“We are not retreating. We are advancing in another direction.”
“It is fatal to enter any war without the will to win it.”
“Old soldiers never die; they just fade away.
“The soldier, above all other people, prays for peace,
for he must suffer and be the deepest wounds and scars of war.”
“May God have mercy upon my enemies, because I won't .” “The object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other bastard die for his.
“Nobody ever defended anything successfully, there is only attack and attack and attack some more.
“Fixed fortifications are a monument to the stupidity of man." “It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived.
The 'ketuanan state' attempts to pin blame on Tommy Thomas - Commander S THAYAPARAN (Retired) Royal Malaysian Navy
Monday, May 18, 2020
Malaysiakini : "This is absolutely shocking because MACC were continuing with the lie after the truth had been pointed out to them." – Former AG Tommy Thomas
COMMENT
| Riza Abdul Aziz’s plea bargain, the stench of which is overpowering
even for this kakistocracy, has the intended consequence of besmirching
the reputation of former attorney-general Tommy Thomas.
Now, you either believe Thomas when he says that the MACC is lying
that he agreed to the plea deal or you can believe the MACC chief
commissioner Azam Baki who claims, “... a deputy public prosecutor
involved in the case had told him that Thomas agreed to the plea
bargain”. And the new AG, who apparently was advised that Thomas agreed in principle to this deal.
Some
folks were quick to the point of gleefulness when the MACC claimed that
Thomas sanctioned this deal. Everyone knows this deal stinks to high
heaven, which is why it needs to be justified. Claims that Thomas
approved of this deal, conveniently shifts the blame from the PN
government and its apparatchiks to Thomas and Harapan.
This, of
course, is ludicrous because for Harapan and its base, Najib and Co, is
the apogee of everything they claim is wrong with the system. Najib
returning is like Sauron reforming after the war of the last alliance
and something that is dreaded by the Harapan faithful.
Azam (above) says the MACC stands by
its statement. Malaysians are constantly told not to be fooled by fake
news, but what the MACC has done is to engage in fake news, because all
they have done is stand by a statement that is devoid of facts, unlike
Thomas, who neatly laid out a chronology of events, citing the relevant
facts where necessary.
What does it say of the MACC when a former
AG accuses the organisation of lying, and the head of the MACC merely
says that it if the former AG wants to deny, that’s up to him. What kind
of banana republic is this? You do not provide any evidence that the
former AG sanctioned this deal and then you merely dismiss his
allegations that the graft busting body is lying. The same goes for the
current AG, whose only defence for this deal - and really nobody from PN
besides pointing to the loads of cash they hope to get from this deal -
has justified it on moral grounds.
It is as if everyone has
dropped the pretence of professionalism and independence. It is as if
everyone associated with this regime has decided that, like Donald
Trump, they can put out any lie and merely shrug it off as business as
usual.
The current AG has claimed that he was “advised” that
Thomas agreed in “principle” of the plea deal. Firstly, why didn’t the
current AG just pick up the phone and ask Thomas his views on the
matter, instead of being “advised”? This just makes no sense whatsoever.
Indeed,
all this confusion could have been cleared up if Thomas was consulted
on this issue, instead of the main players relying on vaguely worded
advice and resorting to legalese to pull the wool over everyone’s eyes.
I
mean, take this paragraph from the statement issued by the current AG:
“Having been briefed by the deputy public prosecutors in charge of the
matter, I shared the views of my predecessor as had been informed to me, and agreed to accept the offer that was made by Riza (photo, below), subject to his strict compliance with the terms and conditions.” The emphasis is mine.
This
is strange. The AG acknowledged that he had no first-hand knowledge but
was relying on information supplied to him by the deputy prosecutor in
charge.
When the apparatchiks of the “ketuanan
state” indulge in this kind of malfeasance, they always like to name
unnamed sources to give credibility to their mendacious acts. For
instance, in 2007 then attorney-general Abdul Gani Patail attempted to link Hindraf with the LTTE in the infamous Batu Caves 31 murder trial.
Lim
Kit Siang wrote: "What was the justification for the attorney-general
leading the attack on Hindraf for its alleged terrorist links? Gani said
his linking Hindraf to the LTTE in his argument at the Shah Alam
Sessions Court on Wednesday was based on a police report. He said:
Somebody lodged a police report that there is ground that these people
have been going out to (establish) contact with this LTTE."
Therefore,
there is a pattern here. Someone said something, lodged a police report
or told a superior, and the next thing you know, “this something told
by someone” becomes “fact” and anonymous minions become the driving
force of the ketuanan state’s agenda. Claiming that Thomas
sanctioned the Riza deal has the dual contradictory subtext of giving
credibility to the deal while at the same time tarnishing the reputation
of the former AG who was always on the crosshairs of the far-right and
agents of the fascist state.
When Thomas dropped the charges
against the LTTE 12, what it exposed was the deep mistrust of a security
state that for decades was allowed to operate – as long as it offered
protection to the political elite. Sources of Singapore's Straits Times, from
the state security apparatus, droned on about how they were
disappointed in Thomas: “Since the very beginning, Thomas was quite
reluctant to charge them, especially the two DAP lawmakers, even though
we have presented him with enough evidence to try them in court.
Fighting terrorism will be harder now, since this case has set a
precedent."
How do you explain to people, especially to someone
like the current PM who lost his job when the Najib regime retaliated
against him, for allowing one of the alleged looters of this country to
get off free?
Let us not even consider the political implications
of a lame-duck PM when it comes to freeing the child of one of your
main supporters/antagonists in your feeble alliance.
How do you frame
the narrative for something like this?