In 2011, Malaysia Today, owned by Raja Petra Kamaruddin (RPK), the cowardly writer who has a mental problem, and is now looking for a ‘master’, had written that Deepak Jaikishan, a carpet businessman who becomes a focus to the opposition’s media these days, saying that he had introduced a private investigator, P Balasubramaniam to Dato’ Seri Najib as well as his brother, Nazim.
We need to remember that RPK is famous for his dramatic writing which focuses on the crime scene to convince readers, as if he was at the crime scene with the characters which he mentions in his stories.
RPK at the time wrote that Deepak was responsible in managing a meeting between Bala and Nazim who came with his wife at a car exhibition space in a shopping mall in Petaling Jaya, where the money transaction was made from Nazim to Bala.
With that, Deepak then gave a response to the claim by calling a press conference. Few of the things which was reported by Malaysiakini on April 13, 2011, Deepak said, “That is a lie!” and “I was never present at the time and location alleged by RPK. I did not engineer any meeting between Bala and the PM’s brother.”
However, Deepak admitted that he knows Bala through his brother and a friend name Suresh, a former police officer who knows Bala. He also admitted that he met Bala twice, the first one was with Suresh and another when Bala wanted to borrow money from him. Deepak told Malaysiakini that he did not give any money to Bala who at that time had an issue because his work as a private investigator was revealed.
Deepak also admit that he knows Nazim but only on the capacity of an interior designer and an architect who sometimes have to work together. Deepak then described RPK’s claim as “He (RPK) watches too many Hindi movies that it his imagination get the better of him’.
Deepak seemed to be offended when he was accused as a ‘bagman’. He said, “Nobody uses a bag in this day and age of the Internet. Things are done via money transfer… even if it is true (that I arranged the meeting), I am a busy man, why would I do such stuff? I have people who can do those things for me. I don’t have to do things myself.”
Deepak’s statement to Malaysiakini seemed very spontaneous, no drama, denial nor excessive admission regarding the ‘characters’ he mentioned.
As for his business, Deepak told Malaysiakini that his relationship with the Prime Minister and his family is just business and it does not mean that he is their bagboy. He admit that he did get the contract to decorate the new castle at Jalan Duta. The contract was given from the main contractor, and not from the government nor the Prime Minister.
He said, “I also do work for other cabinet ministers. Does that mean I am connected with them also?” Even the RM600 million loan he took from Kuwait Finance House, is being settled according to schedule with only RM200 million left to be settled. “Everything is proper… if I have political connections, can I not just ask them to write off the loan?”, he joked to Malaysiakini.
Deepak seemed serious in defending himself against RPK’s wild claims. However, that is last year’s story.
This year, Deepak somehow came up with a different story. This year, his business is a little slow. He is said to be ‘stuck’ with multiple financial issues. A few of his business around the world is going down almost simultaneously. And Deepak is now busy looking out for cheap publicity as he goes in and out of court in Malaysia to fight for his rights in a project which he claims that he has gotten the loan as well the the support from the government on the factor of his ‘links’ with the Prime Minister.
What we can see in court today is that Deepak does not seem as confident as he was during the press conference last year. Deepak seems disturbed and lost his focus a few times that it surprises the observers. Even the case which he brings to the court is very weak, demanding for his rights on the factor of ‘influence’ based on the claim that he has links with a powerful individual.
Understanding this case alone is confusing, let alone trying to understand the links with the headlines from the opposition’s media.
It is weird when the opposition media raised Deepak’s issue from the same angle with the issue which is not an issue in the first place, the Scorpene submarine issue. The submarine issue has been closed with SUARAM losing badly. But now, the issue has been raised again by the opposition through Deepak’s business case which has nothing to do with him at all.
However, if we are to think again, we do not have to be a genius to understand the opposition’s strategy. It is clear that Deepak is being used to continue with the task which SUARAM failed to carry. Deepak do not have any clear case in court but the ‘case’ is simply raised to bring back Altantuya’s name.
Whether Deepak wins or lose his case is a different story. The important thing here is to find space to raise doubt against the Prime Minister, that is it.
We understand that the opposition is getting really desperate in finding issues which they can use for the coming election. They are running out of ideas to raise any new issues after covering for their own bullets. PAS, PKR and DAP are all having trouble. Anwar is starting to lose his influence, Ambiga and BERSIH is ‘dead’. And Lynas only showed the opposition’s racist spirit.
So, like it or not, they only have Altantuya’s case to play around with, and to confuse people at the same time because it involves numbers and figures, as well as the national defence’s confidential matters.
Thus, Deepak is made as a weapon to randomly shoot the government, just to buy time and raise few support from rakyat while waiting for election to come. With that, BN do not have to work hard to dodge any bullets from this weapon called Deepak. A strong party can never be destroyed by a weapon that shoots empty bullets randomly.
