Even though statutory declaration (SD) as a legislative apparatus exists for eons, most Malaysians only became aware of it when RPK posted his famous or infamous SD on Shariibuu Altantuyaa and Rosmah Mansor in mid 2008, to the utter delight of PKR. Unfounded allegations have it that bathrooms of some PKR members were occupied for hours that night, wakakaka.
Right from that very start, I've never found the contents of RPK's declarations a la 'I have been reliably informed .....' plausible.
But then I suppose I have been one of the few who found the assertions quite implausible perhaps in a small way due to my lack of feral animosity or antipathy towards Najib Razak but more because of my inability to absorb the ridiculous picture of Rosmah Mansor in her high heels, birkin bag, expensive dress and beehive hairdo trekking in the mosquito-infested blukar to just witness a gruesome act, that of blasting Altantuyaa to smithereens with C4.
Why would she? And what was Altantuyaa's connection with Najib other than what we were informed by Perumal Balasubramaniam's SD which was released in a press conference, now get this, spearheaded by none other than Anwar Ibrahim.
Apart from Balasubramaniam's SD, was there any indication of Altantuyaa in a closed relationship or contact with Najib? OK, if you're desperate for evidence in this respect, yes, you can use Tian Chua's photoshop nonsense, wakakaka.
But the FACT has been that there was NOT one single evidence of direct connection between Altantuyaa and Najib, other than via Razak Baginda.
In 2008 I had then written in a post about RPK's SD, in which I provided a case of SD by politicians in Australia, in which I said:
But if you read the [Australian] declarations they were couched in terms like “I recall …” and "I would not have said those words because it has always been my belief …”.
Tap dancing through the tulips.
Other useful dancing phrases would be “To the best of my recollection …”, “I was informed by my staff …”, “According to departmental briefings …”, “At that time, this was the information I was provided with …”, etc.
So, in reality a Stat Dec is not necessarily 100% fire-proof evidence but it certainly carries a powerful sheen of authority, and serves certain purpose, like (as mentioned) substituting for the original but lost documentary evidence such as a lost birth/death certificate.
Let’s examine RPK’s Stat Dec – see copy here as provided by Malaysiakini.
Therein, RPK declared “I have been reliably informed …” four times whilst saying “… I make this solemn declaration conscientiously believing the same to be true …”
In other words he was told by someone, hearsay evidence so to speak.
But of course RPK more importantly also declared: “I have knowledge of who has informed me of this matter plus I have knowledge of the Ruler who has been briefed and is aware of the matter but I have agreed that I shall not reveal this information other than mention that the Prime Minister and his son-in-law have been handed a written report confirming what I have revealed.”
… though he asserted in his Stat Dec he will not reveal who his informer has been nor the Ruler who was privy to the shocking allegation of Rosmah Mansor being at the crime scene to witness the C4 explosives being placed on the corpse of Shariibuu Altantuyaa.
But if you read the [Australian] declarations they were couched in terms like “I recall …” and "I would not have said those words because it has always been my belief …”.
Tap dancing through the tulips.
Other useful dancing phrases would be “To the best of my recollection …”, “I was informed by my staff …”, “According to departmental briefings …”, “At that time, this was the information I was provided with …”, etc.
So, in reality a Stat Dec is not necessarily 100% fire-proof evidence but it certainly carries a powerful sheen of authority, and serves certain purpose, like (as mentioned) substituting for the original but lost documentary evidence such as a lost birth/death certificate.
Let’s examine RPK’s Stat Dec – see copy here as provided by Malaysiakini.
Therein, RPK declared “I have been reliably informed …” four times whilst saying “… I make this solemn declaration conscientiously believing the same to be true …”
In other words he was told by someone, hearsay evidence so to speak.
But of course RPK more importantly also declared: “I have knowledge of who has informed me of this matter plus I have knowledge of the Ruler who has been briefed and is aware of the matter but I have agreed that I shall not reveal this information other than mention that the Prime Minister and his son-in-law have been handed a written report confirming what I have revealed.”
… though he asserted in his Stat Dec he will not reveal who his informer has been nor the Ruler who was privy to the shocking allegation of Rosmah Mansor being at the crime scene to witness the C4 explosives being placed on the corpse of Shariibuu Altantuyaa.
Who told him is now irrelevant as we know that RPK is brave if not anything, thus we may expect him to observe the promised (but seemingly selective) sealed lips. He is a man prepared to go to jail again, though I suspect he must have sensed that the PM or DPM will ignore his taunting Stat Dec to prevent him from expanding on the scandal.
And has he been telling the truth?
I believe so, to the extent as he had enunciated in the Stat Dec, to wit, that he has been reliably ‘informed’ by someone (whom we will never know), and that he wanted to reveal what he personally believed to be 'evidence' to assist the police in the case.
Of course we Malaysians love to and can speculate on the ID of the informer, by a process of intelligent elimination - eg. could it be a Ruler or a police insider? - or by giving our prejudice or conspiracy-theory inclinations full free and unfettered reins - or, could it be Tian Chua … wakakakakaka, KJ ;-) or even the ghost of Altantuyaa?
However, I have to admit I find the idea of the wife of a DPM who would turun padang to supervise or witness the placement of C4 on Altantuyaa's corpse, rather bizarre and, frankly, quite implausible.
But then, I am sure there will be those who believe (or want to believe) that's exactly right up her alley. And indeed, who am I to assert they're wrong to do that?
In fact I had then also commented that I couldn't help but wonder whether this is part of the GAN campaign (ANC in English) to keep the Altantuyaa-rised ‘rage’ against Najib blazing ... at that time when a university don had forecasted that PKR planned 4 or 5 more by-elections in constituencies where PKR had at least a 70% surety level of victory.
As I'm known to be biased against the deformasi party, wakakaka, I said that if the uni don's forecast was true, then PKR had been into deplorable disruptive destabilizing destructive politics - also see my poem Murdering Altantuyaa Shaariibuu Again.
Later I was to learn from RPK's posts that it was part of a black ops plan to stop Najib from beocming the DPM (to AAB) because a couple of other guys had ambitions to that position,wakakaka, and that those two were the instigators and promoters, directly or indirectly through their aides/supporters, of RPK's SD. One of them and his cohorts continued with subsequent campaigns along the same vein.
Since then, in recent times, RPK has decided to reveal more. He asserted that he had never claimed Rosmah did what was narrated in his SD, and that he made that SD because he wanted to reveal what he personally believed to be 'evidence' to assist the police in the case.
| Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.  |
Very touching but what about Malaysians Preeshena Varshiny and Nurin Jazlin Jazimin? By the by, I hope, dear readers, as Malaysians you would still remember who Preeshena Varshiny and Nurin Jazlin Jazimin were! Yes, as we can witnessed from the above two photos, poor Mongolian Altantuyaa was not even allowed to rest in peace |
Since then, in recent times, RPK has decided to reveal more. He asserted that he had never claimed Rosmah did what was narrated in his SD, and that he made that SD because he wanted to reveal what he personally believed to be 'evidence' to assist the police in the case.
As I recall it, he had previously said certain people urged him to make that SD. One of them was an aide to Ku Li, a bloke with a Chinese name (can't remember his name), and that story was apparently okayed by Anwar Ibrahim as reliable, through Din Merican, our DJ blogger.
Back then TMI had reported:
RPK, who went on the lam last month after failing to turn up in court for his sedition trial, further claims that he had checked with an aide of Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah on the information provided by Lt Kol Azmi.
An aide to Tengku Razaleigh confirmed to The Malaysian Insider today that the Kelantan prince had been told the same story by Lt Kol Azmi which allegedly links Datin Seri Rosmah and the murder of Altantuya, the Mongolian mistress of Abdul Razak Baginda, a close associate of the Prime Minister.
But he pointed out that “many people come and tell us stories.” In his blog, RPK goes on to allege that a man working for Tengku Razaleigh persuaded him to put down the allegations in a statutory declaration.
Then the real gem of RPK's story. Malaysiakini reported:
According to Raja Petra, he had also sought help from a few other people to vouch for Lt Kol Azmi’s credibility, among them PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim through his aide, Din Merican.
Yesterday, in his new post KU LI IS MAHATHIR’S NEW SCAPEGOAT OR ‘KAMBING HITAM’ RPK wrote:
Then, after the 2008 general election, Mahathir did a u-turn and chose Najib instead. And that was when Ku Li’s man, Nik Azmi Nik Daud a.k.a. Bul, came out that the brilliant idea of a Statutory Declaration to link Rosmah to Altantuya’s murder in the hope that this would screw Najib’s chances of becoming Prime Minister.
Then, after the 2008 general election, Mahathir did a u-turn and chose Najib instead. And that was when Ku Li’s man, Nik Azmi Nik Daud a.k.a. Bul, came out that the brilliant idea of a Statutory Declaration to link Rosmah to Altantuya’s murder in the hope that this would screw Najib’s chances of becoming Prime Minister.
The saddest part of the Altantuyaa tragedy has been the politically selfish and cruel exploitations of her macabre murder, which inspired me to pen my poem Murdering Altantuyaa Shaariibuu Again. Extracts as follows:
But the loudest noises are they calling for ‘justice’
Though, I smile cynically, ‘twas not meant for me
Their shrill proclamations & belated outrage (sigh)
Startled even great Gujir Tngri and the 77 siqar
Grandstanding acrobatics, their excuse to dispense
With all norms, purportedly all for me (wry smile)
I must confess I view with scepticism and distaste
As I would professional chest-pounding mourners
Gnashing Colgate mint-flavoured peroxide-d teeth
Wretchedly wringing manicured Ulan oiled hands
Shedding date-expired plastic bags of lo-salt tears
Proclaiming to be 11th hour paragons of ‘justice’
[...]
The ancient pair could see abacus shaped hearts
Clicking furiously and shaming Casio calculators
By sheer speed of their computation of advantage
What to extract, exploit, extricate from my name
Squeezing the very last speck of desiccated blood
From my hyper cold shattered fragments of bones
Eager hands raided the ossuary for me to be laid
As stepping stones for the progress of a demigod
[...]
As the pseudo-pious pirouetting pachyderm crushes
What little good left of my name, what trust exists
In my family’s hope for requital of my cruel murder
I realize those raucous battle cries were not for me
This is the first in my series of re-visiting and re-evaluating the stories on SD, including and especially those of Perumal Balasubramaniam.