Bravado is no answer to the mountain of queries by Malaysians as to why Cabinet Ministers had not raised questions about the propriety, accountability and transparency of the various deals in the RM42 billion 1MDB scandal at the last Cabinet meeting on Friday.
“Do you think Nazri can be threatened?” is sheer bravado and does not answer the question why Ministers, according the Minister for Tourism and Culture, Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz himself, were satisfied and happy with the second Finance Minister, Datuk Seri Ahmad Husni Hanadzlah’s explanation on the 1MDB Roadmap and that no minister, including the Rural and Regional Development Minister Datuk Seri Shafie Apdal, voiced any objection at last Friday’s Cabinet meeting – when it is obvious that any ordinary person cannot be happy with Husni’s explanation of the 1MDB Roadmap.
Either the Ministers were living in a different planet and did not know the almost daily queries about the RM42 billion 1MDB scandal or they just buried their heads in the sand like ostriches to shut out the mountain of 1MDB queries for the past few years.
The Ministers will be guilty of the height of irresponsibility and negligence if they had given approval to the 1MDB Roadmap without understanding the issues of propriety, accountability and transparency of the numerous deals in the 1MDB imbroglio, out of fear of stepping on the toes of Datuk Seri Najib Razak Prime Minister-cum-Finance Minister.
The Ministers must make amends for their gross sins of irresponsibility and negligence on the 1MDB Roadmap at the Cabinet meeting this morning, and the following ten questions on the 1MDB for dummies should be among the questions which Ministers should pose on the 1MDB Roadmap at today’s Cabinet:
1. 1MDB President and Group Executive Director, Arul Kanda Kandasamy, denied that Abu Dhabi-based International Petroleum Investment Co (IPIC)’s US$1 billion mentioned by second Finance Minister Husni Hanadzlah in the 1MDB Roadmap was “a loan, debt or bailout”. What animal is this US$1 billion of IPIC which is not “a loan, debt or bailout”? A grant, gift or present?
2. What 1MDB has to give in return for IPIC’s US$1 billion so that 1MDB can settle its US$975 syndicated loan?
3. Is 1MDB being wound down by next year and its operations transferred to three separate companies as part of the deal with IPIC and its Aabar Investments unit to remove another RM16 billion debt from 1MDB – as reported by the government mouthpiece Bernama but subsequently denied by Husni?
4. Why is IPIC’s US1 billion (not “loan, debt or bailout”) necessary in the first place? Does mean that the consortium of banks led by Deutsche Bank was right when they rescinded their US$975 million loan to 1MDB ahead of their due date on August 31 because 1MDB provided “incomplete documents” as security, i.e. “false bank statements” on the US$1.103 billion being held by 1MDB’s Brazen Sky unit in BSI Singapore, originally from a tranche of offshore deposits it previously kept in the Cayman Islands.
5. What punitive action had been taken against the 1MDB officials for such irresponsible and criminal mismanagement resulting in the consortium of banks rescinding 1MDB’s US$975 million ahead of its due date?
6. Whether the Prime Minister under the 1MDB Memorandum and Articles of Association (M&A) is the final approving authority, and whether he must bear responsibility for the early rescinding of 1MDB’s US$975 million loan by the consortium of international bankers.
7. If the Prime Minister is the final approving authority for any 1MDB deal, transaction or investment under the 1MDB Memorandum & Articles of Association (M&A), ask the Prime Minister for a full report to the Cabinet on all his 1MDB dealings in the past six years as the final approving authority for 1MDB deals, transactions and investments. Who will now be the final authority on the 1MDB Roadmap – the second Finance Minister Husni or Najib as provided in the 1MDB M&A?
8. How 1MDB could pile up RM42 billion debts in six years when Najib is the final approving authority for all these transactions?
9. The full relationship of Najib and the “mover and shaker” of the RM42 billion 1MDB scandal, Jho Low.
10. Whether Najib should chair or even be present at any Cabinet discussion and decision on the 1MDB issue because of conflict of interest as the Prime Minister is the final approving authority for 1MDB deals, transactions and investments.
Malaysians hope the Cabinet Ministers will speak up on the 1MDB scandal at the Cabinet meeting today.
Last Friday, Najib asked Ministers to resign if they do not support him on the 1MDB issue.
Malaysians want Ministers to resign if they dare not raise the people’s concerns and worries about the 1MDB scandal in the Cabinet, and are incapable of answering their queries on the 1MDB scandal claiming that apart from Husni, they are banned from speaking on the 1MDB issue!
Banning Cabinet Ministers from speaking and explaining to the public about the 1MDB issue is an insult to the integrity and intelligence of Ministers and make a total mockery of the principle of collective Ministerial responsibility.
Ministers might as well go around with lips sealed with the wording “1MDP” so that all Malaysians know that they cannot talk about the 1MDB scandal.
Are we having a Cabinet of sheep before Malaysia becomes a nation of sheep?
I actually have a shorter simpler two question.
1) Is it OK for a PM to have a stupid idea that loses RM10b maybe more – that ANY freshman financial analyst would tell him would happen , put the country’s credit at risk and has no real national purpose in the first place?
2) What if that same PM has more, maybe a series of bad idea (Pembinaan PFI, SRC International, MRT, HSR etc) that will cost us more tens of billions in the future?
“10 Questions on 1MDB for dummies for Cabinet Ministers at their meeting today”
YB LKS,
Also to share this…
Oct 30, 2007 – “…Goldman Sachs managing director and head of investment banking South-East Asia Singapore Tim Leissner at the luncheon on Monday
Currently, the bank only has a physical presence in Malaysia via its offshore bank in Labuan, Goldman Sachs (Labuan) Investment Bank Ltd.
On the challenges facing investment banking in Malaysia, Leissner said that scale and size would become more important…”
http://www.thestar.com.my/Story/?file=%2F2007%2F10%2F30%2Fbusiness%2F19318334
14 January 2010 – Goldman Sachs creates investment banking leadership group – http://www.financeasia.com/News/164597,goldman-sachs-creates-investment-banking-leadership-group.aspx
“…After all, IPIC was cited as the co-guarrantor of a bond issue by 1MDB for the purchase of Tanjong power handled by Goldman Sachs in a closed deal, which Sarawak Report holds a copy of.
Indeed, Goldman Sachs made an astonishing and unusual profit from this transaction, according to our earlier investigation.
The leading figure for Goldman Sach’s Asian bond business with 1MDB Robert Ng has since recently quit his post to set up his own business.
However, as the financial press has pointed out, Ng had a reputation for high flying political connections and previously worked for Deustche Bank where he handled similar closed off-shore bond deals through Labuan for Taib Mahmud and SCORE.
Ng and his close partner at Goldman Sachs, Tim Leissner (who remains with the bank) have also been publicly noted for their close ties with Riza’s friend Jho Low.
It is Low who is acknowledged for setting up the whole concept of 1MDB in the first place, beginning with its fore-runner the Terengganu sovereign wealth fund…”
http://www.sarawakreport.org/2014/08/wolf-of-wall-street-backer-has-business-links-with-1mdb-and-jho-low/
Team of seasoned operators…
:Goldman Sachs Asia’s Tim Leissner (left) and model wife, who is a friend of Najib Razak’s (second right) wife Rosmah”
“So many close connections. The wife of Goldman Sachs Asia’s Tim Leissner and Rosmah Mansor.”
Jho Low – How PM “Agreed” Plans To Make USD500M (“Minimum”) Profit From Insider Deal Against CIMB/Maybank EXCLUSIVE! – http://www.sarawakreport.org/2015/05/jho-low-how-pm-agreed-plans-to-make-usd500m-minimum-profit-from-insider-deal-against-cimbmaybank-exclusive/
“Hopefully the age old adage ‘third time’s a charm’ proves true for Kimora Lee Simmons.
After long, yet ultimately doomed marriages and relationships with Russell Simmons and Djimon Hounsou, Lee thinks she has found the one in investment banker Tim Leissner, whom she secretly married last year. The couple has recently announced that they are expecting their first child together.”
http://rollingout.com/entertainment/5-things-know-kimora-lees-husband/
“5 things to know about Kimora Lee Simmons’ husband, Tim Leissner”
Oct 27, 2014 12:21 PM
by TJ Armour (@TJArmour)
Russell Simmons’ Instagram
Here are 5 things to know about Tim Leissner.
Joined Goldman Sachs in 1998 and quickly ascended up the company ranks to co-president of the company’s Singapore market and is currently chairman of the Southeast Asia division.
Set his sights on Malaysia, where he saw a huge opportunity in the market which has resulted in billions of dollars of business for Goldman Sachs
Holds a BA from Siegen University, an MBA from the University of Hartford, and a PhD in business administration from the University of Somerset.
Cofound the charitable organization, People’s Wish Foundation.
Although rumored to be Russian, Leissner is of German and Brazilian descent.”
http://rollingout.com/entertainment/5-things-know-kimora-lees-husband/2/
You be the judge.
In an attempt to explain the ‘missing’ RM27Bn, 1MDB tried a ‘Copperfield’ on the tabulation it presented but left few really convinced. It did however manage to keep the blood pressure rising. You can read the infographic yourself to form your own conclusion.
I wonder who deserves the award more? Najib, Jho Low, Arul Kanda, or any one of the Yes Ministers? This shows how screwed up things really are in the country.
It’s a bird ! No, it’s a plane ! No, it’s Super Rosie !
Sapp Blatter has resigned for less iniquity. In Malaysia, they do far worse deeds causing loss of billions, and at the end, they get statues erected in their honour in the form of having their names attached to splendid buildings, highways and towns. At heart, they are gamblers who know that if they lose, nothing will come out of their own pockets; but if they win, boy, oh boy!