Revelation of Malaysia's dirty politics by an Ex-US ambassador

Prime Minister Najib Razak and wife Rosmah Mansor have a lot to answer to. Already overflowing in scandal over massive corruption and ordered by the court to testify in Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim's sodomy trial, for which he has accused them of plotting, a former US ambassador has dropped a bombshell.

John Malott, now the president of the Japan-America Society of Washington DC, was in charge of the mission in Kuala Lumpur from 1995 to 1998. He told of how Najib had struck an alliance and understanding with Anwar, who was then deputy prime minister, and how Najib later betrayed Anwar.


Both leaders were from the ruling party UMNO, whose members were then restless and unhappy with the ham-fisted ways of Mahathir Mohamad, the prime minister who ruled Malaysia from 1981 to 2003.

"When I was in KL, Najib’s personal think tank was called the Malaysian Strategic Research Centre, or MSRC. MSRC basically was two people, Rohanna Mahmood and Razak Baginda. Rohanna told me that Najib and Anwar had reached a secret agreement. When Mahathir was gone, Anwar would be PM and Najib would be Deputy PM. That was the deal," John Malott wrote in his article published in Malaysia Chronicle on Tuesday.

"That never happened, of course. When the going got tough, Najib stood by, and let Anwar go to jail."

Indeed, sensing a shift in the wind, the wily Mahathir gathered together his trusted lieutenants including former Finance minister Daim Zainuddin and slapped on sodomy and graft charges against a stunned Anwar, who was then the darling of the Malay community and UMNO grassroots. This was the modus operandi Mahathir was accused of using to nip in the bud potential attempts by Anwar to challenge him at upcoming party elections.

Nuked until he could never stand up again

Malott revealed even more shocking information in his article entitled Malott drops a bombshell: A secret pact between Najib and Anwar.

Razak Baginda, who years later acted as a negotiator for Najib in the RM7 billion Scorpene submarines purchase, told a US embassy staff that a decision had been made to "nuke" Anwar until he could "never stand up again politically.”

Baginda told a senior Embassy officer, “The decision has been made. They are going to “nuke” Anwar politically for all time to come. “Until he can never stand up again politically.”

After that, a senior officer in the Special Branch told an Embassy officer, “We are going to keep filing charge after charge after Anwar so he will be in jail for the next hundred years.”

"Can there be any doubt about what was going on then – and what is going on now?" said Malott, describing the onslaught by Anwar's enemies as a "political decision".

The ex-Ambassador's startling revelations rang a bell for Chua Jui Meng, who in the late 1990s, was the BN Health minister.

"Yes, I remember Malott, he was a very active ambassador. He visited me in my ministry and never struck me as being pro-Anwar. He gave a lot of time to the other departments in the government as well. There was no reason to be pro-Anwar anway. I think Malott is cheesed off at what's happening now because this took place when he was around and was privy to a lot of top-level information," Jui Meng, now a PKR vice president, told Malaysia Chronicle.

"But I am glad that he has spoken up and made public the information he had at his disposal. This will help to inject some justice into our very skewed system and put some perspective in the anti-Anwar propaganda churned out by the mainstream media on a daily basis. That is wholly unfair. What I can share with you is that Najib has always been someone who swings with the wind and win. And that says it all."

Treachery most vile

However, Najib not only stood by, letting Anwar remain in jail and getting beaten up by a senior cop keen to please Mahathir, 10 years later in 2008, he and wife Rosmah had a 'chat' with a young man called Saiful Bukhari Azlan.

Two days after meeting Najib, who was then deputy prime minister and very anxious to sit in the PM's chair, Saiful lodged a police report, accusing Anwar of sodomising him. It was a reprsal of the script Anwar accused Mahathir of writing in 1998, in which he had been accused of sodomising his wife's driver. From prime minister-in-waiting, Anwar lost everything. His family was forced to shift out of their government quarters and he was forced to spend the next 6 years in jail.

It was only after Mahathir retired that the country's federal court dared to overturn the manifestly fabricated sodomy charges against him.

But not only has history repeated itself in 2008, Najib too appears to have succumbed to the same dark forces that had guided Mahathir.

"Ask around Umno circles and you will hear this too. Najib has never been known to be loyal nor decisive. His political history is chequered with betrayals and opportunism beginning with his betrayal of Tengku Razaleigh in 1987," PKR strategy director Rafizi Ramli told Malaysia Chronicle.

"Najib will say anything to secure the post he wants, so I am not surprised by Malott's disclsoure. It was an open secret. Everybody knew Mahathir sought Najib's support after sacking Anwar and Najib let Anwar down even though he was part of Anwar's Wawasan 2020 team. That is why he nearly lost his Pekan seat in the election after that."

Indeed, when defending himself against the second-round of sodomy charges, Anwar said as much during open court on Monday.

“This entire process is nothing but a conspiracy by Prime Minister Dato’ Seri Najib Razak to send me into political oblivion by attempting once again to put me behind bars. I therefore declare that I have no faith whatsoever that justice will prevail in these proceedings notwithstanding the valiant efforts made by my defence team. As I have said at the outset, this is not a criminal trial. It is a charade staged by the powers that be to put me out of action in order that they remain in power.”

Written by  Wong Choon Mei, Malaysia Chronicle