“However, the suggestion that Rafizi and his team derived personal gain from this deal is far-fetched. To equate the Arm deal with 1MDB is like a ‘cerita dongeng’ - a fairy tale that no rational person could believe.”
- DAP’s Puchong MP Yeo Bee Yin
COMMENT | The state’s harassment of James Chai, a former aide to ex-economy minister Rafizi Ramli and a minor figure in Malaysia’s vast bureaucracy, is the latest evidence of the Madani government attempting to manufacture a counter-narrative to deflect from the allegations swirling around the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) and its chief, Azam Baki.
The MACC’s preposterous explanation for why Chai has become a “wanted person”—claiming that attempts to contact him via WhatsApp were blocked—is a textbook example of the kind of incompetent leadership that only deepens public distrust of the commission.
Make no mistake: if the state were genuinely interested in making contact with Chai, it possesses the methods and means to do so effortlessly.
All we need to do is recall what Umno veteran Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah told Sinar Harian more than a decade ago about the reach and influence of the state security apparatus…