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Is Shafie breaking ranks with the Prime Minister and declaring that he is not prepared to “swim or sink” with Najib on the 1MDB scandal and that if Najib is to drown, he should do it alone without dragging down others?

The statement by UMNO Vice President and Rural and Regional Development Minister, Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal raised eyebrows all round.

It is not just his repudiating the principle of collective Ministerial responsibility, but even more significant, his striking a posture which is tantamount to Shafie breaking ranks with the Prime Minister and declaring that he is not prepared to “swim or sink” with Najib on the 1MDB scandal and that if Najib is to drown, he should do it alone without dragging down others.

This is the only interpretation of Shafie’s protest against claims that the entire Cabinet should be held responsible for the 1MDB scandal, saying that it would be unfair to do so when he and his colleagues were just as unclear as the public over the firm’s controversial and opaque deals.

It is shock enough that a senior three-term Cabinet Minister does not understand the principle of collective Ministerial responsibility but it boggles the minds of Malaysians that Shafie could assert both ignorance and innocence about the enormity of the 1MDB scandal, claiming that he was in the position of the ordinary aggrieved Malaysian on the ground that he was as unclear as the public about the 1MDB scandal.

How could this be when the Cabinet at its meeting on 4th March this year cleared the troubled fund of wrongdoing, making all the 35 Ministers individually and collectively for the 1MDB scandal! Continue reading “Is Shafie breaking ranks with the Prime Minister and declaring that he is not prepared to “swim or sink” with Najib on the 1MDB scandal and that if Najib is to drown, he should do it alone without dragging down others?”

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Speaker should intervene and rule whether PM had abused the Standing Orders to avoid answering pertinent questions about the 1MDB scandal – which is the first step towards parliamentary reform in Malaysia

The Speaker Tan Sri Pandikar Amin Mulia should intervene and rule whether the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak had abused the Parliamentary Standing Orders to avoid answering pertinent questions about the RM42 billion 1MDB scandal – which is the first step towards parliamentary reform in Malaysia.

Najib yesterday dodged the question by the DAP MP for PJ Utara, Tony Pua whether the 1MDB management had only met with PetroSaudi International Limited for the first time on September 23, 2009, five days before both parties inked a deal in London; and whether the agreement was approved by the 1MDB Board of directors at the time.

Najib cited Dewan Rakyat Standing Orders 23(1)(i) to avoid answering the question.

Parliamentary Standing Orders 23(1)(i) states that “a question shall not be asked as to whether statements in the press or of private individuals or financial bodies are accurate”.

Najib said that the issue raised by Pua “is based on news report by a news portal that cannot verify the authenticity of the source of the report”.

This is a blatant abuse of the parliamentary process designed to ensure government accountability and good governance. Continue reading “Speaker should intervene and rule whether PM had abused the Standing Orders to avoid answering pertinent questions about the 1MDB scandal – which is the first step towards parliamentary reform in Malaysia”

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Jho says it ain’t so: Malaysian tycoon denies role in 1MDB ‘heist of the century’

by Eric Ellis
Euromoney

The saga of scandalized Malaysian sovereign wealth fund 1MDB has drawn in many high-profile figures from the country’s establishment. None more so than a flamboyant, Hong Kong-based tycoon. But the self-styled Jho Low denies all involvement in 1MDB. Now he’s ready to publicly defend himself – and point the finger of blame at others.

Low Taek Jho’s high-rise lair in Hong Kong is the stuff of thrillers, appropriately enough for a young Penang-born tycoon cast by his countrymen as a mysterious villain whose shadowy dealings have exposed the secrets of Malaysia Inc.

The intrigues are felt the moment one steps inside the stylish foyer of Jynwel Capital, his family’s private equity investment house based in downtown Central. A receptionist purrs that “Mr Low is expecting you” as a wall magically slides aside to reveal a minimalist ante-room framed by a panorama of the city’s harbour and the promise of China beyond.
Continue reading “Jho says it ain’t so: Malaysian tycoon denies role in 1MDB ‘heist of the century’”

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Who will “bell the cat” at the Cabinet meeting tomorrow, insisting that Najib should “tell all” to the Ministers and immediately testify at the PAC hearing on 1MDB scandal as it is now established that the PM is the final approving authority for all 1MDB deals

Who will “bell the cat” at the Cabinet meeting tomorrow, insisting that Datuk Seri Najib Razak should “tell all” to the Ministers and immediately testify at the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on the 1MDB scandal, as it is now established that the Prime Minister is the final approving authority for all 1MDB deals?

Will the Deputy Prime Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin, whose speech at an UMNO function on 16th May wanting the 1MDB Board to be sacked and the police called in to investigate – whose recording had been visited more than half a million on times on You Tube – “bell the cat”?

In fact, does Muhyiddin know that the Prime Minister is the final approving authority for all 1MDB deals – as provided by the company’s Memorandum and Articles of Association (M&A) agreement which made it very clear that the Prime Minister has the final say over any “financial commitment” of the company?

Do the Cabinet Ministers know that the Prime Minister is the final approving authority for all 1MDB’s financial deals?

If not, how can the Cabinet Ministers allow the Prime Minister to mislead them in such a colossal manner; and if yes, why have they given the Prime Minister such a “blank cheque” without any check and balance as to plunge the country into a RM42 billion scandal – despite numerous warnings and queries by DAP MP for PJ Utara Tony Pua and PKR MP for Pandan Rafizi Ramli in the past four years, and with increasing intensity in the past two years since the 13th General Elections on May 5, 2013?

Would the Cabinet tomorrow demand Najib to “tell all” about his decisions as the final approving authority of 1MDB, before requiring Najib to “tell all” to Parliament and the nation.

Or is there nobody in the Cabinet who will “bell the cat” tomorrow? Continue reading “Who will “bell the cat” at the Cabinet meeting tomorrow, insisting that Najib should “tell all” to the Ministers and immediately testify at the PAC hearing on 1MDB scandal as it is now established that the PM is the final approving authority for all 1MDB deals”

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Islamist fighters drawn from half the world’s countries, says UN

Jason Burke
Guardian
26 May 2015

Report says there are more than 25,000 ‘foreign terrorist fighters’ from 100 countries in jihadi conflicts, who pose an ‘immediate and long-term threat’

More than half the countries in the world are currently generating Islamist extremist fighters for groups such as al-Qaida and Islamic State, the UN has said.

A report by the UN security council says there are more than 25,000 “foreign terrorist fighters” currently involved in jihadi conflicts and they are “travelling from more than 100 member states”.

The number of fighters may have increased by more than 70% worldwide in the past nine months or so, the report says, adding that they “pose an “immediate and long-term [terrorist] threat”.

The sudden rise, though possibly explained by better data, will raise concern about the apparently growing appeal of extremism. The geographic spread of states touched by the phenomenon has expanded, too. Continue reading “Islamist fighters drawn from half the world’s countries, says UN”