Anwar may deliberately have made public an affidavit signed by Tommy Thomas’ special officer to force Shafee Abdullah into spilling the beans on Mahathir.
According to this hypothesis, the soon-to-be PKR president may actually be attempting to destroy Mahathir – not Najib – by getting Shafee to admit his (Mahathir’s) role in ‘setting up’ the sodomy appeals.
Another possibility is that Anwar wants to destroy Najib by destroying Shafee’s credibility.
Attempts are being made as we speak to rope Dato’ Seri Gopal Sri Ram in as lead prosecutor in Najib’s corruption proceedings.
It is said that the team planning to bring Gopal in is worried that the latter would be an equal match to Shafee and wants someone weaker to represent Najib.
THE THIRD FORCE
Veteran lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah issued a press release yesterday exposing a possible conspiracy within the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) to set him up. In a shocking series of revelations that may have a bearing on Dato’ Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s previous sodomy conviction, Shafee made no bones about there being a possible attempt to subvert corruption proceedings related to former premier Dato’ Seri Najib Tun Razak. The veteran lawyer fingered Tommy Thomas’ special officer as the person making the attempt.
Who is the special officer Shafee was referring to?
Shafee was referring to Siti Rahayu binti Mohd Mumazaini, a Kuala Lumpur based lawyer who joined the legal profession on the 18th of July 2009. Siti was previously attached to Tommy’s law firm in Jalan Ara, Bangsar, together with Sitpah A/P Selvaratnam, a lawyer Tommy recently appointed to advise him and his Chambers on matters of jurisdiction related to the seizure of the luxury liner Equanimity.
Wait. What has Sitpah got to do with this?
Well, it is a little more than a coincidence that Siti was the one who affirmed an affidavit disclosing matters related to the RM9.5 million Najib was alleged to have paid Shafee as reward to prosecute Anwar during the Sodomy II appeals. The thing is, Siti used to be a member of the Shipping and Admiralty Law Committee that Sitpah chaired from 2015 until quite recently. Tommy appeared to bypass the committee when appointing Sitpah as his counsel.
But how is this relevant to Shafee’s allegation?
It goes like this (and do take time to read this):
On the 9th of Auust 2018, Tommy lied when alleging that his Chambers lacked a Specialist Shipping unit with the skill and expertise in shipping and corporate law to handle the yacht seizure. However, a check by my team revealed that the AGC did indeed have an International Affairs Division (IAD) with years and years of experience in shipping and corporate law. What this means, is that not only did Tommy lie, he could easily have relied on expertise from the IAD and need not have appointed Sitpah to advise him.
But he did.
It is mind boggling that he appointed someone previously on his payroll
Then, on the 24th of August 2018, the Malaysian Admiralty Court granted an application by the GoM, 1MDB and two of its subsidiaries to sell Equanimity following proceedings in chambers before Justice Khadijah Idris. Given that he appointed Sitpah as his counsel, it is a foregone conclusion that he sought her advice on legal matters related to the ownership of the vessel. That immediately gave rise to multiple elements of subversion.
For one, his decision to appoint someone who once was (and could still be) under his payroll undermined the power and authority bestowed upon the IAD. For another, his assertion that the yacht was purchased by Jho Low through intricate and layered transactions is a clear testament of his prejudice related to the matter. This, coupled with the GoM’s and 1MDB’s involvement in proceedings related to the yacht seizure and Tommy’s role as the GoM’s legal advisor, points to the idea that the Admiralty Court may deliberately have been misled at some level into thinking that the yacht was purchased using money Low stole from 1MDB.
Then, all of sudden, this person called Siti pops up from nowhere and affirms an affidavit disclosing matters related to the RM9.5 million. As it is, there already is ample evidence to suggest that Tommy is heavily prejudiced against 1MDB and is determined to implicate Low one way or the other. Now we have another lawyer who once worked for his firm implying that Shafee was bribed to put a spoke in Anwar’s wheel.
Tell me, is Shafee not Najib’s lead counsel in the latter’s corruption trial? Is it not true that the current Pakatan Harapan government’s aversion towards the former Malaysian premier has to do with 1MDB and Equanimity? Is it a mere coincidence that the person attempting to discredit Shafee happens also to be his special officer in the AGC, someone once under his payroll and a person as well versed as Sitpah is in shipping and admiralty laws?
Can you not see how everything seems designed to throw Najib under the bus?
Is Anwar involved?
I can’t tell for sure.
There are two possibilities:
1. Anwar may deliberately have made public the affidavit signed by Siti to force Shafee into spilling the beans on Mahathir. According to this hypothesis, the soon-to-be PKR president may actually be attempting to destroy Mahathir – not Najib – by getting Shafee to admit his (Mahathir’s) role in ‘setting up’ the sodomy appeals.
READ: Shafee: It was Dr Mahathir who insisted that I be appointed as special prosecutor for Sodomy Appeal
2. Anwar wants to destroy Najib by destroying Shafee’s credibility. Attempts are being made as we speak to rope Dato’ Seri Gopal Sri Ram in as lead prosecutor in Najib’s corruption proceedings. It is said that the team planning to bring Gopal in is worried that the latter would be an equal match to Shafee and wants someone weaker to represent Najib.
Either way, knowingly or unknowingly, Anwar has successfully triggered a credibility tussle that will set the tone for his next course of action. All he has to do is wait with arms folded to see what happens within the next few weeks. Should Shafee prevail, he will likely go for Mahathir’s jugular and demand his resignation as Prime Minister. Should Shafee fail, he will accuse Najib of fixing him up just to quash any hopes of the former premier making a comeback.
Regardless, as far as he’s concerned, everything that is happening bodes well for his mission to become the eighth Prime Minister of Malaysia.
Will Shafee prevail?
Very likely.
In a disclosure made yesterday, Shafee wrote:
“I am surprised and appalled that Siti Rahayu binti Mohd Mumazaini, a lawyer formally with the firm of Tommy Thomas who now acts as a special officer to the Attorney General Tommy Thomas deems it fit to affirm an affidavit disclosing the matters pertaining to the RM9.5 Million payment to my account when they are purportedly the subject matter of active investigation by MACC.
“Further, she has selectively mentioned some facts in a slanted fashion so as to invite adverse inferences to be drawn on me in relation to the RM9.5 Million payment as if that payment was relevant to the unfounded claims and allegations made by Dato’ Seri Anwar in his Originating Summons.
“I personally refrained to explain all this because the subject matter is under investigation but now I am forced to bring forth the full details of this payments as Dato’ Seri Anwar himself and others similarly minded have been making unfounded allegations that attempts to link the RM9.5 Million to my undertaking of the appeals against Dato’ Seri Anwar.
“But I am now particularly forced to do this explanation in public as Siti Rahayu’s affidavit has been allowed to be in the public domain by Dato’ Seri Anwar and others although it has just been affirmed on the 5th of September 2018 and has not been read in court to make it a public document.
“I would like to comment that Siti Rahayu obviously failed to understand the affidavit that I affirmed on the 3rd of August 2017 (in two languages) when she alleged in her ultimate paragraph of her affidavit (Paragraph 15) that the denial in Paragraph 28 of my said affidavit was untruthful, according to her.
“I am shocked and appalled that a clear averment on my part can be misconstrued. For clarity, that paragraph reads: “the rumours of the alleged RM9.5 Million received by me for the prosecution of the Anwar appeals and the fact that the Plaintiff (Anwar) avers that the Prime Minister Dato’ Sri Najib made the payment to the 2nd Respondent (me) for that stated purpose is unsubstantiated, baseless and remain hearsay. The 2nd Respondent (me) denies this allegation.”
So you see, Shafee does have the upper hand and may end up throwing Mahathir under the bus instead.
