Private investigator P. Balasubramaniam created shock waves yesterday when he made public his statutory declaration (SD) linking Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak with the murdered Mongolian national Altantuya Shaariibuu, with several astounding assertions about the relationship conveyed to him by both Altantuya and Abdul Razak Baginda.

Today, Balasubramaniam created a second round of shock waves when within 24 hours he retracted his statutory declaration with a second statutory declaration, claiming that he was forced to make his earlier declaration under duress.

The initial public reaction to Balasubramaniam’s second SD is one of shock and disgust, with some dismissing and condemning the episode as a “Plague on both houses”!

Serious-minded Malaysians however cannot have the luxury of ignoring the SD acrobatics of Balasubramaniam as at stake are very grave issues about the integrity of the system of justice and good governance, the reputation of powerful office-holders and ordinary people(both dead and living).

As the initial feelings of shock and disgust settle down, it emerges that Subramaniam has done the impossible – making more Malaysians believe in his first SD by his second SD of retraction.

When Subramaniam made his first SD yesterday linking the Deputy Prime Minister with Altantuya, Malaysians were divided between those who believed his SD and those who did not.

With his second SD of retraction, without explaining what was the “duress” which coerced him to make shocking disclosures linking Najib with Altantunya, Subramaniam has succeeded in making even those who had doubted his first SD to come around to believe it – while achieving very little effect in creating doubt among those who had believed his first SD.

Balasubramaniam’s lawyer for his first SD, Americk Singh Sidhu, told Malaysiakini that Balasubramaniam received a phone call from the police soon after his press conference yesterday to report to the Brickfields police station.

“I advised him that as a law-abiding citizen, he should go and see them. So I fetched him to the Brickfields police station at 4.45pm yesterday and I haven’t heard from him since,” he said stressing that he has failed to contact Balasubramaniam since this news broke out.

The Police owes to the Malaysian public a full explanation as to what transpired in the meeting between the police and Balasubramaniam at the Brickfields police station yesterday evening and after, resulting in his bizarre second SD.

The whole Balasubramaniam SD1 and SD2 episode does no credit not only to the private investigator but also to the system of justice and law and order in Malaysia and can only plunge national and international confidence in the integrity, credibility and legitimacy of the Abdullah administration to a new nadir.