In Reply to : Malaysians love their country but hate the Govt. posted by Watch out for PRU 13 tsunami of people power on November 09, 2011 at 14:22:37:

Talk of the devil!
Dean Johns
11:19AM Nov 2, 2011

Last week, hardly had I completed ‘1Ular, lah’, the latest of dozens of columns I’ve written decrying the lying words and sordid deeds of Malaysian premier Najib Abdul Razak, than up he popped up in Perth for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting.

Even more alarming – or rather ular-ming - was the appearance on the opinion page of the Oct 27, 2011 Sydney Morning Herald of a self-praising article allegedly authored by him.

I use the word ‘allegedly’ advisedly, as surely Najib is far too elevated a personage to stoop to writing his own rubbish.

azlanAnd in any case he’s way too busy trying to slime his way out of alleged involvement in everything from corruption through election-rigging and the murder of Mongolian national Altantuya Shaariibuu [Najib has denied any involvement in her death].

In fact he’s the subject of so many allegations that he’s widely known in Malaysia by the title of not only prime minister, but also the alternative tag ‘Crime Minister’ created, I believe, by my old friend and pro-democracy blogger, Antares.

And in case you’re not prepared to take Antares’ or my word for his allegedly dubious record, take a look at what Hamish McDonald, Asia-Pacific Editor of the Sydney Morning Herald, wrote the day after Najib’s elevation to the premiership in April 2009.

najib installed as sixth malaysia prime minister 030409 03‘Yesterday one of the countries Australia and its friends have long seen as a pillar of regional stability took another big step towards becoming a pariah nation.

‘Malaysia swore in perhaps one of the most questionable current politicians in any of the world’s democracies as its new prime minister, in a triumph of party-machine politics over sound governance and morality.’

McDonald then proceeded to list suspicions that have long linked Najib’s name with alleged scandals, including massively-corrupt arms deals and murder of Altantuya, before concluding that ‘Southeast Asia seems to be getting a new Marcos’.

Then, following complaints by Najib’s supporters about such rough treatment from the foreign media, former BBC correspondent in Malaysia, Jonathan Kent wrote in a letter to Malaysiakini that ‘if Najib is attracting unwanted international media attention it is probably because it is really rather unusual for a head of government to find himself linked to the brutal murder of an attractive young woman or to huge and questionable commission payments for the purchase of armaments’.

Mendacious mush

Ever since receiving such scathing reviews on his elevation to top-dog of the pack of mongrels comprising Malaysia’s endlessly ruling BN, Najib has spent untold millions of ringgit in public money trying to refurbish his rotten reputation.

Among the expensive practitioners hired for this ambitious attempt to perform cosmetic surgery on his own and his regime’s ugly images have been outfits like FBC Media and Apco Worldwide.

And even these appointments have proven typically sleazy, if not outright corrupt. Highly hypocritical, too. For example, Malaysia officially refuses to recognise the existence of Israel, yet Apco Worldwide, PR consultant to numerous dubious organisations and notorious political regimes, is largely owned and managed by Israelis.

FBC Media, for its part, has been under investigation by the BBC, US broadcaster CNBC and the UK Office of Communications on suspicion of producing paid programmes promoting Najib’s regime, then fraudulently selling them to television channels as genuine documentaries.

azlanNothing daunted, however, Malaysia is believed to be out pimping for new propagandists, with rumours swirling around that one of its favoured candidates is Tony Blair’s former alleged weapon of mass deception, Alistair Campbell (left in photo).

Campbell denies he’s involved. But whatever and whoever, somebody ghost-wrote the load of mendacious mush that appeared under Najib’s name on the opinion page of the Sydney Morning Herald.

And whoever it was apparently doesn’t understand that ‘opinion’ implies the expression of a sincerely and honestly-held point of view, not simply a pack of blatant lies.

The most fundamental falsehood in the article was the phrase describing him as ‘the prime minister of a progressive liberal nation’.

isa unknownsProgressive? Liberal?? With an Internal Security Act that permits imprisonment without charge or trial? With police so politically compromised that they are effectively stand-over men and security guards for the regime?

With a judiciary so compliant that it practises selective justice and colludes with the government in political show-trials like those of Anwar Ibrahim on repeated sodomy charges?

With a civil service that, according to the auditor-general’s report year after year, systematically robs the nation blind?

With newspapers and radio and television stations all either government-owned or controlled so as to suppress bad news about the government and propagandise on the regime’s behalf?

azlanThen, as if ‘progressive’ and ‘liberal’ weren’t big enough porkies for readers to swallow, there was the statement that in Malaysia: ‘Genuine refugees are treated with the utmost dignity and respect while they await resettlement elsewhere. What we don’t tolerate is illegal immigration and people traffickers, and I’m not going to apologise for taking a tough stance on either.’

Tus state department report trafficking in person report 2009his claim contrasts starkly with the US State Department’s ‘Trafficking in Persons Report 2009' in which, of 173 countries surveyed, Malaysia was ranked in the ‘worst of the worst’ 17 along with such vicious abusers as Burma, Chad, Cuba, Eritrea, Fiji, Iran, Kuwait, Mauritania, Niger, North Korea, Papua New Guinea, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Swaziland, Syria and Zimbabwe.

The report stated that ‘Malaysia is a destination, and, to a lesser extent, a source and transit country for women and children trafficked for the purpose of commercial sexual exploitation, and for men, women and children trafficked for the purpose of forced labour’.

The report also referred to a US Senate Foreign Relations Committee finding in April 2009 that Malaysian immigration officials had sold refugees for US$200 per person to traffickers operating on the Thai border, and extorted ransoms of US$575 from adult refugees in return for their freedom.

This damning indictment concluded with the observation that, while the Malaysian prime minister had claimed that these allegations are being investigated by police immigration officials, ‘no officials were arrested, prosecuted or convicted for involvement in trafficking during the reporting period’.

And despite Najib’s sanctimonious international posturing, nothing whatever has since changed for better, as you can read for yourself.

In short, Najib’s progressive, liberal and otherwise angelic words are, as ever, just a cover for his own and his regime’s reactionary, repressive, dirty, devious and irredeemably devilish deeds.

And instead of still praising him as a potential partner in the resurrection of the so-called ‘Malaysia solution’ to the trafficking of refugees to Australia, the Gillard government should - like most Malaysians would dearly love to - tell him to go to hell.