Dirty politics, 20 June: Jomo's Forget politics, tough times are here will continue to fall on deaf ears. The Hazmingate Affair has just entered Episode 3 and here comes a manuscript on the oh-so-familiar topic of why Anwar Ibrahim cannot be Prime Minister. The first bestseller of such nature was published over 20 years ago and led to Anwar's sensational sacking and sodomy trials. The author of that first book is long dead but most of the key players in the political drama inspired by the book are still alive and kicking our butts.
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| "... this person is a cheap writer, who was paid" |
Re the latest book, Anwar's aide has lodged a police report, accusing the author of blackmail. In response, the author, Yahaya Ismail, has shared the WhatsApp exchanges he had with Anwar's aide to prove that it was not blackmail, just a business talk. According to the WhatsApp exchanges, which I have seen, the author told Anwar's aide that another party had offered him RM400,000 for his book's copyright. So if Anwar could offer anything more than that, the PM-in-waiting can have the entire copyright and doesn't have to publish a single copy of the book if he so wishes ...
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| "RM400k for book's copyright is not blackmail" |