Tommy Thomas lost his mantle, But Daim losing too?

If you take on the mantle of a profession or an important job, you are taking on the responsibilities and duties which must be fulfilled by those in the profession or job. Taking on the mantle could mean taking charge or assume role of leadership. Cambridge dictionary described mantle as a position of responsibility or authority.

Malaysiakini reported Attorney General, Tommy Thomas denied social media claim that he "told Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad and former Council of Eminent Persons chairperson Tun Daim Zainuddin there is no solid proof to convict Najib Abdul Razak on the allegation that funds were embezzled from 1MDB."

This statement confirmed Tommy is lost his mantle. It does not make sense and unthinkable for a proud man and supposedly brilliant defense lawyer like Tommy to assume public could not figure it out.

For quite awhile, this blog saw indications he was losing it. Back in June 2018, this blog posed the question of whether he can prepare the cases on 1MDB, SRC etc. against Dato Najib and Datin Rosmah.

Tommy Thomas lost his mantle


Tommy said they have a strong case against Najib and Jho Low based on the charges pending in court.

Piling charges in court against anyone does not mean there is solid proof. It only means there is trial--ble issues but it will be the court to ascertain the merit of the evidences subject to scrutiny and cross examination by defense lawyers.

If Tommy has solid proof, why the delay in the 1MDB trial to August? Why Deloitte and Najib's office at PMO was raided recently?

Why the pondering to prosecute the recipients of alleged 1MDB money? If it is to be done, make sure Dato Mustapha Mohamed, VK Liew and LDP, and UPKO are charged too. No exceptions!

Mahathir himself indirectly hinted of not enough solid proof to call for RCI as government must formulate concrete charges against Najib on 1MDB.

The word formulating means still gathering evidences and trying to put together a concrete charge that could ensure the imprisonment of Najib based on the legal merit and not abuse of power to interfere in the judiciary.

Seriously, why the drama of finding new lead for Jho Low when Special Branch should be in the know already? Bringing back Jho Low from "China" means world attention will be on Jho Low and Najib will be absolved!

The latest propaganda is alleged sex scandal of Jho Loh.

The SRC case too is not hitting the ball out of park. Only political pressure would make High Court judge Nazlan Ghazali decide there is a prima faccie case against Najib. 

In yesterday's proceeding, the cross-examination of Harvinderjit Singh of Dato Dr Shamsul Anwar Sulaiman still reiterated and strengthen the same line that the money transfered by Ihsan Perdana to Dato Najib account was from Yayasan Rakyat 1Malaysia and he was not in the know the account belong to Najib and money came from SRC.

The subsequent witness was the former KWAP CEO, Dato Azian Mohd Nor and it reiterated the same points raised in earlier proceeding but negated by KWAP legal head.

DPP Ishak Mohd Yusoff tried to ask why the loan application was not outrightly rejected.

Defense lawyer protested with the "beating about the bush" manner of his question. The "beating about bush" with details from Azian still points to KWAP making a decision based on guarantee offered by Finance Ministry and the decision to guarantee went through due process.

Not Najib's single handed decision. This is not Mahathir PM 4 era!

The latest from the Ajib Inquest saw Tommy's interference to remove Syazlin Mansor, the lawyer representing the Ministry for Housing and Local Government in which the Fire Department falls under.

The lawyer is a friend of Minister Zuraidah Kamaruddin's husband but Zuraidah said she is redundant. Syazlin was acting as a cross examination lawyer in a court case before a judge but question is why now with Inquest is about to end in matter of days?

Tommy said the lawyer often contradicted DPP's position, which submitted a testimony to absolve responsibility of the murder to the Indians defending the Seafield Temple before the usual practise to do so after Inquest is completed.

Would it not be seen as a fixed up by Indians in authority to cover-up the murder of a Malay by Indians?

Tommy not only losing his mantle and acting as if he is about to lose his job, he still do not know and understand his mantle. PAS has called for his resignation.

Seriously, Tommy must be losing his mantle to call on civil societies to press on Pakatan for reform. For heaven's sake, he is the AG for Pakatan. Is he criticising the government he is serving?

It may seemed to indicate he is not only losing his mantle but a question of time to lose his job.

At least, he admitted AGC is mortal and indirectly his solid proof may not be as solid as any immortal beings could provide.

Daim losing his mantle too?


The same could not be said of Tun Daim.

The Chairman of Council of Eminent Persons (Council of Elders) should still be in the know and capable of moving things. He could call on a former Chief Justice to tell him to resign.

In a previous posting on GST, this blog wrote:

... the outcome of Daim's six months promise to straighten things out with a Guan Eng and Tony Pua sabotaging his every move would be an interesting case study and pivotal moment in history and politics.

It comes on the back of a scenario where the government's back is against the wall and Guan Eng cannot stop talking.

Monetary policies have limited effectiveness to counter the risk of stagflation or remote possibility of deflation. Malaysia is begging for international loan at a time its credit rating is coming down, foreign investors ignoring its capital market, FDI would go Vietnam than Malaysia, and ringgit declining unabated with no serious effort from Guan Eng.

All the making for an increasingly dysfunctional financial and fiscal system.

The country need to get fixed and there must be seriousness and efforts seen on the part of government to fix its problems.

It does not exude confidence to foreign investors to hear PM stutter to mistakenly announce to free  toll when it was only a 50% discount for two days before Hari Raya holidays next week. In the past two days, foreign investors dumped RM360 million of stocks to be absorbed by local institutions.

The PH government need Daim to return as Minister of Finance for the third time and replace Lim Guan Eng with his main and fumbling adviser, Tony Pua with some DAP parked 20 Chinese PTD-contract appointments to shadow the Department and Unit heads in MOF.

As it is, Daim seemed to have no people that is seen as capable of assisting him.

He is being assisted by Dr Muhamamd Khalid, Faris Rabidin, Endie Shazli Akbar Ali and his son on policy formulation. None has direct experience in policy formulation for crisis management.

They have political biasness and presumptous in their actual assessment of the problem that need solving. The feedback received from quite senior people thus far are not impress with them and even of Dato Seri Azmin Ali.

Tan Sri Halim Saad was seen with Daim during the trip to China in the negotiation of ECRL but is he the "operator" for Daim? Where are the rest of his men? Does he has other younger member able to execute and divide up work without the need for hand holding?

There is one known one, but is the dude with Mahathir or Anwar?

On media, Daim could be assisted by Dato Kadir Jasin but Kadir and his other hangers including a so-called Corporate Adviser of Protasco with only secondary school leavers.

They seemed to be merely doing political propaganda instead of confidence building public relations on the economy and new government.

Kadir is losing credibility as fast as Salleh Said Keruak or Mat Maslan used to. with an AMK leader openly telling the government the public has stop buying repetitive attack on Najib on 1MDB and such. 

The fact that Daim is talking to the press more often these days than working is worrisome and shows Kadir not doing an effective job at Ilham Centre and running out of ideas. .

Whatever the actions of Daim's "media" team towards Guan Eng, it is difficult for government to move forward with Guan Eng undermining Daim and presuming his every other initiatives is to feather his nest through his cronies.

There was a poorly concocted and inaccurate claims of a Mr X in message made viral by DAP RBA in respond to his attack of Guan Eng.
The latest must be Mahathir statement on toll in which he could be made to undermine Daim by Guan Eng.

Apparently, Daim is feeling dejected and frustrated, but at the same time, his side is still relently undermining Guan Eng and blocking him and his proxies too. Ideal Property, Ivory Property, Vertace and Euween are all in trouble.   

However, Anthony Loke may not have the same attitude as Guan Eng towards Daim.

His decision to request another six months of suspension in the implementation of the RTS would have been consulted with Mahathir. The supplementary agreement for the suspension is being sorted out.

However, Singapore have been looking forward to start work on the RTS.

They are in no more friendly and in a foul mood towards Malaysia. Their propaganda against Malaysia is on overdrive. It is as though a corporate predator have accumulated sufficient shares ready to make a takeover bid. It will cost Malaysia to cancel it!

RTS agreement was put together in 2010. It was meant to solve the congested causeway daily traffic of commuters to and from Singapore to work. And, it got worse over the weekend. It is inhibiting the flow of people between Malaysia and Singapore.

Recently, Mahathir side made an issue with the Sultan over Bukit Chagar land which was transfered to the Sultan. However, the Sultan gracefully rebutted with an offer to give the land for free if it is meant for the RTS.
 
It only indicate bad handling of the RTS matter.

Daim at Lee Kuan Yew's funeral

When it comes to matter involving Singapore, Mahathir would only consult Daim. He had always been assigned by Mahathir to deal with Singapore while Mahathir quarreled and hurled insult at Singapore in public.

Most notable was the KTM rail to Tanjong Pagar station.

Since PH tookover, the Malaysian government sold off the joint development of the land which was the resoluton to the problem with the Malaysian side holding the majority.

Among the ideas is to privatise the RTS, meaning a private company will built, operate and transfer or own the RTS. That would only make it expensive to commuters.

Privatisation is the worse approach to public transportation. Has Daim not learned from the past experience, which saw Prasana having to takeover the failed privatisation of Putra, and Monorail?

Is the current manner Malaysia is dealing with Singapore on RTS indicative that Daim too has lost his mantle?