THE CORRIDORS OF POWER
Raja Petra Kamarudin
I received a phone call from my contact in Bangkok this morning. Firstly he wanted to know when I am going down to Bangkok again because the last time I went there was two years ago and last year I missed my ‘annual pilgrimage’.
Yes, I do have good links to some ‘high-ups’ in Thailand. I mean, if I did not, how could I have entered Thailand without a passport and stay there one month and then fly out again from Bangkok airport to come to Manchester.
Actually, Thailand is sort of like my second home but it’s been two years since I ‘balek kampung’ because I had to spend all my money setting up the kopitiam so I had to be a bit thrifty in my spending and not make overseas trips.
Anyway, the second reason for that phone call from Thailand was because my contact wanted to fill me in on the details of Xavier Justo’s arrest.
I am not going to give you all those details that the mainstream and online media have already covered. What I would like to talk about is what the Thai authorities have not revealed yet.
It’s always nice to be the first with the news so that later I can say, “I told you so!”
What my contact told me is that they are investigating how much of those documents that were leaked to Sarawak Report were actually doctored. It seems while some documents and e-mails are genuine the more damaging ones are fakes.
And this is what the Thai authorities are trying to establish, said my contact.
The second thing they are investigating is how those documents came into the hands of Sarawak Report and whether those in Sarawak Report are a party to this fraud.
So far it appears that Xavier did not have direct contact with Sarawak Report but that the dealings were all done through a middleman.
It is still too early in the investigation but one name that has popped up is the name of Sufi Yusof, who works for Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and handles chedet, Dr Mahathir’s blog.
It seems Sufi has made a number of trips to Thailand over the last year or so to meet Xavier and the Thai authorities are trying to establish this through the immigration records. Whether Sufi was aware that some of the documents were doctored or whether he is a party to this fraud is also the scope of this investigation.
If the Thai authorities manage to establish that some of the documents and e-mails were, in fact, doctored and that Sufi did make a few trips to Thailand to meet Xavier and was aware of, or was a party to, this fraud, it is not going to look good for Dr Mahathir.
No wonder Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak has been very quiet over the last two or three months and was not perturbed over the allegations involving 1MDB. It seems this investigation has been going on for the last two or three months before the Thai authorities moved in and nabbed Xavier.
This is beginning to get every interesting. All this while we thought that Dr Mahathir was the hunter and Najib his prey. Now it looks like the hunter is the hunted.
Hmm…maybe I will fly to Thailand soon after all. I need to get my hands on those documents, especially the fabricated or doctored documents. Let’s see if my contact can swing that one for me before I book my plane tickets.
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