Najib has been doubted over since taking to politics at the age of 22.

How does Jacob's criminal record prove Najib's and Rosmah's innocence

However, what is distasteful this time around was the way the UMNO media wrapped themselves around the owner of Jacob & Co, Jacob Arabo. Arabo is a Uzbekistan-born Jew, who has been to jail before.

In 1998, Arabo was arrested by the FBI for alleged criminal possession of stolen property. The charges were later dropped. He was arrested by the FBI again in 2006, this time for allegedly laundering US$270 million (RM810 million) for the notorious Detroit-based Black Mafia Family (BMF) drug gang and failing to report large cash purchases to the Internal Revenue Service.

However, to critics of the Malaysian first couple's lavish lifestyle, Arabo's criminal record does not in anyway clear either Rosmah or Najib. How can Arabo's guilt prove their innocence? In fact, Pakatan Rakyat leaders are confident that should the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission be allowed to do an independent investigation into the Scorpenes and Altantuya Shaariibuu scandals, the first couple might well find themselves behind bars too.

It must be pointed out that Najib has denied any involvement in the Scorpenes corruption scandal and says he has never never met Altantuya before. However, French lawyer William Bourdon was just last week deported from Malaysia when he came to brief his client, top NGO Suaram,  and various citizen-groups about the French investigators' progress in the case. The Parisian authorities are due to begin open court hearings some time in September.

Rosmah herself said "there is nothing I want to say because I have no time to address such things. Let (the blogger) say what he want." She was responding to a query put to her in Kedah a day ago on whether the ring was hers, as alleged. She sidestepped giving any direct denial, and moved on to grab some sympathy from the public by saying, “this is slander but what have I not experienced? I have experienced it all. So, rather than address this, it is better I pay attention to public issues as these are more important.”

In Malaysia, when all else fails, blame the Jews

Gauging by the tack the UMNO media are moving towards, a plot is now in place to clear Rosmah by claiming that her name was falsely used and without her knowledge. This means that screenshots of the Malaysian Custioms department computer system may well be authentic. One of the screenshots clearly show her name under the importer column (scroll below).

This ties in with a stridently anti-Semtic article that came out in the UMNO-owned Utusan newspaper, which takes its editorial lead directly from Najib. So offensive did the Jewish diaspora find the July 18 editorial, that the B'nai B’rith International issued a stinging rebuke. The Utusan had blamed “foreign Jews” for instigating the July 9 Bersih rally for free and fair elections.

It also sparked another influential US media, the Huffington Post, to run a commentary entitled In Malaysia, when in doubt, blame the Jews.

"The Jews? Most citizens of the overwhelmingly Asian economic giant have never and will likely never meet a Jew in their lifetime. And yet the folks at Utusan Malaysia, which is influential among Muslims in rural areas who rely on government-linked media to shape their worldview, are apparently confident warnings about a "Jewish plot" would resonate in a land without Jews," wrote Rabbi Abraham Cooper.

Jacob the Jeweller, Fagin the thief

Indeed, the time may well have come to draw the curtains on the Najib administration lest it causes further harm to the country's image. Even now, the UMNO media under his charge are making free with Arabo's nickname of Jacob the Jeweller, imputing the same derogatory connotation as in Fagin the thief - the villian in Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist.

As former US ambassador to Malaysia John Malott commented recently, the Najib administration kept "shooting itself in the foot". To the First World community, perhaps most telling is the way Najib tried to suppress the Scorpene details from surfacing last week. William Bourdon's deportation travelled far and wide, much further than from Kuala Lumpur to Paris.

"This is a government – even though they have spent millions on Public Relations firms and management consultants – that keeps shooting itself in the foot. The deportation of the French lawyer is only the latest example. Now, for the first time, all the juicy details of that scandal – including the model who was murdered by the PM’s bodyguards – have appeared in the Washington Post. It just adds to the confusion among people here – what kind of a country is Malaysia, anyhow? And is Najib really the person that he has portrayed himself to be?" Malott had told Malaysia Chronicle in a recent interview.

Adapted from Wong Choon Mei, Malaysia Chronicle