One should thank the lawyers of the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak, for providing some relief to the long drawn-out (six years?), sordid, dreary and astronomical 1MDB scandal which is claiming more and more casualties in its wake, destroying reputations for integrity and even political and professional lives and futures.
The highly-publicised letter from Najib’s lawyers to Dow Jones, the owner of Wall Street Journal (WSJ), has become not only the toast of lawyers but of the international civil society as well.
There was no categorical demand for retraction of the WSJ report last Friday that Malaysian government investigators have found almost US$700 million (RM2.6 billion) deposited into Najib’s personal accounts at AmBank, unconditional apology for the defamation of the Prime Minister, undertaking of no repetition of the defamation and payment of damages, but a most extraordinary (Eric Paulsen of Lawyers for Liberty described it as “bizarre”) letter seeking clarification!
No one can describe the situation better than lawyer Azhar Harun (better known as Art Harun) who commented on Facebook this was the first time he found lawyers asking their potential opponent the meaning of what they had published. Almost every sentence made him cringe.
He said: “If I were acting for Dow Jones, I would advise them to reply as follows : Dear lawyers, inability to grasp and/or understand what we had published is not a known or established ground for defamation suits. Thank you.”
If more “relief” is needed, there is the top banker, CIMB Islamic Bank chief executive officer Badlisyah Abdul Ghani for everybody to joke about as Badlisyah joined the long queue of 1MDB casualties when in a matter of hours, he had to eat his own words for accusing WSJ of falling for false documents with regard to its report claiming that RM2.6 billion were deposited into Najib’s personal accounts in AmBank.
As if Fate has pity on Malaysia in having to suffer from the 1MDB scandal, Malaysians were presented with another “manna” today – the announcement that Najib is scheduled to speak at a high-profile international anti-corruption conference themed: “Ending Impunity: People. Integrity. Action” in Putrajaya from Sept. 2 amid allegations that he embezzled US$700 million in state funds! Continue reading “Cabinet Ministers guilty of abysmal dereliction of duty by giving solid backing to the Prime Minister without knowing whether RM2.6 billion were deposited into Najib’s personal accounts in AmBank, where the monies came from and were they went to”