In his Star Online interview, which is not available on the printed edition of The Star today, the Barisan Nasional Strategic Communications Director, Datuk Abdul Rahman Dahlan who is also Minister for Housing and Local Government, is guilty of publishing two false news unless he could prove their truth and veracity, viz:

Firstly, that there was an attempted coup against the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak by criminalising him and topple him from office; and

Secondly, that there was already a coup and unconstitutional grap for power by the then Attorney-General, Tan Sri Gani Patail when illegally and arbitrarily, the Special Task force headed by him investigating into the 1MDB and the RM2.6 billion deposit in Najib’s personal accounts in AmBank investigated the Prime Minister in order to “criminalise” the Prime Minister.

These are serious assertions by a Minister of the country, and must be considered as “false news” falling under the Printing Presses and Publications Act 1984 unless Rahman could prove their truth and veracity.

I call on the Inspector-General of Police, Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar to arrest Housing Minister Abdul Rahman Dahlan for publishing “false news” under the Printing Presses and Publications Act for his Star Online Interview on a plot to criminalise the Prime Minister and topple him from office unless Rahman can prove the veracity or truth of these serious allegations.

Three important strands of police investigations into Abdul Rahman’s Star Online interview should be:

(1) Whether there was a plot in the last days of July to stage a coup against Najib as Prime Minister by criminalizing him and toppling him from office;

(2) Whether there had been illegal and unconstitutional acts to overawe and frustrate the Attorney-General from exercising his discretionary powers under Article 145(3) of the Constitution to “institute, conduct or discontinue any proceedings for an offence”;

(3) Whether there was any basis for charging the Prime Minister for the offence of corruption.

Abdul Rahman painted a picture of a serious “cloak-and-dagger” power play in Putrajaya in the last days of last month.

He described an atmosphere of great suspicion, distrust and division in the corridors of power in Putrajaya last month, using his own words, as follows:

“There are two theories out there. One is the one you mentioned that this is a deliberate attempt to stop, delay or interfere with the investigations (on 1MDB).
But there is also another theory that there has been a deliberate attempt to criminalise the Prime Minister.

“This is what the new AG (Tan Sri Mohamed Apandi Ali) was saying with regards to the (purported) draft charge sheet (against the Prime Minister). Apandi sent out a statement saying that the Attorney-General’s chambers is very concerned that there is a deliberate attempt to criminalise the PM and force him out of the office. If you are a politician of course you would take some pre-emptive steps so that it doesn’t happen.

“I am not privy to that information. I leave it to the PM and the AG who made that comment and also to the IGP whether or not there is an attempt to criminalise the PM. But it sure looked like it. Because there was an allegation of a draft charge sheet but MACC said ‘Wait a minute we have not completed our investigation. So how could there be a draft charge sheet when the investigation has not been completed?”

Abdul Rahman’s protests of innocence and not being privy to information about the “struggle for power” in the corridors of power in Putrajaya in those crucial days in the last days of July do not wash, not only because he was the newly-minted Barisan Nasional Strategic Communication Director who was clearly one of the important masterminds behind the Najib power-play, but Abdul Rahman was the first person to talk about a plot to “criminalise” Najib and 1MDB.

Abdul Rahman first used the term “criminalise Najib” on July 15 when he introduced the now discredited video of the discredited former Sarawakian editor Lester Melanyi, claiming that there was a plot to topple Najib as Prime Minister. In fact, Abdul Rahman had abandoned Lester in mid-stream as the promised third part of the Lester video had never appeared!

Under these circumstances, the first statement by the new Attorney-General about his concern that “there is a deliberate attempt to criminalise the PM and force him out of the office” might have been ghost-written by him as the new BN Director of Strategic Communications.

Abdul Rahman’s statement that Najib had to “take out people” after an alleged charge sheet against him emerged therefore takes on a very ominous note.

As Abdul Rahman said: “Given that scenario what would you do? You would take drastic action wouldn’t you?

“If you could appreciate that scenario then you would understand the flurry of action taken by the prime minister.”

The Police must move in immediately, interview Abdul Rahman as the first suspect, as well as others including the Prime Minister, the Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister, Datuk Zahid Hamidi, the former Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, as well as others who had been “taken out” in utter disregard of the due process of law like the then Attorney-General Tan Sri Gani Patail and other other top officers in the Attorney-General’s Chambers, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission and Bank Negara Malaysia to establish what was really the truth.

It is shocking that as a “strategic” member of the Cabinet, Abdul Rahman is saying that the Special Task Force investigating into the 1MDB and the RM2.6 billion deposit in Najib’s personal bank accounts was “illegally constituted” and that “They were not supposed to be investigating the PM or any individual for that matter”.

Can Najib as the Prime Minister enlighten the Malaysian public about Abdul Rahman’s claim, as clearly even the former Deputy Prime Minister until July 28, Muhyiddin Yassin never knew that the Special Task Force was illegal and unconstitutional.

What type of a Cabinet and government is Najib running?

Let Najib clear the air once and for all. Was there a plot to “criminalise” Najib and topple him as Prime Minister coming from within the bowels of the Cabinet and Government; who, apart from Gani Patail, had been “taken out” to protect Najib from any such “coup”.

Najib should be aware that he can get no sympathy or support from the ordinary Malaysian public, or even ordinary UMNO members who are patriotic and love Malaysia more than Najib or even UMNO, so long as Najib refuses to fully account for the RM2.6 billion deposited into his personal bank accounts in 2013 – where the money came from and to whom and the amounts the monies were given out, the remainder of his personal accounts after electioneering disbursements and what was the balance in the accounts and their present whereabouts.