EXCLUSIVE EVIDENCE - How BN Bribed Bala Widow RM50k To 'Apologise' To Najib And Rosmah
12 Mar 2016
ABC’s Lynton Crossby surprised Rao with tough questions
With a press conference that dissolved into chaos and racist insults,
followed by the arrest of an Australian TV crew who dared asked tough
questions, Malaysians have once again to thank the BN ‘NGO’ leader,
Ramesh Rao, for dragging the country into a farce on the international
stage this weekend.
Meanwhile, Sarawak Report has obtained copies of text messages, which
show how Rao indeed offered a RM50,000 cash bribe, plus school fees, to
Selvi Bala, in return for her appearance at the press conference, which
had been designed to exonerate the PM and his wife, whom she has
implicated in a damning court action over the cover-up of the Altantuya
murder case.
Days before the press conference, according to texts sent by her
mobile phone, Selvi informed a close associate that she had been
approached by ‘BN’, who were offering the money:
“Sir, BN is offering me! What am I suppose to do?” Selvi texted on 10th March, “They offering my children education fees! And temporarily RM50K! They didn’t ask anything in return”
However, when questioned further, the widow and mother of three
admitted that she was indeed being required to perform a favour for the
money – she needed to appear at a press conference and was expected to
complain about lack of support for her children’s education.
“One of Bala friend from BN! But they asked me to give a PC but not involving either parties!…. The PC is about me telling that none is helping me for my children education and other expenses” [sic]
Tempted, but conflicted. Selvi makes clear she wants the money but not to change her position on the case.
As the above dialogue makes clear, Selvi had been approached by Rao
and that he was offering her money in return for performing at a press
conference, which he evidently planned to use for his purposes in
supporting his political patron, Najib.
This was something he adamantly denied, however, when questioned by
Lynton Crossby of ABC Australia’s Four Corners programme, who also
attended the press conference after Selvi had apparently pulled out of
an interview which she had originally promised to give him.
“Are you being paid by PKR?” Rao crassly asked Crossby
Selvi had also failed to answer queries from her own friends and
contacts in the two days preceding the press conference, as it appears
that Rao had taken her into hiding.
Changing stories as Press Conference collapses in chaos
The texts sent by Selvi and her own performance at the press
conference arranged for her by Ramesh Rao make clear that she was
willing to go to certain lengths to get the money being offered, but was
not prepared to either retract any of the allegations made by her
former husband or to drop her case implicating Najib.
All about a crime that will not go away – why did Najib seek to pervert the course of justice regarding Altantuya’s death?
When she spoke at the conference she said that she had come “only for
her children’s education”, admitting she had been offered “RM20,000″ to
speak out to complain that PKR opposition politicians had not fulfilled
alleged promises they had supposedly made to pay for school fees.
She was also prepared to apologise for one specific statement, which
she said she had made, accusing Rosmah of having murdered her husband,
who had died of a heart attack not long after returning to Malaysia to
go public about the attempt to silence his original statutory
declaration about the kidnap and murder of Altantuya, which he said was
orchestrated by Najib, who had also been Altantuya’s lover.
Selvi said, that she had been emotional at the time of Bala’s death
and had wrongly accused Rosmah of having caused his heart attack, for
which she was prepared to apologise.
It was at this point that Lynton Crossby of ABC Four Corners asked
why, therefore did the pre-prepared statement provided to reporters at
the press conference indicate that she was making a far more
comprehensive “apology”, which also included Najib?
Was Selvi, Crossby asked, in fact also apologising to Najib and was
she now saying that the allegations made by her husband were not true
and if so was she dropping her court case?
No, Selvi replied several times!
She stood by every word her husband had said, Selvi repeated,
implicating Najib in the cover up. She therefore had no apology for
Najib and she was not dropping her case.
At which point, it became clear that the minders surrounding Selvi,
including Ramesh Rao and his fellow BN ‘NGO’ colleagues had planned for a
very different message to come out from the press conference to the one
agreed by Selvi in return for the money they admitted were offering.
They started trying to intervene and to speak for Selvi instead. Rao
explained that he had asked Selvi if she knew of “any murder stuff” to
do with Najib and Altantuya and that she had said no. This, he
indicated, was the basis for him telling reporters that she was also
‘apologising’ to the Prime Minister and contradicting her own law suit.
The questions showed the contradictions in the different positions being taken by Selvi and Rao
However, the Australian reporter was not prepared to accept the
interventions and asked Selvi which of the “changing stories” were
correct?
He told Rao that it was plain the press conference had been a “fix”,
in that Selvi had agreed to do it for the money, but that she was being
used to give out a different public message to the one that she had
apparently negotiated, which was to criticise PKR for not giving her
money she had apparently expected.
It was at this point that Selvi became agitated and shouted that she
had only done the press conference for the money, because she needed it
for her children.
“I come here for my children’s education that’s all. It’s only RM20,000! PKR cannot give me 20,000 so I come to this office”.
Selvi damningly shouted as she stormed out refusing to answer further questions.
Crossby then interviewed Rao about his motives in bribing Selvi:
‘Would you have still provided funds had she not made that press statement?.. Why did she need to apologise the the Prime Minister in order to get funds from your NGO?
“No, people asked are you trying to bribe her to say something, I said no…
“Surely that has no credibility” protested Crossby, “when for years….
“What is wrong with you white man?” Interrupted Rao “I am helping these people and you keep repeating.. I am off!”
The disastrous exchange was soon circulating online – as a text book example of how not to run a press conference.
Having reached similar disastrous blows with journalists during his previous press conferences, using Lester Melanyi, one might have though Rao would have learnt – or that his backers would have done.
An agitated and shouting Selvi storms out saying she will answer no more questions
Sinister connections – reporter arrested within hours!
However, Rao’s semi-official status and strange financial resources
(given he is a declared bankrupt) hung over this affair from start to
finish.
Crossby had queried the presence of Special Branch officers at what
was supposed to be a neutral NGO event. Other reporters asked if Rao
was indeed being funded by Najib or Rosmah, which he vehemently denied,
citing anonymous friends as the source of the money raised for Selvi.
Later that day, Crossby and his team were arrested as they moved on
to Kuching, where they reported on an event attended by Najib.
They remain incarcerated at the time of writing, presenting another
textbook disaster in media management on the part of the Malaysian
Government, who have thus ensured international coverage of the entire
embarrassing episode exposing BN’s tactics of bribery and
‘show-confessions’.
Last year’s discredited press conference – this time with self-confessed paid Lester Melanyi as piggy in the middle
Ramesh Rao has of course got form when it comes to disastrous press conferences, which spectacularly backfire.
He rigged up a similar series of events designed to discredit Sarawak Report last year, using a former journalist Lester Melanyi.
Melanyi, who is also a bankrupt and was visibly mentally and
physically ill, also admitted to journalists that he had again agreed to
do the press conference in return for money.
Lester’s “master forger for Sarawak Report” turned out to be a bus station manager from Norwich
The whole ridiculous set of allegations was rapidly and definitively disproved within hours by Sarawak Report, once again leaving Ramesh Rao looking foolish.
Nevertheless, the complicit connection with BN’s law enforcers was again plainly revealed, since it was this press conference and the ludicrous allegations made, which was taken as the excuse by the Malaysian Government’s MCMC to issue a permanent ban against Sarawak Report on the grounds THIS BLOG was promoting falsehoods.
We have said it once, and we repeat, that Ramesh Rao and his BN backers, who are trying to defend Najib in this way, should be ashamed of abusing vulnerable people in need of money and making them tell lies.
A mentally ill man and a desperate widow were used as as stage props to make false confessions to support Rao’s political battles and his accusations against others.
In the end Selvi refused to retract her husband’s allegations or drop her case – the impression Rao had attempted to give
There is no doubt that Bala’s health problems and early demise stemmed from what Najib Razak did to this family – and yet these cheerleaders have had the temerity to attempt to bribe his cash-strapped and grieving widow into an apology, rather than the other way around.
All due credit to Selvi that she, in the event, refused that apology and showed the fire and determination to continue with her case.
Let’s hope she also got that money promised by BN.
