Of all the hearsay, the most stunning was none other than possible sacking of DPM Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin in favor of home minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.
It was rumored merely days ago that Muhyiddin would only be the DPM and no more the education minister while Najib was said to unload his finance portfolio.
But nothing came more shocking than the actual cabinet reshuffle announced by the PM this afternoon, in which Muhyiddin was chopped along with four ministers and one deputy minister.
Out of the blue Muhyiddin revealed in an Umno divisional meeting two days ago that PM Najib had ignored his advice to quit his 1MDB post, and after that the two top guys did not talk or gesture to each other in two subsequent dinner meets.
With the Umno divisional meetings now on-going, Najib is dropping a bomb within his own party, declaring war on his opponents in an outright fashion If Najib does not have sufficient confidence to win the battle, he must be fighting desperately to clutch at a straw.
He is anticipated to be confronted with tremendous backlash in the days to come, as it becomes natural now for Muhyiddin to team up with Mahathir and others to turn against the PM.
Even during the fasting month, it was already rumored that The Edge would face government action for its fearless revelations on the 1MDB imbroglio. Last Friday, it became official that The Edge Financial Daily and The Edge Weekly would be suspended for three months.
Even though the suspension order did not come as a surprise to many, the news still made many feel unimaginable. The media owner was once again called up by Bukit Aman for questioning this morning.
Since Mahathir's days the BN government has been meting out punishments in the form of publishing permit suspension, actions and interrogations against news editors.
In 1987, Sin Chew Daily was accused of playing up the sensitive education issue and jeopardizing national security for reporting the incident of education ministry sending teachers unfamiliar with the Chinese language to assume senior posts in Chinese primary schools. In the end, Sin Chew Daily saw its publishing permit suspended for the next five months and 11 days.
I personally was called up by the home ministry on numerous occasions to explain why certain pieces of news had been published. Sometimes we got away pretty easily but there were times we were served reminders or warning letters.
Time has changed. While you can take away the reporter's pen, you cannot stop him from telling the truth through other means.
Although both The Edge Financial Daily and The Edge Weekly have been suspended by the home ministry, they can still disseminate information through social media sites. Even if their websites were to be taken offline eventually, news can still be passed around through Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites.
In other words, the suspension order has lost its meaning in today's context.
Many Malaysians, including ordinary Umno members, are keen to find out what has actually happened to the US$700 million purportedly transferred to PM Najib's personal bank accounts.
Other than the jaw-dropping cabinet reshuffle, the government also dropped another member of the 1MDB task force, Attorney-General Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail, on health reasons, replacing him with Federal Court judge Mohamed Apandi Ali. Abdul Gani's tenure is supposed to expire only on October 6 this year. When approached by the media, Abdul Gani said he was not aware that he had been terminated.
It strikes me how the government has trifled with such a critical appointment.
Abdul Gani reportedly said he did not intend to have his service renewed but he just wanted to finish off with his task force assignment before he would call it quits. It is widely believed that more follow-up developments will surface over the next couple of days following Abdul Gani's untimely dismissal.
The chairman and two of the members of the PAC--also tasked with the job of probing the 1MDB scandal--have been unexpectedly appointed deputy ministers in today's cabinet reshuffle. This is poised to affect the progress, and the credibility, of the 1MDB probe.
Will Najib become safer now that the cabinet has been reshuffled? How far can he go from here? This is a question that will not take too long to reveal itself.
By KUIK CHENG KANG
Translated by DOMINIC LOH
Sin Chew Daily
No comments:
Post a Comment