A letter sent by the former chief of Malaysia’s espionage agency, Datuk Hasanah Abdul Hamid to the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) prior to the election created much hue and cry by a lawyer, leaders, and youth leader aligned to the new government.
It was a matter of time she would be made an issue following police raid of her home at Seri Kembangan [It is reported by news portal, World of Buzz on May 22nd here]. It could be a fixed up job but she is not exactly popular and may not get much sympathy by those in the know.
Words are she viewed Dato Hamid Badur as a threat to her position and psyched him into resignation by providing him an empty office with only a table and chair. She was said to be in a office quarrel that extended into bomoh being employed. And, talk is she questionably took up the bulk of the election campaign budget for operationally worthless system and laughable strategies.
Her alleged abuses and exploits is now water under the bridge. Personally, her letter is uncalled for and though some defended it as quite acceptable, it's rather naive to put such views in writing. More on that later.
A top official of a US State Department-funded body linked to the Republican party, International Republican Institite admited working together with the then opposition to "throw out" the government. For few general elections, it is an open secret but the video acknowledged the covert operation between the US and the then opposition.
The letter to CIA exposed Hasanah as not quite intelligent. The pertinent question is whether the collaboration by PH with IRI is not treason too?
FMT reported:
MONDAY, AUGUST 06, 2018As far as those claims against China, it has not been substantiated by the Minister of Finance.
Republican-linked US think tank tells of long ties with opposition to bring down BN
FMT Reporters | August 6, 2018
Top official of a US State Department-funded body tells of his meeting with top Pakatan Harapan leaders in the Prime Minister's Office following the coalition's polls victory.
Daniel Twinning of the International Republican Institute (IRI). (Youtube screengrab)
PETALING JAYA: An organisation heavily linked to senior Republican figures as well as former top US intelligence officers has been working with the Malaysian opposition since 2002, including the Pakatan Harapan coalition which took power in the May elections, a forum joined by top American think tanks was told recently.
The International Republican Institute (IRI), a Washington-based outfit whose board of directors include Republican politicians such as John McCain as well as former National Security advisers and ex-military officers, said its efforts in Malaysia had finally paid off in the 14th general election, and benefitted the US in terms of its current rivalry with China.
“I visited and I was sitting there with many of the new leaders of this new government, many of whom were our partners who we’ve been working with for 15 years, and one of the most senior of them who’s now one of the people running the government said to me, ‘Gosh, IRI, you never gave up on us even when we were ready to give up on ourselves’,” said IRI president Daniel Twinning in a forum organised by the Center for Strategic & International Studies last month.
Twinning said during a meeting at the Prime Minister’s Office in the aftermath of the elections, he told senior PH leaders that credit was to them and “not to us”.
His remarks are likely to further stir an ongoing debate over the role of US influence in the Malaysian democratic process, after it was revealed that a top intelligence officer under former prime minister Najib Razak had urged for support from Washington in the event of a narrow victory for Barisan Nasional (BN) in the recent polls.
Police are currently investigating a letter written by Hasanah Ab Hamid to her counterpart in the Central Intelligence Agency, in which she said that the US was better off with Najib in charge rather than an “anti-semite” and “anti-West” Dr Mahathir Mohamad. PH leaders have meanwhile called for Hasanah to be charged with treason.
A quick check on IRI’s website shows the body is funded by the US State Department and the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), an organisation whose declared aim is to “strengthen democratic institutions around the world” including trade unions and free market forces. Twinning told the forum that Washington had benefitted from the new government in Putrajaya from the very start.
“Guess what one of the first steps the new government took: it froze Chinese infrastructure investments because it had opened the book and discovered that there was a lot of funny money swishing around what had been this very corrupt, close, unaccountable system,” he said, in an apparent reference to reviews of several mega projects involving Chinese companies including the East Coast Rail Link (ECRL).
Twinning admitted that there was little chance of Malaysia becoming a US ally, but said PH’s victory would work in Washington’s favour.
He is raising such issues in Parliament to evade answering questions directly and was in a political propaganda mode to please voters political expectation than about governance.
The revealed sales of Ayer Itam land in Penang require more information since simplifying it in a stand alone manner is ignoring the complexity the deals and transactions in the restructuring of 1MDB debt to bring down its debt level.
If Hasanah is accused of treason and she refute it, IRI official openly admitted to dealing with the then opposition and met the new government leaders at the Prime Minister's Office.
The revelation is timely.
PM's visit to Beijing on August will not likely go down well. Malaysia will continue to face the economic fallout from the China pullback and insistent to abide by agreements signed.
Tun Dr Mahathir has announced plan for another trip to Japan before the China visit. These change of event occured after US State Secretary met Mahathir upon receiving visit from China's Foreign Minister to reciprocate Tun Daim's visit.
As much as PH should not bring in foreigners to participate in our politics, Hasanah should not have done the same and wrote to accuse Mahathir as pro-China.
Other writers feel differently.
Obviously she is wrong to assume Mahathir is pro-China since US Department of Justice went out of the way to help create the 1MDB issue to bring down BN government.
Since forming government, they could not prove their allegations on 1MDB and admitted in Parliament it is still under investifation. Their CBT case against Najib is viewed as vague by a reputable former DPP and case weak to prove any entrustment.
Back to Hasanah, a lawyer and former Special Branch agent was reported claiming it is a breach of protocol and treasonous. Her role is to gather information and not asking CIA to take side in a general election.
More so, her former boss and former Prime Minister Dato Najib is not aware of such letter. Hasanah admitted Najib is not in the know and denied he knows. She claim no need to inform Najib.
Hasanah made a police report on the leak of this confidential letter, in which leaking the report is equally irresponsible. This is not the sort of stuff for political discussion in the public sphere.
She claimed of having the mandate of the MEIO to protect national security. The contents of the letter were intelligence secrets.
Her lawyers issued a statement:
Be it Hasanah or PH, foreigners have no business interfering in our politics.
Updated: 12/8 10:00 AM
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