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| An 1882 painting of Pedra Branca before Horsburgh Lighthouse was built upon it. |
You trust Mat Zain? Malaysia lost Pulau Batu Putih aka Pedra Branca on 23 May 2008 after the International Court of Justice in The Hague ruled that the White Rock was under Singapore's sovereignty. Sixteen international judges deliberated over the dispute. The verdict was 12-4.
Now, five and a half years later, this former CID chief Mat Zain Ibrahim suddenly comes up with a Statutory Declaration to accuse wrong-doing by the AG Gani Patail in the handling of the sovereignty claim. The former cop alleged, among other things, that money changed hands.
Why did Mat Zain take this long to come up with his SD? How did he sleep all these years, if what he has stated in the SD was true? Did Mat Zain - a former top cop - fear for his life, was that why he had not come forwards earlier?
But what was there to fear? In Nov 2007, when reps from both countries presented their cases to the ICJ, ordinary Malaysians were speaking out loudly against the weak leadership of PM Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. Even the kucing kurap bloggers were fearless in their criticisms of the Government's overtures towards Singapore, which we thought was overly friendly. When we officially lost Pulau Batu Putih, we saw it as yet another failure of the "Sleepyhead" admin and his pro-Singapore policies. Another reason to bring Abdullah down after the disastrous March 2008 general election.
The other thing bothering me about Mat Zain is his weapon of choice: the Statutory Declaration. This is not the first time an SD has been used to create havoc in the minds of Malaysians. I remember very well two SDs, both done in 2008 after the March general election and in the run-up to Anwar Ibrahim's Sept 16 "project":
1. Raja Petra Kamaruddin's 2008 SD accusing Rosmah Mansor, the wife of Najib Razak, for being at the scene of the murder of Altantuya, the estranged Mongolian girlfriend of Razak Baginda.
"I have been reliably informed that between about 10pm on October 19, 2006 and early hours of the following day, the night Altantuya Shaariibuu was murdered, three other people were also present at the scene of crime..."
Remember the gullibles among you swallowing every word in the SD? And when three years later RPK admitted that his so-called reliable informer turned out to be most unreliable, some people still clung on to his SD. (Cops must still probe RPK's SD, says PKR veep).
2. PI Bala's two SDs in July 2008. I think most of you remember them, even though PI Bala is no more. A lot of gullible Malaysians back in 2008 but I never trusted the guy. Excerpts from my posting h e r e:
You trust him? I don't. This was the guy whose own assistant was spending nights with Altantuya and her friends at their hotel instead of keeping them under surveillance. He didn't know if Altantuya "was susceptible to anal intercourse" but still included it in his first SD ...
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| PI Bala and Anwar Ibrahim |