Najib on mystery holiday?

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak is scheduled to return from his two-week mystery holiday on Friday, the Asia Sentinel news portal reported today, saying Malaysian authorities have not replied to questions about the holiday.

The Prime Minister's Office is usually efficient in issuing statements or notices on Najib's (pic) events and travel, but had not issued notice of the holiday.

It, however, issued statements on flight MH17 developments and Khazanah Nasional Bhd taking the loss-making national carrier Malaysia Airlines private.

Asia Sentinel reported that "in the midst of a national crisis over the shooting down of Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17. Najib went to the Netherlands on August 1 for a press conference that won him praise across the world."

That disaster followed the loss of flight MH370, which disappeared without a trace in March over the Indian Ocean.

"From there, he went on holiday, with no public record of where he might have gone. Requests for information from Najmuddin Abdullah, Malaysian Airlines’ public relations head, about the premier’s travel arrangements met with no response.

"But other sources say while there had been requests for the Prime Minister to fly Malaysian Airlines to demonstrate his confidence in the national flag carrier in the wake of the horrific incidents, he and his wife, (Datin Seri) Rosmah Mansor, flew on a private jet. It isn’t known who owned the private craft," the report said.

Requests by email, telephone and text to the prime minister’s personal aide and press secretary, Azlin Alias, asking for the prime minister’s holiday itinerary also went unanswered, the portal said.

It quoted sources as saying the prime minister and his wife flew to Paris and later to Sardinia in Italy, Cannes on the French Cote d'Azur, then back to Sardinia before going to Rome and London.

“It’s the talk of the town in Kuala Lumpur,” one source told Asia Sentinel, “but nobody wants to publish the story because the PM’s office isn’t talking.

“It was a holiday planned some time ago, well before the tragedies. Yet, it would have been prudent to postpone it given all the things the country is going through.” – TMI