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Ramli refused to sweep the entire episode under the carpet. And because of that they came for him. And when he engaged a lawyer to defend him, and the lawyer successfully proved that the allegations against Ramli were unfounded, they came for the lawyer as well.
THE CORRIDORS OF POWER
Raja Petra Kamarudin
Last month, Malaysia Today republished a series of eight Statutory Declarations that were originally published two years ago. Six were Statutory Declarations signed by police officers and two by Chinese underworld figures. Copies of these Statutory Declarations were extended to ex-Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad as well.
When I signed a Statutory Declaration last year, they arrested me and charged me for criminal defamation. The government, however, has been very silent about these eight Statutory Declarations although the allegations are most serious indeed.
I mean: eight people, six of them police officers, have said that the police, all the way up to the IGP himself, are in partnership with the Chinese crime syndicate that controls most of the prostitution, gambling, drugs and loan shark business in Malaysia.
Either these allegations are true or they are false.
If they are true then why is the IGP being given another extension of service after the two-year extension beyond retirement given him in 2007? And since when does a retired IGP get more than a two-year extension after retirement? Traditionally, it has always been either a one- or two-year extension. And that is about it. And if the allegations are false then why have the eight not also been arrested and charged for criminal defamation -- just like me?
What many are not aware is, against the backdrop of all this, three court cases are going on simultaneously. One involves the ex-Director of the CCD, Datuk Ramli Yusuff, who was charged and is now on trial for the alleged crime of not declaring his assets. The other trial involves a lawyer, Rosli Dahlan, who represented the hapless one-time CCD Director. And the third court case, which has not been publicised that much, involves Malaysian Airlines in a civil suit it is facing.
Coincidently, Rosli, Ramli’s lawyer, is also representing MAS in that civil suit. And the irony to this whole thing is Rosli, who uncovered many transgressions and shady dealings in MAS, was also arrested and charged for not declaring his assets. Is Rosli being punished because he is representing a senior police officer that had exposed the links between the police and the Chinese underworld or is it to keep him quiet about what those who walk in the corridors of power are doing in MAS? And we are talking about billions of Ringgit here.
My suspicion is that it is both. They want to punish Rosli for getting Ramli off the hook and for proving that the government has no case against him, as well as to make sure that he does not talk about what he discovered in MAS. Well, Rosli may not want to talk since, as the lawyer for MAS, he has to be professional about attorney-client privileges. But Malaysia Today has ways of finding out what people would rather remain hidden.
Now, let’s get one thing very clear. The CCD Director is not being charged for corruption. He is being charged for not declaring his assets, which, according to what was leaked to the media, totals RM27 million in all. How they arrived at the figure of RM27 million and how come this was leaked to the media when the investigation was still ongoing and nothing had been established yet is a mystery that can only be speculated upon.
Does not information about a corruption investigation come under the ambit of the Official Secrets Act -- especially when the investigation is not completed yet and is still ongoing? Ezam Mohd Nor was arrested, charged and convicted for revealing the corruption investigation against the then Trade Minister, Rafidah Aziz. And he was sentenced to two years jail for this crime. So it certainly is a crime, according to the government. Yet, the investigation on Ramli’s alleged non-declaration of RM27 million in assets was leaked to the media even before anything had been established. Then it was found that there was no such thing as RM27 million assets -- declared or otherwise.
Anyway, Ramli engaged Rosli as his counsel and he managed to produce a set of accounts proving that the amount involved is not RM27 million and that whatever Ramli had earned over the more than 37 years of working life had in fact all been properly declared and none of the money was earned through illegal means.
You see, like many Malaysians, Ramli ‘plays’ the stock market and is quite good at buying low and selling high, which is how the stock market should be ‘played’. The nagging question is, though, not whether he procured the money the ‘proper’ way or otherwise -- which the accounts he submitted proved there was nothing illegal in his dealings -- but whether he had declared whatever he had earned.
The accounts that Rosli, Ramli’s lawyer, submitted showed that nothing untoward happened and that the CCD Director had not only earned his money the legitimate way but that he had also declared all his assets as well.
And that was when the government decided to arrest Rosli and also charge him for not declaring his assets. He was arrested on the eve of Hari Raya and thrown into the lockup for the night. During his arrest, which occurred in his office, they roughed him up as well.
Rosli lodged a complaint about this rough treatment in his office in front of his staff and they responded by lodging a counter-complaint that the lawyer had been verbally abusive to the officers who had come to arrest him in his office on the eve of Hari Raya.
But the CCD Director’s case is a very complex affair. It not only involves the Chinese crime syndicate and the links it has to the Malaysian police right up to the head honcho himself, the IGP. It also involves corruption, abuse of power, conflict of interest and mismanagement in Malaysia’s national airlines, MAS, which Ramli, as head of the CCD, had uncovered.
Malaysia Today discovered that Rosli is, in fact, also acting for MAS. So both Rosli and Ramli are very intimate with the details of the corruption, abuse of power, conflict of interest and mismanagement -- which goes all the way up to those who walk in the corridors of power.
The ‘crime’ that Ramli committed is that he detained a few underworld bosses linked to the police plus he opened a file and launched an investigation into the corruption, abuse of power, conflict of interest and mismanagement in MAS when the higher-ups told him not to. Why do the higher-ups want him to close the file on the Chinese crime syndicate as well as close the investigation on MAS and stamp these cases with NFA (no further action)?
Well, Ramli refused to sweep the entire episode under the carpet. And because of that they came for him. And when he engaged a lawyer to defend him, and the lawyer successfully proved that the allegations against Ramli were unfounded, they came for the lawyer as well.
Hishammuddin wants to do a walkabout on the streets of Kuala Lumpur to get to the bottom of the loan shark (ah long) problem. Actually he need not do that. He just needs to call for the file that was opened by Ramli and the whole (real) story would emerge as clear as daylight. The reason the ah long scourge can’t be eradicated is because any police office that dares ‘touch’ this case would be severely dealt with. Similarly, those who dare investigate corruption, abuse of power, conflict of interest and mismanagement in a GLC such as MAS that involves those who walk in the corridors of power would also be severely dealt with.
And that is why crime and corruption in Malaysia can’t be eradicated. This is because the real crime bosses sit in Putrajaya.
We are trying to get our hands on even more damaging evidence involving MAS from our contacts in Europe and we shall reveal in due course the extent of the abuse of power, conflict of interest, mismanagement and corruption involving those who walk in the corridors of power in Putrajaya.
Stay tuned for the next episode where you shall see where your hard-earned tax money has gone to and why we no longer have money to develop this country the way it should be.
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