A new political phenomenon seems to have developed in Malaysian politics especially at the Cabinet level – with the competition among Ministers as to who could become more hysterical in the defence of the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak in the face of mounting exposes about the 1MDB and other scandals.

Without going too far back in time, the two Ministers competing to be the most hysterical Minister in the past three days are indisputably the Minister for Urban Wellbeing, Housing and Local Government Datuk Abdul Rahman Dahlan and the Minister for Communications and Multimedia, Datuk Ahmad Shabery Cheek.

Self-styling himself as Barisan Nasional strategic communications director (which no other BN leader apart from Najib would have heard of), Abdul Rahman went into an overdrive in championing a dubious mercenary character thinking that he could deliver a “killer blow” to the Opposition and therefore found a path leading to his unstoppable political elevation to the stratosphere of Najib’s political empire.

Abdul Rahman sent out hysterical tweets like:

“When BN questioned the credibility of DAP’s sources, @limkitsiang always quick to say “Don’t shoot the messenger, focus on the message!” So?”

“Is Lim worried his star MP could be proven lying about meeting Justo?

I have elsewhere answered his first tweet. My answer to his second tweet is: “Not at all”.

The question is why Abdul Rahman is acting in so shady a manner indulging in a “cat-and-mouse” game instead of openly, gentlemanly and honorably naming Tony Pua has having lied about meeting Justo.

Abdul Rahman as good as named Pua in his numerous insinuations, so don’t be a coward and take that half step to specifically name Pua especially as the PJ Utara MP has issued an open invitation in his Facbook posting: “Come on, don’t be pussies, don’t beat around the bush. No need to wayang”.

Shabery was equally aggressive in his “hysteria” game to attract Najib’s attention.

He challenged Opposition figures who allegedly met with PetroSaumdi International (PSI) director Xavier Andre Justo in Singapore clearly to deny their involvement to put the matter to rest.

As Thai police have said that Justo had met with around 10 individuals, one of whom was an UMNO member, in his bid to sell data stolen from PSI, why is Shabery not also challenging UMNO or Barisan Nasional on the same matter?

Shabery charged that Justo had been implicated in a conspiracy against Prime Minister Najib, making the matter one of serious nature.

“(If the allegations are true) it is an act to sabotage the country, this is treason against the country,” he added when met at the Hari Raya open house event at the prime minister’s official residence in Putrajaya yesterday.

Treason is the capital offence in the country.

Is the Malaysian Government going to seek Justo’s extradition to Malaysia so that the Swiss can be put on trial?

Has the Attorney-General given his expert advice to the Cabinet on this matter or is this just a lay-man hysteria of Minister Shabery?

If the Government has no intention to seek Justo’s extradition to stand trial in Malaysia for the capital offence of “treason”, then Shabery’s outburst is just pure “hysteria” and a most irresponsible act.

Malaysia should develop a “hysteria index” to monitor which Minister is the most hysterical in the defence of the Prime Minister from the mounting exposes about the 1MDB and other scandals.

The Abdul Rahman-Shabery Cheek “hysteria” competition cannot and must not be allowed to deflect public attention from the fact that more than two weeks have passed after the Wall Street Journal report on July 2 that government investigators had found some US$700 million (RM2.6 billion) deposited into Najib’s personal accounts at AmBank in March 2013, shortly before the dissolution of Parliament on April 3, 2013 in the run-up to the 13th General Election, and nothing satisfactory had been achieved to date.

Not only Malaysians in the country but the world-wide community now know that after more than two weeks, Najib still dare not deny or contradict the multiple allegations, in particular, with regard to the US$700 million (RM2.6 billion) of funds deposited into his personal accounts in 2013, and everybody wants to know where the RM2.6 billion came from; and where and to whom these RM2.6 billion have gone to.

In their “hysteria” competition, dare Abdul Rahman and Shabery Cheek ask Najib to publicly answer these elementary questions particularly about the whereabouts of the RM2.6 billion in the WSJ Report?

If these questions of accountability, integrity and good governance continue to hang over the head of the Prime Minister, how can Najib honourably represent Malaysia in overseas trips and international conferences?