This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on August 9, 2019

KUALA LUMPUR: Former prime minister Datuk Sri Najib Razak arranged a blogger to attack the then finance minister II Datuk Seri Ahmad Husni Hanadzlah on social media after Husni started raising questions on 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) and SRC International Sdn Bhd in Parliament, according to Hurni’s testimony at the High Court yesterday.

During the cross examination at the former prime minister’s SRC International Sdn Bhd graft trial, Husni said he knew that Najib was behind the allegations made against him after he brought up 1MDB in Parliament in October 2016, adding that the report came in at the last moment.

“So you formed the idea that Datuk Seri Najib [Razak] was behind the report the woman after your speech in Parliament?” asked Najib’s lead lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, referring to a harassment claim made against him one of his staff at the time.

“I didn’t form an idea. I know he was behind it,” responded the former minister.

Husni said he went home after Parliament that day, and Tan Sri Shukry Salleh, who was then the principal private secretary of Najib, paid a visit to his house at 10pm.

“He told me that Najib has discussed with someone — I can’t mention the name — and had contacted [blogger] Raja Petra [Kamarudin]. He said ‘they will attack you tomorrow’. What happened first was they attacked my son (Khalid Ahmad Husni). He and the chairman of NPE (New Pantai Expressway Sdn Bhd) attended one Economic Action Council meeting.

“The minutes of [the] meeting went to Raja Petra. He published on Facebook, saying that I was angry at Najib because my son did not get a RM2 billion contract,” he said.

Husni added that there were six or seven people at the meeting and that the minutes of the meeting would usually be distributed the following day — but Raja Petra obtained the minutes right after the meeting concluded.

After that, he said the same story was published Umno-controlled Malay newspaper Utusan Malaysia.

He then contacted Najib, asking him what these reports were all about, and was told to discuss with Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz instead. Nazri was then the tourism and culture minister.

Husni then met with Nazri at the Shangri-La Hotel in Kuala Lumpur who told him that “whatever happens to Najib, it’s out of our control” but added that the former tourism and culture minister wanted Umno and Barisan Nasional to remain.

And the attacks on social media stopped the following day.

Asked whether he was upset with Najib, Husni said he was not.

He said the former premier is only human, adding that until today he prays every day that “Allah opens his heart to the truth”.