Dr M should be 'jantan', cooperate with govt on Batu Puteh - Najib

Dr M should be 'jantan', cooperate with govt on Batu Puteh - Najib


Pekan MP Najib Abdul Razak today criticised former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad by comparing him with former attorney-general Tommy Thomas due to his refusal to cooperate with the government on the Pulau Batu Puteh issue.

Najib said the Langkawi MP’s protest walkout over former attorney-general Apandi Ali was the same as Tommy’s actions when he refused to cooperate with a special task force in January that was set up to investigate the claims made in his book “My Story: Justice in the Wilderness”.

“This is the same way the police report, which was an order from RCI BNM (The Royal Commission of Inquiry Bank Negara Malaysia), was retracted by the Pakatan Harapan government and classified as not needing immediate action when Mahathir was prime minister, and when Tommy was the attorney-general.

“If this is the case, the mystery of the missing Pulau Batu Puteh case, abandoned court cases involving Harapan leaders, selected prosecution cases, and a new judge with no experience in criminal cases can suddenly be transferred to a criminal court to replace another judge for the most high-profile case even when proceedings have begun will always remain mysterious,” Najib said in a post on his Facebook page today.

“These mysteries are the same as how RM33 billion (close to RM200 billion today) of Bank Negara funds went missing in the 1990s, and no one was found responsible for its disappearance,” he added.

Najib also described Mahathir and Tommy’s actions as disrespectful to RCIs.

“Atok’s behaviour is like Tommy’s. He has no intention to cooperate with the government of the day,” he said.

Najib chided Mahathir, stating that a person who once held the reins of power should be “jantan” (have the courage), take responsibility, and be accountable to the nation and its people.

Yesterday, Mahathir walked out of the Attorney-General’s Chambers, where he was supposed to be interviewed by a panel on tort misfeasance regarding the sovereignty of Pulau Batu Puteh.

He claimed the walkout was due to Apandi being the panel’s chairperson and a person with a conflict of interest in the case.

Previously, in July 2019, during the Harapan administration, then minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Liew Vui Keong stated that a police report based on the RCI’s findings of the foreign currency scandal from back in the ’90s was classified as not needing further action.

Liew stated that a study of the findings showed that there was a lack of clarity on the documents to prove the validity of the claim.

Liew added that this was because the scandal occurred over 25 years ago, and the original documents are nowhere to be found.