Sex, money, murder

This story is for the movies but it happened in real life. It is compelling and gripping and has become an issue in the coming Malaysian elections. Some insinuate the incumbent Prime Minister Najib Razak was involved, Two police officers were. Once again the saying that crime does not pay is true.

I refer to the murder of the Mongolian model Altantuya Shaariibuu which has been resurrected in the campaign for the coming elections. It was shared in social media recently when the role of Malaysia is being questioned. Also on why President Aquino is so determined to have the BBL passed. The other question people are asking, why is Aquino dealing with a crooked Malaysian government?

But first the story of the Mongolian model and how she was brutally murdered. The documentary was made by 101 East Al Jazeera. A Malaysian court had overturned the convictions of the two police officers who were earlier convicted for the murder. The documentary is so compelling as it was told by the girl’s father who has vowed that his daughter’s real killer or killers be convicted.

The two police officers were sentenced to hang for the murder of the Mongolian model. Razak says he did not know Altantuya but there are clips that she could not have been able to live in the style she did if she did not know people in prominent positions. The documentary shows her banging doors and writing letters to Razak that she be given the share of her commission in the purchase of two French submarines.

The manner and the scene of the murder was executed in heavily wooded forest where after she was shot in the head after wrestling with her murderers is horrific. Not satisfied with killing her, she was blown to pieces with explosives obviously with the intention of making sure that all evidence would be erased. The local and international ramifications for her brutal killing now haunts Prime Minister Najib Razak.

Why wasn’t Altantuya’s connection to Razak not made? She might have been a beautiful model but she was also a skilled interpreter said to have participated in conversations of kickbacks amounting to $1.1 billion in the Malaysian purchase of two Scorpene submarines from the French in 2002. At the time the purchase was made, Razak was the defense minister. He later became prime minister and vows to stay in power by hook or by crook. There are fears the elections will be rigged again and this has sent people to the streets. The protests and agitations for clean and honest elections made the scenes in the documentary look like something that could also happen in the Philippines.

I have read the story but it was different when I saw this as a story filmed in a documentary.

The French courts are also trying the allegations with the help of civil society groups to find the truth about the sensational story of sex, money, and murder. Razak’s wife is also said to be involved but husband and wife deny they had anything to do with it. At the time of the murder of the Mongolian model in 2006, Altantuya was pregnant making the murder even more gruesome.

Azilah Hadri and Sirul Azhar Umar, both members of an elite police unit responsible for guarding the country’s leader, including the First Lady, were convicted in 2009 of the murder amid accusations they were being made scapegoats for the real killers. But this was not believed by the people. Malaysians were shocked at what looked like a cover-up for very powerful people.

A three-judge appeal panel ruled that the lower court had erred by failing to connect the men to the explosives used to blow up the victim’s body.

Altantuya Shaariibuu had acted as a translator during the purchase of the submarines and had an affair with Abdul Razak Baginda, a former close associate of Najib, who apparently arranged the kickbacks and was charged with ordering her murder before being acquitted.

Prosecutors say they will appeal the decision, while the French courts remain in the early stages of their hearings. Human rights groups are calling for a further independent government inquiry while Altantuya’s father has asked the Mongolian government for help. The calls for a new inquiry have been ignored but it is different this time with doubts about how Najib Razak won the elections and accusations of graft with implied connection to the model’s murder.

In the last election, the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition won enough seats to form a government even if it lost the popular vote by more than 50 percent of the ballots going to opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim.

Human Rights group Suara Rakyat Malaysia (Suaram) supporters demanded an end to the harassment of its supporters. The group said the harassment was to intimidate supporters for exposing information about the ongoing inquiry of Scorpene submarines sale in the French courts.

A prominent French lawyer who had been following up the murder case was deported by Malaysian authorities.

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Once again I experienced coincidences. I had taken a picture with former Prime Minister Mahathir when I visited him. Mahathir has called for Najib Razak’s resignation. Not long after that, a banker whom I knew many years ago came to my house. She said she had connections with some very rich Malaysians who asked her to look for a contact to President Aquino to tell him there was plenty of money if the BBL was passed. Some Malaysians believe $700 million of Najib Razak’s money is in the Philippines. She talked of several trillions, so the equivalent in pesos would be just about right.

I did not make the connection immediately because there were details that seemed incredible. I continued my criticism of the BBL in my column. Some critics said they knew there was money behind the passage of BBL. But I decided to have nothing to do with it even if my journalist’s instincts told me there was a story behind it albeit difficult to prove without evidence. The banker never got in touch with me again after I printed my stand on the BBL and the Malaysian connection blew over.