Friday 29 Mar 2024
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(July 16): Barisan Nasional will find it hard to change negative public perception of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, a former Umno minister said, despite the ruling coalition's claims that whistle-blower site Sarawak Report had published forged documents on 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB).

Writing in his blog, Tan Sri Zainuddin Maidin said this was because negative perception against Najib's administration was now too deeply embedded in people's minds after unpopular policies, such as the goods and services tax and rising fuel prices.

These policies have contributed to the rising cost of living, he said.

"It is not easy to change the negative perception of nearly all the people of various races and levels towards Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib, just as it is equally hard to change the good perception towards Anwar Ibrahim as a great Muslim leader to a free sex practitioner.

"Although his sex video was seen by TV and media social coupled with his Omega watch as evidence, the people still do not believe it because this confidence stems from the common man.

"His wife's moderate and humble image helps draw sympathy towards him," Zainuddin said, in reference to former opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim who is now in jail for sodomy, and his wife Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail.

Zainuddin, a former Information minister, was referring to the video of a man, purportedly said to be Anwar, and a woman in a sexual act. The video was revealed by former Malacca chief minister Tan Sri Rahim Tamby Chik and two others in 2011.

The video was shown to senior editors and journalists under a veil of secrecy at Carcosa Seri Negara.

They had claimed Anwar had left his Omega watch in the room during the recording but Anwar dismissed this, saying he had left his watch with his wife, Dr Wan Azizah.

Zainuddin added that it was wrong to think the claims of forged documents involving 1MDB would help restore Najib's image.

This was because Najib was associated with other problems, such as the repeal of the Internal Security Act (ISA) which Zainuddin claimed had caused a breakdown in race relations.

He then listed several national issues which took place under Najib's watch.

"Najib is the Sedition Act flip-flop, Najib is economic instability, Najib is the plunge of the ringgit, Najib is GST, Najib is the rise of petrol prices, Najib is Lahad Datu, Najib is Obama, Najib is Rosmah.

"I have never lost confidence like this even during crisis in the era of Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tun Abdul Razak, Tun Hussein, Tun Mahathir and Tun Abdullah Badawi," Zainuddin said, referring to Najib's predecessors.

Yesterday, BN communications strategic director Datuk Abdul Rahman Dahlan said opposition politicians had worked together with Sarawak Report to forge documents leading to the many exposes on 1MDB.

He said there was "solid evidence", including an alleged video confession, provided in a police report lodged by an undisclosed person in Petaling Jaya yesterday. But he did not reveal the video nor its details to the media.

Rahman had said that the video was a confession of a former Sarawak Report editor and was confirmation that the whistle-blower website was conspiring with the opposition to fabricate information about debt-ridden 1MDB.

But Sarawak Report founder and editor Clare Rewcastle-Brown has dismissed this, saying that the person pointed out by Rahman as a former editor had never worked with Sarawak Report.

Putrajaya began claiming that information on 1MDB was tampered with and leaked to Sarawak Report after the arrest of a former PetroSaudi International executive Xavier Justo in Thailand last month. Justo is being investigated by Thai police for blackmail and extortion over information on 1MDB. – The Malaysian Insider

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