BARISAN Nasional’s attacks on whistleblower website Sarawak Report over its 1Malaysia Development Berhad exposés were ultimately counterproductive and caused the coalition’s defeat, said its editor, Clare Rewcastle-Brown.

The British journalist, who is in Malaysia for a visit, said the attacks only served to raise awareness about the articles and the corruption claims against former prime minister Najib Razak.

“A lot of the attacks on me were designed to intimidate people from talking to me. That was quite successful.

“But, in the process, they heightened the profile of what I was campaigning about and showed what kind of government they were and what they were capable of.

“They annoyed a lot of people because it was disruptive and unnecessary behaviour and people felt they were denied the information which they would make their judgment on,” Rewcastle-Brown said in an interview.

“The proof was in the pudding and they ended (up) with a crushing defeat. The way they treated me and others showed that it was counterproductive.”

Rewcastle-Brown had been accused by former inspector-general of police Khalid Abu Bakar of tarnishing Malaysia’s reputation with her reports on the 1MDB scandal.

Khalid, who was slapped with a travel ban last week after the new Pakatan Harapan government reopened investigations into 1MDB, placed her under the Aseanapol wanted list and said the police would be applying for an order under Interpol, too.

The Sarawak Report website was also blocked by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission. The block has been lifted under the new government.

Besides exposing the 1MDB scandal with a trail of internal emails between the state investment firm and several individuals, the whistleblower site also alleged that Najib had paid lawyer Shafee Abdullah RM9.5 million.

Shafee was the lead prosecutor appointed by the Malaysian government to act in the second sodomy trial of opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim.

Sarawak Report, in an article on May 31, said the money came from the bank account “that had been identified as having been funded by money stolen by the prime minister from the 1MDB subsidiary SRC, which had borrowed some RM4 billion from the civil service pension fund KWAP (Retirement Fund Inc)”.

Sarawak Report also alleged that top PAS leaders had received RM90 million from Umno, for which Rewcastle-Brown is being sued by party president Abdul Hadi Awang. – May 21, 2018.