Thursday, February 19, 2009

'I Know Nothing'

The Deputy Prime Minster has now said unequivocally that he does not know anything about the matter. ‘The matter’ in this instance of course pertains to the invasion of Elizabeth Wong’s privacy and the irresponsible publication of nude photos of her.

I’m of course inclined to give Najib the benefit of the doubt, just as I did when he initially denied that he had ever met Saiful (remember him?) prior to the latter filing a police report claiming to have been sodomised by Anwar. Apparently, Najib knew nothing about Saiful and the sodomy charge either. Of course, the DPM was to later contradict himself and admit having met Saiful to counsel him.

Well, as I said – I’m not one to rush to judgement and would like to give the DPM the benefit of the doubt. Indeed, I am inclined to also believe him that he had never met Altantuya. I’ve not seen any evidence to the contrary, have you? Well, of course there are those who want to claim there’s been a conspiracy to suppress evidence all along – including to derail any effort that might compel Najib to testify in court on the Altantuya murder. As far as I’m concerned, he knew nothing about this murder either.

Oh, and for those of you inclined to bring up case of the missing investigator, Bala Subramaniam, well I have the same response on this matter as well. I understand Najib knows nothing and I’ve not seen any shred of evidence to the contrary.

In case you’re wondering but how is it that Najib’s name somehow ends up being tangled up with each one of these cases? Well, I’m not sure what to tell you – your guess is as good as the next person’s. But remember, as we’ve been time and again told, we’re a nation of laws, and unless someone is found to be guilty of an offense…. (Well, you know what I mean.)

However, much some of you might be inclined to doubt Najib, it has to be accepted that he knows nothing about these matters – well, maybe there’s some question about the Saiful affair – no pun intended – since Najib did reverse his original ‘I know nothing’ kind of claim.

Perhaps many of you might feel like this pattern of denial from Najib is reminiscent of the Sergeant Schultz character from the old television series, Hogan’s Heroes, who often found himself making the disclaimer, ‘I know nothing.’ And it was the case that there were times Sergeant Schultz certainly knew nothing….         

G. Krishnan