Not surprisingly, Dr Mahathir’s former aide Matthias Chang has pooh-pooh-ed the government’s claim of declassifying documents pertaining to the ‘scenic’ bridge issue that Mahathir demanded. Chang said the government is conning the Malaysian public, terming the action as nothing more than a fraud.
Why 'not surprisingly'? Because I too have some doubts as to the sincerity of the government's actions. It took so long to respond to Dr Mahathir's accusations, that my KTemoc-ish suspicious mind couldn't help but gain the impression it didn’t really want to do so in the first place, but subsequently decided to put on a sandiwara (show) when it sensed that even UMNO members were growing uneasy. And if I suspect some jolly cooking had been conducted, can anyone blame poor ignorant outsider me?
Besides, the information the government has proudly announced as declassified has already been available for eons in the public domain in Singapore. In fact Chang stated that the so-called classified documents released last week were already published by the Singapore government in the booklet ‘Water talks? If Only It Could’.
He declared: “In the circumstances, in law and in fact, these documents are in the public domain and cannot be considered ‘classified’ anymore.”
“The spin was obvious. The government is bending backwards to be truthful and transparent and that these declassified documents will address and answer Mahathir's questions. They have not. Instead, they have given rise to more questions.”
“If only the government and the NST took a few minutes to examine the book 'Water talks? If Only It Could' they would realise that the following letters - Lee Kuan Yew's letter (Aug 24, 2000), Mahathir's letter to Lee (March 4, 2002), Goh Chok Tong's letter (April 11, 2002), Mahathir's letter (Oct 7, 2002) and Goh's letter (Oct 14, 2002) - were in the public domain and therefore need not be declassified.”
“It is old news and the public is well aware of their implications. The public was aware of these documents way back in April when I brought them to their notice. But it took the government and the NST almost three months to come to grips with these documents and yet they still cannot get it right.”
3 months! That’s why even gullible naïve KTemoc ;-) had been suspicious.
Chang alleged that the “spin which the government is making is a reflection of their desperation. Because the government controls the mass media, the spin doctors are banking that the public would accept their perverse version of the events.”
Chang called for complete disclosure of all documents relating to the case and not the partial release as had been done by the government. Chang also cited Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar’s promise last month to declassify all documents relating to the bilateral negotiations between Malaysia and Singapore.
“The public is still waiting for the declassification of the relevant documents, in particular the entire minutes of the meeting between Pak Lah and Goh Chok Tong on March 1, 2005 and the minutes of the five rounds of negotiations between senior officials of Malaysia and Singapore. In the case of the latter minutes, it is clear that the offer to sell sand came from Malaysia.”
My underlining above, but I wonder how Chang knows which particular minutes contained the damaging info?
The offer to sell sand came from Malaysia? Tiu kow …, ping kor hai iti suoi chai ar?*
* F-it, who’s the responsible naughty bugger?
Chang demanded “No extracts. We want the full minutes of the meetings.”
After offering a lengthy ‘point by point rebuttal to the government’s answers’ in his email communiqué with the press, Chang urged PM AAB to be honest with the people.
“He must declassify all the minutes of meetings relating to the bilateral negotiations between Malaysia and Singapore since he took over as prime minister.”
But Mohd Nazri Abdul Aziz, the acting Law Minister and the man who told Mahathir to bugger-off from UMNO if he (the latter) is a jantan (has any balls), said that the government would only declassify extracts which it felt was relevant to Dr Mahathir’s queries.
He appeared to have backtracked from Foreign Minister Syed Hamid’s promise to declassify all documents pertaining to the Malaysian-Sing negotiations on the bridge-airspace-sand issues. Chang scoffed at the government’s about turn.
Looks like we will never be informed who was the Malaysian who had offered sand to the Singaporeans, though we all know who – don't know yet know, hah, just one of those silly Malaysian idiosyncrasies.
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