Najib faces more allegations

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 14 — The attacks over the Internet on Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak continue to mount.

Just days after allegations surfaced on jailed blogger Raja Petra Kamarudin’s website Malaysia Today over alleged interference in the Altantuya Shaariibuu murder investigations, more claims have surfaced on the same website over allegedly shady defence deals.

In the latest posting entitled “Eurocopter”, a letter purportedly from Datuk Zahar Hashim, the chairman of Mentari Services Sdn Bhd, the local representatives for a Russian helicopter company, alleges irregularities in the recent award to Eurocopter for the supply of 12 new aircraft to replace the ageing Nuri fleet of the Royal Malaysian Air Force.

The letter claims the award was given to Eurocopter even though it was the most expensive of all the companies which submitted tenders. Eurocopter’s bid, it is claimed, is said to be more than RM1.4 billion over that of the lowest bidder.

The letter also claims no proper evaluation was conducted by the Defence Ministry.

A Letter of Intent (LOI) was signed by a mid-ranking officer in the ministry just two days before Najib switched portfolios and moved from the Defence Ministry to the Finance Ministry last month.

It was announced last month that Eurocopter had been awarded the contract to replace the RMAF fleet with 12 new Cougar EC 725 at a cost of RM2.317 billion.

The writer of the letter posted on Malaysia Today claimed his company represents Kelowna Flightcraft Limited of Canada, which offered the RMAF the Kazan MI-172 KF at a cost of RM898 million for 12 aircraft.

The letter alleged only documentary evaluation was made before the LOI was awarded to Eurocopter.

Neither Zahar nor Mentari Services could be reached for comment.

Najib has not spoken to the press since allegations against him started surfacing on the Malaysia Today website.

Malaysia Today carried a report last Saturday detailing what it alleged was an exchange of text messages between Najib and Datuk Shafee Abdullah, the prominent lawyer who represented Abdul Razak Baginda before he was charged with abetting two police officers in the murder of the Mongolian model Altantuya.

These SMSes — if true — have raised some questions over the handling of the case and suggest that Najib took a strong interest in the investigation from the beginning.

The SMS exchange, which went on from Nov 8 to Dec 2, 2006, has become great fodder for the opposition, especially since Najib is a cusp away from becoming the president of Umno and the prime minister of Malaysia.

Opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has called for a thorough investigation into all of the allegations.

Anwar and the opposition have been trying to link Najib and his wife Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor with the murder since it happened in October 2006.

Najib has furiously denied any involvement with the case, and has even sworn in a mosque that he did not know the woman.

Their nemesis has been Raja Petra. He published many reports and commentaries alleging a cover-up in the investigation of the murder. He was detained under the Internal Security Act for allegedly publishing articles which were blasphemous.

The Malaysian Insider
14/10/08