Tuesday July 8, 2008

Mahathir: There’s a concerted campaign against Najib

KUALA LUMPUR: Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad is convinced that there is a concerted campaign against Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak and that “somebody is behind it” besides Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.

The former prime minister said he could not understand why the Deputy Prime Minister was coming under constant attack, adding that he believed the allegations against Najib were all hearsay.

“There is a concerted campaign against Najib. I don’t know why. Not just by Anwar but also by this other chap (Malaysia Today editor) Raja Petra (Kamaruddin) and also a number of others.

“Somebody is working behind this, maybe to undermine Najib’s possibility of challenging the Prime Minister,” he said after calling on Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who is here to attend the 6th Developing Eight Nations Summit.

Dr Mahathir said there was no proof to the allegations against Najib.

“You can’t just say that I heard somebody did this. This is not proof,” he said.

Dr Mahathir said he could not understand why his former deputy (Anwar) was “going after Najib” when it was not the latter who reported on Anwar’s behaviour.

“I think he has always been attacking Datuk Najib. Maybe he thinks that Najib is standing in his way of becoming the Deputy Prime Minister or even the Prime Minister,” he said, adding that Anwar could never join Umno again as the party would not accept him.