The statement by the new Inspector-General of Police Hamid Bador that the police report against the former Attorney-General Mohamad Apandi Ali for his role in the Week of Long Knives in July/August 2015 is most welcome.

So far police reports have been lodged by two DAP Members of Parliament, viz Lim Lip Eng (Kepong) and S.N. Rayer (Jelutong).

Was there an attempted coup against the then Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak involving charging him for corruption in the last week of July 2015 which was pre-empted by the sudden and unconstitutional sacking of the then Attorney-General Tan Sri Gani Patail?

It is time that all lights are focussed on this mystery which is a blot on six decades of Malaysian democracy.

This was the key question buzzing in everybody’s mind after an interview in Star Online in August 2015 by the Barisan Nasional Strategic Communications Director, Datuk Abdul Rahman Dahlan who was also at the time Minister for Housing and Local Government.

The events of what happened in the corridors of power in the Week of Long Knives in July/August 2015 had been shrouded in mystery and secrecy, and it is time that the “cloak-and-dagger” episodes then be fully known and exposed to public light – particularly the Black Tuesday of 28th July 2015 on the sudden and unconstitutional sacking of the Attorney-General Gani Patail, the dismissal of Deputy Prime Minister-cum-Education Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin and the Minister for Rural and Regional Development, Datuk Seri Shafie Apdal, followed by “Nine Days of Madness in Putrajaya”, with the wave of attacks on national institutions including Parliament, the Executive, key agencies comprising the “Special Task Force on the 1MDB” such as the Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM), Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) and the Press; with Cabinet reshuffled with “loyal people over smart people; the new-fangled crime of Section 124 of the Penal Code on “activities detrimental to parliamentary democracy” which can send a person convicted for the offence to jail for up to 20 years let loose on Opposition and NGO leaders to create a reign of terror; and the unprecedented convulsions with the most fractured Government in the nation’s history – the witch-hunt of “traitors” in government, with one enforcement agency investigating and pouncing on another to the extent that the MACC staff had to hold an most unprecedented special prayers (solat hajat) at its Putrajaya headquarters praying that Allah would give strength to the graft-busters to carry out the duties.

The Week of Long Knives hinged on the purported draft of a corruption charge sheet against Najib, which the new Attorney-General Tan Sri Mohamad Apandi Ali had declared was false.

I had right from the beginning said Apandi’s denial of the alleged draft corruption charge against Najib had lacked conviction and credibility, which was particularly the case with regard to the “health” reason given for termination of Gani’s services as Attorney-General.

Malaysians are in a parliamentary democracy and in the information era, and they are entitled to know what actually transpired in the “cloak-and-dagger” operations of the Week of Long Knives in July/August 2015 in Putrajaya

There was a new website which went up on the very same day (July 28, 2018) that Gani Patail was summarily sacked as Attorney-General and Muhyiddin as Deputy Prime Minister, making the most ludicrous and outrageous allegations that top government officials, especially key officers in three of the four “Special Task Force” units investigating 1MDB scandal and Najib’s RM2.6 billion in his personal bank accounts – Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM), Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) and Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) – were involved in an international conspiracy to topple the elected government of Malaysia.

Was this episode investigated by the Police and what was the outcome?

The Malaysian police should also investigate why it had taken so long to complete its investigations into the 1MDB scandal, when it was the subject of investigations by at least 10 other countries.

Former Attorney-General Tan Sri Abu Talib had said in August 2015 that the Chief Secretary to the Government Tan Sri Ali Hamsa and Director-General of Public Service Department Tan Sri Mohamad Zabidi at the time could have flouted the law by transferring two MACC officers, MACC special operations division director Bahri Mohamad Zin and MACC strategic communication director Rohaizad Yaakob out of Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission.

Abu Talib said Ali and Mohamad Zabidi could have breached Section 186 of the Penal Code for obstructing public servants from discharging their duties, and although the transfer of MACC officials and Rohaizad to the Prime Minister’s Department was subsequently cancelled, the offence committed still stood.

This is why Police investigation into “Week of Long Knives” in July/August 2015 should include probes into the roles of Najib’s former Communications Czar Abdul Rahman Dahlan, former Chief Secretary Ali Hamsa and former Public Service Department Director-General Mohamad Zabidi as to whether they have broken the law.

In the weeks and months after the Week of Long Knives, top Ministers and government leaders attempted to distract attention from the various corruption scandals in the country, in particular the 1MDB mega scandal, with tall tales of a heinous and treacherous plot to topple the elected government in Malaysia.

Did the police find any criminal plot to topple the elected government by violent or unconstitutional means?

(Media Statement by DAP MP for Iskandar Puteri Lim Kit Siang in Gelang Patah on Tuesday, June 4, 2019)