Submarine deal resurfaces to haunt Malaysia’s top man Monday, 04 June 2012 Roger Mitton Share307 A decision made in Paris last month means that one of this region’s most sensational episodes is going to resurface with a vengeance. It began a dozen years ago when Malaysia’s Prime Minister Najib Razak held the defence portfolio and ordered two Scorpene submarines from the French shipbuilder, DCNS, for about US$400 million each. The deal was brokered by Razak Baginda, who ran the Malaysian Strategic Research Institute, which was funded by Najib and designed to further his political career. In the interest of full disclosure, let me reveal that I met Razak regularly during my posting in Kuala Lumpur in the 1990s and continue to see him each time I visit Malaysia. When he became pointman for the Scorpene purchase, however, I had left KL and did not see him again until we met in Venice, Italy, at the 2002 ASEAN-Europe conference. Razak attended only briefly and when I asked why he was rushing off, he said he was needed in Paris for an important defence deal. Later, it was revealed in the Malaysian parliament that the “commission” for the sub contract was 114 million euros, or about $160 million at the time. The money was paid into the KL bank account of Perimekar, a company set up by Razak just before the contract was signed and which had no track record of handling defence procurements. It is alleged that the $160 million was split
