Media Statement (2)
by Lim Kit Siang in Parliament on Saturday, 1st
November 2008:
With acquittal of Razak Baginda in murder
of Altantuya Shaariibuu, even more imperative Najib should submit
himself to a Royal Commission of Inquiry on all the allegations ranging
from murder to corruption haunting and hounding him and Malaysia
Shah Alam High Court judge Datuk Mohd Zaki Md
Yasin yesterday acquitted political analyst Abdul Razak Baginda of the
charge of abetment in the murder of Mongolian Altantuya Shaariibuu on
October 19, 2006 on the ground that no evidence was adduced by the
prosecution to contradict or challenge the exculpatory parts of Razak’s
affidavit in his earlier unsuccessful bail application.
The judge said: “In the absence of the rebuttal evidence against the
statements, coupled with the fact that there is no legal onus for Razak
to rebut any statutory presumptions, there is clearly no reason for the
statements to be ignored and rejected”.
Most Malaysians are baffled by the very technical reason for the
acquittal.
While it would not be right for anyone to prejudge the guilt or
innocence of any person in the murder of Altantuya, the fact of the
abominable and heinous murder of the Mongolian translator, shot twice in
the head in a jungle clearing in Shah Alam and blown up with C4
explosives available only to the military, setting off political,
diplomatic and international reverberations that have not subsided , is
a fact that cannot be extinguished.
With the acquittal of Razak Baginda in the murder of Altantuya
Shaariibuu, it is even more imperative that the Prime
Minister-in-waiting Datuk Seri Najib Razak should submit himself to a
Royal Commission of Inquiry on all the allegations ranging from murder
to corruption dogging and haunting him and Malaysia.
I reiterate my call during the debate on the 2009 Budget in Parliament
for a Royal Commission of Inquiry to investigate and clear Najib of all
the allegations made against him so that he could take over as the sixth
Prime Minster of Malaysia next March unencumbered by the weight of grave
and serious allegations against him – whether locally or
internationally.
Najib had all along pleaded innocence to all the allegations. He should
all the more support the establishment of a Royal Commission of Inquiry
which can more credibly and authoritatively vindicate his innocence.
If Najib is still unprepared to agree to the establishment of a
full-fledged Royal Commission of Inquiry to clear him of all the
allegations ranging from murder to corruption haunting and hounding him,
I would expect him to make a fulsome statement in Parliament on all
these allegations when he speaks in the Dewan Rakyat for the first time
as Finance Minister and Prime Minister-in-waiting on Tuesday (November
4) during the government reply on the 2009 Budget debate, when he is to
announce the government strategy for the country for the global
financial meltdown and the world’s worst economic crisis in 80 years.
*
Lim
Kit Siang, DAP
Parliamentary leader & MP for Ipoh Timor
http://dapmalaysia.org