YOURSAY | Apandi behind move to remove Sri Ram as special prosecutor

YOURSAY | ‘This is a ploy to discredit Sri Ram so that he is disqualified as lead prosecutor in the 1MDB trial.’

Apandi: Ex-federal court judge coaxed me to arrest then PM Najib

Vijay47: I couldn’t sleep a wink, former attorney-general Mohamed Apandi Ali, trying to imagine how exactly your meeting with special prosecutor Gopal Sri Ram must have gone.

So based wholly on the statement made by you, I have managed to recreate the following scenario. Certain minor details included are only the result of some poetic licence I have allowed myself.

So one fine January day, you open your front door and lo and behold! Why, it is Gopal Sri Ram and a young Chinese who I can safely assume was not Jho Low.

Sri Ram then casually mentions that Dr Mahathir Mohamad had sent him to request you to get then prime minister Najib Abdul Razak arrested. Which is, of course, the most common favour to ask of an attorney-general.

“What for?” you shrewdly ask and Sri Ram again casually replies that “people are frustrated” with Najib and the deed would make you a hero.

As everybody knows, the best cure for frustration is to arrest a serving prime minister.

Mahathir is believed to be a movie buff and he would surely have been aware of hidden cameras, microphones concealed in the ketupat, and all those spy-movie tricks.

Yet it seems like both he and Sri Ram didn’t care a hoot. But bear with me, the best is yet to come - Sri Ram mentions all this in front of witnesses!

We know that abduction is a common practice in Malaysia but, Apandi, do you really expect us to believe that a former prime minister would ask for the current prime minister to be arrested for no rhyme or reason except the people’s frustration?

Why didn’t you scream “fire!” and get Sri Ram arrested pronto, after all, you had all the evidence in the form of the CCTV recordings?

This was supposed to have occurred just four months before the general election and when the news hit the fan, Mahathir’s credibility would have been destroyed and Najib would have again marched triumphantly to Putrajaya. You kept quiet.

Were you, as the present holder seems wont to do, waiting for some former AG to give his views?

Perhaps you feared that the dearth of credibility was on yourself. After all, you did everything to shackle the 1MDB investigation and your very appointment was towards this end.

We know how you refused to cooperate with the Swiss and other authorities, not forgetting your unforgettable press conference with the smoking gun flowchart.

I am just waiting for your movie to be released. Is Riza Shahriz Abdul Aziz the producer?

MS: I am sure Apandi must have suffered stoically since that surreal night in January 2018, keeping it all bottled up inside with nary a hint of his anger and disgust at two audacious kafirs who deceived their way into his house with a proposal so subversive and nefarious that he could not get himself to say anything to anyone all this time.

Not to then inspector-general of police (IGP) Khalid Abu Bakar, not to senior lawyer Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, not to then deputy prime minister Zahid, not to Najib.

And certainly not to anyone in Umno, who at that time was waging war against the wily Mahathir to a point that even his full Indian name on his identity card had to be exposed by none other than the home minister and now friend and partner of current Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin.

Even when that other honest kafir, Tommy Thomas, decided to appoint the same nocturnal emissary to prosecute his much-maligned boss (Najib), he kept his silence.

Not once did he feel the urge to lift the lid on this villainous plot involving the now contracted deputy public prosecutor and his Chinese sidekick without a name. A lesser person would have exposed everything then. Not Apandi the strategist.

Apandi, having reflected on and internalised all of this, has clearly decided to practice all that has been preached. And for that alone, he should be recognised and rewarded.

Newday: Smoke and mirrors, truth and lies, are now being played out on our big Malaysian screen. Of course, those that support the incumbent non-elected government will believe anything that falls from their corrupted allies’ mouth.

This is a ploy to discredit Sri Ram so that he is disqualified as lead prosecutor in the 1MDB trial.

This is proof that this non-elected lot and their cronies such as the now-disgraced earlier AG will do anything to get Najib off his obvious world-impacting crimes.

Do those dark overlords in Umno care anything about honesty, morals, ethics or that oft-abused word dignity? Apparently not.

Sun: So, what is the point of this belated revelation, Apandi? Seeking your five minutes of publicity?

I think Mahathir also wrote to the Agong to act against Najib before Pakatan Harapan came to power.

So what is wrong in sending Sri Ram or anyone else to ask you to do the right thing, since you lacked the gumption to do it? Did he in any way subvert justice as you allegedly did? Najib was brought to trial. No dispute there, right?

And strangely, when you could find no wrongdoing, the new AG saw quite a bit. I suggest you enjoy your much-deserved forced retirement.

Malaysia Bharu: How are we to take this disgraced AG's words? And why is he spilling it now when the SRC trial is awaiting judgment?

And why was this not reported to the MACC at that time? After all, Apandi was appointed by Najib to replace Abdul Gani Patail allegedly dismissed for preparing a charge sheet in connection to the SRC International scam.

Apandi himself must be investigated because he subsequently exonerated Najib from the SRC/1MDB crimes that saw Apandi's successor Thomas filing multiple charges against Najib on the same issue.

What has Apandi to say about this? What right has he to point a finger at Sri Ram when he himself has allegedly abused his position?

Apa Harapan: Apandi, based on the evidence, you should have arrested and charged Najib. It is because you failed to discharge your sworn duty that he may have tried to “coax” you.

In any case, you have proven to be an incompetent AG appointed by the world's biggest kleptocrat to cover his misdeeds.

Bluemountains: The most important question to ask is whether Apandi did as required of him under the laws at the material time. Asking him to do what is required of him under the law should not be misinterpreted as coaxing.

CH Y: People come up with all kinds of stories but you have to examine the background dates and context of the facts then.

This was five months before GE14 when Najib had an iron grip on the police, state apparatus and of course, the AG. Only the election was an unknown factor.

This is clearly released to tarnish Sri Ram's name as a prelude to freeing those jokers he is prosecuting in 1MDB - all psywar or black ops tactics for the gullible.

RKR: Apandi, so what if you were asked to arrest him? Isn't that the right thing to do to someone who is highly suspected of squandering billions of the people's money?

BusinessFirst: Wow, unknown and untraced donors. Fictional accounts and companies created. Incredible fairy tales about not knowing about money that one has spent in the millions that one does not know has been received.

Add to that fantastic explanations about why someone is not corrupt or has done nothing wrong and yet demand that monies be returned or compensated for losses that were never incurred.

Now we add to this another story for the Malaysian public to justify the acquittal of some very important VVVIPs.

We already have in Riza's case the immediate past AG in principle approved. In Sabah chief minister Musa Aman's case, a previous AG had already determined no wrongdoing was done.

Now in this case we will have both - a past AG had determined no wrongdoing was done and that in principle approved the withdrawal of charges. We will probably throw in prosecutorial misconduct to justify the acquittal or withdrawal. No stone should be left unturned for the ninth prime minister.

PAS so quiet? GPS so quiet? MACC no ‘leaks’? PDRM no further investigations? MCA and MIC silent.

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