The status and honour of the offices of the Prime Minister and Finance Minister had been tainted and besmirched when Datuk Seri Najib Razak answered in Parliament on behalf of two “fugitives from justice” from a fully-owned government company, SRC International, who have absconded from the arms of the law for the past four months.
On Oct 21, in his capacity as Finance Minister, Najib answered the DAP MP for Kulai, Teo Nie Ching, that based on information provided by SRC International, its managing director Nik Faisal Airiff Nik Othmann Kamil and director Datuk Suboh Mohd Yassin “are making preparations to be interviewed by MACC soonest to help in the investigations”.
This is most ludicrous and outrageous – not only as pointed out by Nie Ching, as if Nik Faisal and Suboh needed four months to prepare for the interview with MACC.
For some four months, both Nik Faisal and Subah had been “fugitives from justice”, absconding from the arms of the law in Malaysia, as since early July, the multi-agency Special Task Force into the 1MDB and RM2.6 billion “donation” mega scandals had not been able to locate both for purposes of investigation.
In a media statement dated August 22, 2015, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) had asked the SRC duo and businessman Low Taek Jho, better known as Jho Low, to contact it immediately to assist in the investigations connected with SRC International Sdn Bhd.
The MACC also requested that members of the public with any information on the whereabouts of these three persons to contact Assistant Commissioner Rosli Husain or Assistant Commissioner Norkhafizin Isa or the nearest MACC office.
MACC in its statement dated October 22, again urged SRC duo to come forward to get their statements recorded.
Former police special branch deputy director Datuk Abdul Hamid Bador had in August alleged there were efforts to hide the main witnesses with regard to the SRC International probe. Without divulging names, Hamid said one of the main witnesses previously hid in Indonesia and Thailand, and is now in New Zealand.
“There are efforts to hide the main witnesses. They are those wanted by MACC,” he had said.
Nik Faisal and Suboh are sought by the authorities to assist in the ongoing probe into RM42 million channelled into Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s bank accounts.
Apart from the RM42 million, MACC is also investigating the RM4 billion Retirement Fund Inc loan to SRC International.
RC International was a subsidiary of 1MDB until it was placed under the Finance Ministry in February 2012.
The question uppermost in Malaysian minds is why both Nik Faisal and Subah are still on the government’s payroll as managing drector and director of SRC International after absconding from the arms of the law for four months, and even more shocking and outrageous, why Najib had allowed the offices and status of Prime Minister and Finance Minister to be tainted and besmirched by his answering in Parliament on behalf of two “fugitives from justice”!
This is the first time that the Prime Minister and Finance Minister of a country had assumed responsibility and ownership for “fugitives from justice” as to speak on their behalf in Parliament.
Najib owes the Malaysian people a full explanation for such extraordinary parliamentary conduct as if Ministerial front-benches have become spokesmen for “fugitives from justice”.
How low have government leaders in Malaysia fallen!
(Speech at the Plentong Kopitiam Ceramah in Johor Jaya on Saturday, Oct. 31, 2015 at 10 am)