KUALA LUMPUR: A political commentator has been pilloried for claiming that the ongoing Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) into Bank Negara Malaysia’s forex losses in the 1990s is an attempt to undermine Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
Blogger Raja Petra Kamarudin dismissed Cordoba Ali's opinion piece as a “weak attempt” at suggesting that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak was the “villain in the witch-hunt” against Dr Mahathir.
“When Dr Mahathir launched his attack on Najib back in December 2014, was it not with intent to oust the Prime Minister as punishment for not helping his son, Mukhriz, win an Umno Vice President’s seat?
“And when Dr Mahathir said RM42 billion of 1MDB’s (1Malaysia Development Bhd) money had disappeared into thin air and that Najib had stolen it was that not also an attempt to oust the Prime Minister?” Raja Petra said in an article published on the Malaysia Today news portal today.
He was responding to a political commentary titled ‘Why Mahathir’s wit worries Najib’, which was published today by The Independent, a Singapore-based news portal.
Describing the article as an “amateur job”, Raja Petra said the writer was wrong in claiming that the RCI was meant to “nail Dr Mahathir”.
“So what? Was Dr Mahathir’s crusade against 1MDB not also with an obvious objective, to nail Najib?” asked Raja Petra.
He also criticised the writer for questioning the RCI’s independence, and for suggesting that both Dr Mahathir and Anwar should be called to testify at the hearing.
“Has Dr Mahathir and Anwar Ibrahim not already spoken at great length about the RM31.5 billion loss Bank Negara suffered gambling on the forex market?
“What the RCI needs to do is to now find out what really happened and what has not yet been revealed.”
Raja Petra also rubbished the writer’s insinuation that allowing Dr Mahathir and Anwar to be seen together at the RCI would strengthen the opposition.
“Dr Mahathir and Anwar have already been seen together in public a few times. So how many extra seats are PKR, DAP, PAN and PPBM going to win in the next general election because of that?
“And how is the RCI going to die just because Dr Mahathir and Anwar are not allowed to be seen together in public?”