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Escaping Najib’s Malaysia, Investors Also Flee Currency and Stock Market

Y-Sing Liau and Lilian Karunungan
Bloomberg
August 19, 2015

While Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak’s cabinet overhaul may have achieved the “unified team” he was seeking in the face of probes into his bank accounts, global funds have been voting with their feet.

The ringgit has slumped 6 percent, the benchmark stock index lost 8 percent and sovereign bond risk jumped to a four-year high since the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission on Aug. 3 said Najib had received 2.6 billion ringgit ($634 million) from donors and not state investment company 1Malaysia Development Bhd. The conclusion failed to help 1MDB’s bonds, which are trading at 82 cents on the dollar.

PineBridge Investments LLC has cut Malaysian sovereign bond holdings, while Schroder Investment Management Ltd. says it’s too early to buy Asia’s worst-performing currency, as political uncertainty clouds the outlook for an economy rocked by plunging oil prices and an emerging-market selloff. Najib denies taking money for personal gain and has counterattacked against what he described as a campaign to oust him, by reshuffling his cabinet, suspending a leading newspaper and seeking the arrest of a newsletter’s founder. Continue reading “Escaping Najib’s Malaysia, Investors Also Flee Currency and Stock Market”

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Amid economic uncertainty, G25 warns against undermining BNM’s Zeti

The Malay Mail Online
August 19, 2015

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 19 — Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) must remain free of political influence and be allowed to execute its duties professionally, a group of Malay ex-civil servants said amid rumours of pressure on the central bank’s governor.

Citing economic uncertainty fuelled by the declining ringgit as well as the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) scandal, the so-called G25 urged the federal government not to cast aspersions on BNM officials as well as those among the country’s vital institutions.

The group pointed out that confidence in BNM’s ability to carry out its duties has been the most important factor contributing to investor confidence and economic development for Malaysia, as speculation remains that Tan Sri Zeti Akhtar Aziz may be forced to leave over an alleged leak of information from an investigation into 1MDB.

“While there were doubts on the independence of the judiciary and capacity of other institutions, the confidence in the strength and capability of Bank Negara Malaysia in steering the financial sector to support economic growth has always been sustained and has been the single most important factor contributing to investor confidence and favourable economic prospects for Malaysia,” the statement read. Continue reading “Amid economic uncertainty, G25 warns against undermining BNM’s Zeti”

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PAS “supports” no-confidence vote against Najib – I’ll believe it when I see it

(Scroll down for English text)

“Sokongan” PAS kepada undi tidak percaya terhadap Najib – Saya akan percaya hanya apabila ia benar-benar berlaku

Timbalan Presiden PAS Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man dan pengarah pilihanraya PAS Mustafa Ali telah menyatakan bahawa PAS akan menyokong undi tidak percaya terhadap Perdana Menteri Datuk Seri Najib Razak.

Tuan Ibrahim dan Mustafa Ali bukan Ahli Parlimen, dan kenyataan mereka bahawa PAS akan menyokong undi tidak percaya terhadap Najib di Parlimen itu hanya saya akan percaya setelah mereka benar-benar melakukannya.

Pakatan Rakyat berkubur setelah tujuh tahun memikul harapan dan keyakinan rakyat tidak mengira kaum, agama, atau daerah, ke arah perubahan politik kerana PAS di bawah pimpinan Presiden-nya, Datuk Seri Hadi Awang, tidak boleh dipercayai dan kata-katanya tidak boleh dipegang sebagai janji.

Berkali-kali PAS di bawah Hadi melanggar komitmen dan janji mereka, sama ada janji untuk setia terhadap Dasar Bersama Pakatan Rakyat mahupun prinsip muafakat yang bermakna tidak ada satu parti atau seorang pemimpin mana-mana parti boleh membatalkan atau melanggar keputusan yang dicapai menerusi Majlis Pimpinan Pakatan Rakyat, sama ada berkenaan ketetapan untuk bertanding satu lawan satu di semua kerusi Parlimen dan Dewan Undangan Negeri pada pilihanraya umum ke-13, keputusan untuk melantik Datuk Seri Dr. Wan Azizah Wan Ismail sebagai Menteri Besar Selangor atau keputusan sebulat suara bahawa rang undang-undang hudud atau sebarang usul persendirian PAS berkenaan hudud akan dibawa ke Majlis Pimpinan Pakatan Rakyat sebelum dikemukakan di Parlimen. Continue reading “PAS “supports” no-confidence vote against Najib – I’ll believe it when I see it”

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Call for Commission of Inquiry by Malaysian Elders on whether there was an attempted “coup” to topple Najib as Prime Minister, the sacking of Gani Patail as AG and Muhyiddin as DPM, the arrest and harassment of top government officials and whether they are related to the twin scandals of 1MDB and RM2.6 billion in Najib’s personal accounts

The best response to Barisan Nasional’s (BN) strategic communications director Datuk Abdul Rahman Dahlan’s denial that he had confirmed in his Star Online interview that there was a draft of a corruption charge sheet against Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak is Abdul Rahman’s own words: “Excuse me. I was not born yesterday.”

Abdul Rahman has asked me to re-read his Star Online interview, and I have done so, and I reiterate that anyone reading it will come away with the ineluctable conclusion that there was an attempted coup against the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak by criminalising him and toppling him from office; and “given that scenario”, a “flurry of action” was taken by the Prime Minister, including drastic action to “take these people out first, so that things will get back to normalcy and see what happened next”.

Those who were “not born yesterday” would realise that Abdul Rahman was giving a very graphic account of the atmosphere of great distrust, suspicion and division in the corridors of power and the “cloak-and-dagger” power play in Putrajaya in the last days of July 2015, where he was undoubtedly one of the main backroom players.
Continue reading “Call for Commission of Inquiry by Malaysian Elders on whether there was an attempted “coup” to topple Najib as Prime Minister, the sacking of Gani Patail as AG and Muhyiddin as DPM, the arrest and harassment of top government officials and whether they are related to the twin scandals of 1MDB and RM2.6 billion in Najib’s personal accounts”

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Will Cabinet today resolve that all Ministers and Deputy Minister should seal their lips on the amounts of funds they received from Najib’s RM2.6 billion personal accounts for 13GE campaigning?

I have given the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak and the expanded Cabinet of 37 Ministers 96 hours to prove that they are sincere in political funding – and this 96-hour challenge expires at the Cabinet meeting later in the morning.

Will there be any surprises from Najib and the Ministers in announcing steps and measures to demonstrate that they are sincere in political funding as a follow-up to the Prime Minister’s recent proposal for a national consultative committee of political parties, NGOS, civil societies and youths to formulate guidelines on political funding with the aim of ensuring that funds are sourced with integrity?

Malaysians do not expect any surprises, and will in fact be shocked if the Cabinet could produce a rabbit from the hat and come up with initiatives to demonstrate that it is sincere about regulating the baneful effects of money politics in Malaysia.

Najib suffers from a grave case of trust-deficit in the country, but he is making a grave error if he thinks Malaysians suffer from an equally serious case of judgment-deficit.

All Malaysians can see through what Najib is up to when he proposed a National Consultative Council on Political Funding which will be given a year to come up with proposals and guidelines in place in time for the next general election.

Najib wants to buy time for up to one whole year to be able to continue stonewall from giving a full and satisfactory account of the RM2.6 billion deposited into his personal accounts in AmBank in March 2013 before the 13th General Election – where the money had come from, who had received handouts from Najib’s accounts, what is the remainder in the accounts after the 13th General Election, and whether there is any truth in last Saturday posting on Sarawak Report website that over US$650 million (RM2 billion) was transferred from Najib’s AmPrivate Bank account in Kuala Lumpur to an account in Singapore after the 13th general election. Continue reading “Will Cabinet today resolve that all Ministers and Deputy Minister should seal their lips on the amounts of funds they received from Najib’s RM2.6 billion personal accounts for 13GE campaigning?”