The strange case of the Home Minister, Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi writing a letter to the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) vouching for the integrity of an alleged gambling kingpin has become “curiouser and curiouser”.
In the first place, it is curious and must be the first case of a Home Minister of any country writing a letter to the FBI to vouch for the integrity of a person detained by FBI allegedly for being a gambling kingpin.
Secondly, it is curious that the Home Minister is writing to correct a mistake in the report by the Malaysian Police to the FBI about Paul Pauh. If there was such a “mistake”, why didn’t the Police themselves write to the FBI to correct the mistake.
The third and fourth curious aspects are whether the police agreed that it had made a mistake in its report to FBI about Paul Pauh and whether the police knew and agreed to the Home Minister writing to the FBI on the matter.
The fifth and sixth curious aspects are the nature of the “national security matters” which Puah had assisted the Malaysian government in the past and whether the police were privy to this information.
The seventh curious aspect is whether the Home Minister had acted unilaterally and arbitrarily without the knowledge and consent or against the advice of the Police in writing the letter vouching for the integrity of the alleged gambling kingpin as appears to be the case from the subtle statement of the Inspector-General of Police, Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar which veers from making any comment on the veracity of the Home Minister’s letter.
The eighth curious aspect is the latest development in Nevada District Court in Las Vegas where the Home Minister’s letter to the FBI was withdrawn after Putrajaya objected to it being used for the defence of the alleged gambling kingpin.
The Home Minister’s to the FBI dated December 18, 2014 was clearly in defence of Phua and yet the latest twist of the Las Vegas gambling trial is that the Home Minister’s letter should not be used in an open court proceeding in defence of Phua.
Who objected? Was it Zahid, the Police, the Attorney-General’s Chambers or Foreign Ministry?
The ninth curious aspect is whether the Police, to use Zahid’s words in his letter to the FBI, “eager” for Phua to return to Malaysia to help the government on “projects affecting our national security”.?
It is clear the both national, police and the Home Minister’s reputation and credibility have been gravely undermined and besmirched in the case involving the alleged gambling kingpin.
The Home Minister cannot stay silent any longer on this issue as Malaysians are entitled to a true and unvarnished version of these curious sets of events which bring no good whatsoever to Malaysia’s international standing and repute.