Political offensive kills truth

Political pundits will not have missed the significance of events of the past fortnight.

The stakes are high — the highest political office in the country, the premiership, plus the simple truth that is owed to all of us.

It all began with Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s remark that he will decide on whether to contest Umno’s top post “when the time is right”. Then came a new sodomy allegation against PKR’s de facto leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and the bizarre case of private investigator P Balasubramaniam making public his statutory declaration and retracting it a day later.

Najib, often describing himself as a loyal deputy, had been painfully reticent on the subject of the Umno leadership crisis, so the prospect of him going head to head with party president Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi was widely reported.

Although Abdullah had announced that he and his deputy had agreed on a succession plan, there is no assurance that the plan will survive the process leading up to the party national leadership elections in December.

As the public have no clues about the plan, it is possible that Najib had made a dud remark, the kind a media-savvy politician often does in lieu of a sterile “no comment” or “I can’t tell you”. He does not need to challenge No 1 if the plan provides that, for the sake of tradition, he backs the incumbent at the upcoming Umno election in return for a transfer of party leadership soon after the December polls, assuming the president is returned by party delegates.

It’s more likely, however, that the plan does not have such a provision, and that only party delegates can endorse Najib’s ascent. As such his remark was really a signal to the grassroots that he was ready to vie for the top post and would be mobilising his support machinery. It was a strong signal that may have tacit approval of the party president, who will then not defend his post despite declaring otherwise (a ploy to minimise speculation and distraction?).

But equally possible is that Najib’s remark that he will decide whether to contest the top post when the time comes was actually a signal to Abdullah that unless he names a date to step down, expect his deputy to challenge him in December.

Indeed, Najib must have considered that the tide had turned and signs were that it was right for him to begin to show his hand. It was time for him to switch off the “safe mode” and revv up for the offensive, given that the start of branch and divisional elections is less than four months away on Oct 9.

Issues afflicting the party in Sabah and Terengganu were nearly resolved and Umno had a clearer view of the way forward after party leaders had a two-day pow-wow in Shah Alam.

The time was right for party members to size him up, even though it seemed he would not have a problem securing nomination from 30% of Umno’s 191 divisions to contest the presidency. And judging by the way he “rubbished” Raja Petra Kamaruddin’s allegations in relation to the Altantuya murder case, Najib was ready to go on the offensive.

Does he need to prove that he can take on the enemy too to convince party delegates that he is ready for the top party post?

The new sodomy allegation against Anwar by his former aide Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan comes across as a stroke of good fortune for Najib’s political capital. But while the police have said they would get to the bottom of the allegation, the public were baffled by the turn of events and were left wondering why it had surfaced at the time it did. Is there any truth in the allegation or was it concocted, and by whom? It prompted Anwar to take refuge at the Turkish embassy. But he just had to counter. In a police report lodged on July 1, 2008, Anwar claimed that Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Musa Hassan and Attorney-General Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail had falsified evidence relating to his previous sodomy allegation.

It got hotter with the emergence of Balasubramaniam, the private investigator for murder accused Abdul Razak Baginda, a close adviser of Najib. He explained his reasons for going public with his statutory declaration (SD) that contains allegations with references to Najib in the Mongolian woman Altantuya Shaariibuu’s murder case. When he retracted the SD the next day, the public were again left wondering. What was going on? How can someone trivalise an SD? Was he intimidated into making the retraction as alleged by PKR vice-president R Sivarasa?

Whatever the legal implications of Balasubramaniam’s action, the public can only surmise that there was interference and the truth relating to the contents of his SD may never be revealed. It’s that sinking feeling again.

Still, it’s difficult to gauge how these episodes will play out in Najib’s and Anwar’s quest to become the country’s next prime minister. And don’t forget Abdullah. How will he react to Najib accepting nominations to contest for the Umno president’s post? Will he fight? And will he fight back hard?

Recall the oft-shouted slogan “untuk agama, bangsa dan negara” (for creed, race and country) and you know that truth, loyalty and principles have never been a central part of politics.

Some bloggers are calling for a news boycott of anything to do with allegations against and by Balasubramaniam, Saiful, Najib and Anwar.

They want politicians to focus on tackling the more “urgent” economic issues facing the people. By all means, tackle those issues, but start with being truthful.

Yes, we are sick and tired of these allegations and counter-allegations. But it is important for us to know the truth because we are talking about the future leadership of the country. But, then again, who can we trust to find out what is the truth and to tell it as it is — the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.