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Malaysia’s 1MDB scandal: Australian connection in Malaysia scandal

Ben Butler
The Australian
October 24, 2015

Sitting on the canals behind the glitzy towers that line Broadbeach, on Queensland’s Gold Coast, the low-rise Icon Corporate Park doesn’t look much like the kind of place you’d find a funds management company looking after billions of dollars caught up in a financial scandal that is rocking Malaysia.

But this modest address, at a modern low-rise located at 2 Miami Key, has emerged as host to Australian key players, some with colourful histories, caught up in the controversy engulfing Malaysia’s debt-ridden sovereign wealth fund, 1MDB.

In Malaysia, the scandal involving hundreds of millions of dollars allegedly paid into the bank account of the country’s Prime Minister, Najib Razak, has left behind a trail of arrests, accusations and alleged murder.

In August, police arrested three senior officials at the ­Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission, which has been investigating 1MDB, over alleged leaks to London-based website Sarawak Report.

The controversy has also touched Australia’s ANZ Bank: it owns a quarter of Malaysia’s AmBank, which loaned 2 billion ringgit ($660 million) to 1MDB and where Mr Najib kept the account in question. Continue reading “Malaysia’s 1MDB scandal: Australian connection in Malaysia scandal”

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The Speaker, the Deputy Speaker, the BN MPs – are they fools?

P. Ramakrishnan
Aliran
23rd Oct 2015

The Speaker, the Deputy Speaker and the BN MPs took exception to Lim Kit Siang’s remarks which rightly criticised the lack of seriousness shown in the investigation of the 1MDB scandal.

Consequently, Kit Siang was unfairly suspended without the benefit of defending himself – which went against natural justice.

In all fairness, he should have been referred to the Rights and Privileges Committee under Standing Order 80 for it to probe and establish whether Kit Siang had indeed insulted the Speaker and Parliament. The manner that he was suspended reminded one of Shakespeare’s play, The Merchant of Venice, where a pound of flesh was insisted upon, come what may!

On 22 October 2015, Parliament was, as it were, baying for blood and it succeeded in its effort. As a result, Parliament has lost a voice that had always spoken with conviction and conscience, without fear or favour, to raise issues that reflect the concerns of the people. Much input into the budget debate has been denied – which is a pity. Continue reading “The Speaker, the Deputy Speaker, the BN MPs – are they fools?”

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Aussie authorities looking into businesses associated with 1MDB, says report

The Malaysian Insider
24 October 2015

Australian authorities are investigating key players connected to controversial state-owned investment firm 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), The Australian reported today.

The daily said the Australian Securities & Investments Commission (Asic) had in December launched investigations into Avestra Asset Management, located at 2 Miami Key, Icon Corporate Park, which has become the centre of a full-scale probe.

Avestra, along with another company known as Bridge Global Securities, was linked to a Cayman Islands entity called Bridge Global Absolute Return SPC Fund (BGARF), which according to the report was used to cover up a US$2.23 billion hole in debt-ridden 1MDB. Continue reading “Aussie authorities looking into businesses associated with 1MDB, says report”

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What happened to high-income agenda, economists ask of Budget 2016

by Anisah Shukry
The Malaysian Insider
24 October 2015

Economists said they had expected far more from Budget 2016 that is supposed to propel Malaysia towards high-income nation status in five years’ time.

Economic analyst Dr Muhammad Abdul Khalid said Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak had inadvertently revealed in his speech yesterday that the country was not entirely on track to becoming a high-income nation in five years.

“According to the Performance Management Delivery Unit (Pemandu), the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) should grow by 6% each year for Malaysia to achieve high-income status yet Najib said GDP will only grow between 4% and 5% in 2016.

“Even this year, GDP is expected to expand between 4.5% and 5.5% only, not 6%,” Muhammad told The Malaysian Insider.
He said Najib, who is also finance minister, had also not addressed the fact that the ringgit’s depreciation against the US dollar would make it more difficult for the country to achieve high-income status.

He explained that a high income nation requires the country to have USD$15,000 GDP per capita, but with the weakened ringgit, Malaysia was off target by 17% “just by doing nothing”. Continue reading “What happened to high-income agenda, economists ask of Budget 2016”

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Malaysia’s Broken Biotech Dreams

By Wan Izzuddin Sulaiman
Asia Sentinel
October 22, 2015

Aspirations to make the country a major biotech player are mostly a failure

A decade ago, then-Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi ushered Malaysia into the biotech era with the opening of the BioMalaysia 2005 conference, aimed at making the country a global player by building a conducive environment for R&D through leveraging existing strengths, particularly in biodiversity and bio-resources.

But that policy lies in a shambles, having eaten up huge amounts of money and having produced almost nothing of value. The 15-year master plan (2005-2020) crafted by the late Jamaluddin Jarjis, then the Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation (MOSTI), who unfortunately was killed on April 4, 2015 in a helicopter crash, has almost been abandoned.

Among the main biological processes that catapulted the biotechnology revolution worldwide are the genetic manipulation of microorganisms for the production of new drugs, the cloning and manipulation of selected genes in animals and crops to introduce improved varieties, the sequencing of the entire genome including the human one to better understand diseases, and the use of stem-cells in curing chronic diseases. These technologies were mainly originated in laboratories operated by leading universities and research institutions, mostly in the developed countries. Continue reading “Malaysia’s Broken Biotech Dreams”

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Najib had turned Parliament into a circus with a 90-minute 2016 budget without a single reference to the two mega-scandals in the country’s history – the RM50 billion 1MDB and RM2.6 billion “donation” in Najib’s personal banking accounts

Communications and Multimedia Minister Senator Salleh Said Keruak hit the nail on the head when he said yesterday that Parliament should not be turned into a circus.

However, Salleh would not have the guts and gumption to tell it to the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak who is most guilty of turning Parliament into a circus when he delivered a 90-minute 2016 budget without a single reference to the two mega-scandals in the country’s history – the RM50 billion 1MDB and RM2.6 billion “donation” in Najib personal banking accounts in March 2013.

Salleh would not have the guts and gumption to tell Najib not to turn Parliament into a circus or he would have lost his passport of backdoor entry into Parliament!

The placard “Mana RM2.6 billion” (Where is the RM2.6 billion) which opposition MPs displayed in Dewan Rakyat after Najib’s budget speech resonates in the hearts and minds of 30 million Malaysians, even the three million UMNO members, and a few UMNO/BN Members of Parliament as this the topmost question they want answer from Najib’s 2016 Budget speech.

This was the huge elephant in the Dewan Rakyat Chamber which the Prime Minister, the Deputy Prime Minister, his Cabinet and most of the UMNO/Barisan Nasional MPs refused to see or acknowledge, although the Opposition MPs, the 30 million Malaysians (including the three million UMNO members), and a few UMNO/BN MPs could see clearly before their eyes. Continue reading “Najib had turned Parliament into a circus with a 90-minute 2016 budget without a single reference to the two mega-scandals in the country’s history – the RM50 billion 1MDB and RM2.6 billion “donation” in Najib’s personal banking accounts”

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Malaysia’s Mahathir: strongman turns activist to unseat former protégé

Oliver Holmes and David Munk in Kuala Lumpur
Guardian
23 October 2015

‘Father of modern Malaysia’ brought down two former allies groomed to succeed him. Can he topple prime minister Najib Razak, his most stubborn heir?

He makes a most unlikely blogger. And, for many, an even more unlikely full-throated advocate of freedom of speech.

But that is the role Mahathir Mohamad has carved out for himself in Malaysia, the nation he is credited with transforming into a regional economic powerhouse.

As he enters his 91st year, he has become the country’s most prominent and undoubtedly most effective activist.

He has come out of retirement to throw allegations of arbitrary arrest, throttling of the press and corruption against current prime minister Najib Razak – similar to accusations that were lobbed against him during his own premiership from 1981 to 2003.

Sitting in his cavernous office and surrounded by gifts from world leaders, the man whose two decades in power are described by rights groups as autocratic has slipped seemingly with ease into his new role. Continue reading “Malaysia’s Mahathir: strongman turns activist to unseat former protégé”

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Malaysian PM Najib used state funds for ‘bribery’, says former leader Mahathir

Oliver Holmes and David Munk in Kuala Lumpur
Guardian
23 October 2015

Mahathir Mohamad launches fresh attack on scandal-hit former ally in interview with the Guardian

Malaysia’s former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad has accused his protégé and current premier Najib Razak of driving a debt-ridden state fund into the ground by using it for bribery.

In an interview with the Guardian at his office in the administrative capital Putrajaya, Mahathir said Najib had confided to him months ago that “cash is king”, during a terse meeting in which Mahathir told the man he once groomed for the country’s top post that he had lost his support.

“What he is telling me is that bribery is OK. If you bribe with a few dollars, I suppose it doesn’t work, but if you give [money] to a person who has never seen a million ringgit he will turn around,” he said, referring to the local currency.

Najib is battling for his political life after media reports said investigators had found that nearly $700m (£456m) linked to the troubled 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) state fund was transferred into the prime minister’s private bank accounts. Continue reading “Malaysian PM Najib used state funds for ‘bribery’, says former leader Mahathir”

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Reality check on Malaysia’s lofty S&T achievement, goals

Natalie Heng
SciDev.Net
23/10/15

If one were to take the press release issued by the Malaysian Industry-Government Group for High Technology (MIGHT) on 28 September at face value, one could be forgiven for assuming its lead announcement about Malaysia’s GDP per capita exceeding for the first time the average of all nations was somehow connected to developments in the country’s science, technology and innovation scene.

The press release notes down the role of the Global Science and Innovation Advisory Council (GSIAC), run jointly by MIGHT and the New York Academy of Sciences, in advising how science and innovation should be incorporated into Malaysia’s ambitious goal of upping its GDP per capita to reach the threshold of developed country status by 2020.

The press release alludes to a variety of collaborations and initiatives to reach this goal, featuring selective quotations from the Global Innovation Index (GII) report crediting Malaysia as an innovation achiever in the last four years.

Despite all this talk, there are long-standing challenges that form a bottleneck to Malaysia’s success when it comes to fulfilling our S&T potential. Continue reading “Reality check on Malaysia’s lofty S&T achievement, goals”

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Malaysia’s 1MDB Scandal: Political Intrigue, Billions Missing and International Scrutiny

By TOM WRIGHT And KEN BROWN
Wall Street Journal
Oct. 23, 2015

Investment fund is under investigation in five countries

HONG KONG — A scandal involving a government investment fund in Malaysia is drawing world-wide attention and has led to calls at home for the ouster of the country’s prime minister. It is also affecting U.S. diplomacy in a strategically important part of Asia. The fund, 1Malaysia Development Bhd., or 1MDB, is under investigation in five countries.

It is a story of political intrigue, backroom politics and billions of dollars in missing money. At the center of it all is Prime Minister Najib Razak, who founded 1MDB. A Malaysian government probe found that nearly $700 million moved through banks, agencies and companies linked to 1MDB before being deposited into Mr. Najib’s alleged private bank accounts ahead of a close election. The source of the money is unclear, though in August, Malaysia’s anticorruption body said the funds were a donation from the Middle East. The donor wasn’t specified.

Here’s a primer on Malaysia, 1MDB and the scandal that has drawn the interest of investigators from around the world. Continue reading “Malaysia’s 1MDB Scandal: Political Intrigue, Billions Missing and International Scrutiny”

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Mahathir probably the next victim of the 1MDB Monster stalking the land devouring critics

I said in Parliament yesterday that I was the latest victim of the 1MDB “Monster” stalking the land devouring critics.

Parliamentary conventions, practice and procedures have been shoved aside to achieve the objective to suspend me from Parliament for six months, although the proper parliamentary procedure and practice would be to refer me to the Committee of Privileges to ascertain whether what I said in Parliament when seeking clarification from the AMANAH MP for Sepang, Mohamed Hanipa bin Maidin was a “contempt” of the Speaker and Parliament, or whether the Speaker was misguided when he alleged that I had accused him of “deliberately” abusing his powers and sabotaging the Public Accounts Committee investigations into the 1MDB scandal.

On Wednesday, I had submitted to Parliament the following motion under Standing Order 43 to review the Speaker’s decision in August to stop the PAC from continuing its 1MDB investigations:

“Under Standing Orders 43 and 99, this House resolves that the ruling of the Speaker in August 2015 prohibiting the Public Accounts Committee under its Deputy Chairman, MP for Kepong, from continuing its proceedings to investigate the 1MDB scandal until the Chairman of the PAC has been appointed is wrong, an abuse of power and incompatible with the objective in having a Public Accounts Committee which enjoys credibility and respect of Malaysians for its commitment and conscientiousness to ensure that all government and public finances uphold the highest standards of integrity.”

Although my notice of this motion has become academic with my suspension from Parliament yesterday, had I also committed contempt of Speaker and Parliament in submitting such a motion to the Speaker on Wednesday, in total contravention of parliamentary convention, and practice and procedure? Continue reading “Mahathir probably the next victim of the 1MDB Monster stalking the land devouring critics”

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Kit Siang’s battle is not over yet

— Liew Chin Tong
Malay Mail Online
Thursday October 22, 2015

OCTOBER 22 — Over the course of the last half-century, numerous attempts by the ruling elite to silence Lim Kit Siang had failed. The latest – suspending him from Parliament for half a year – will not silence Kit Siang’s voice for the nation.

On the contrary, 50 years after he started as a political novice with a yet-to-be-registered party then – the Democratic Action Party – Kit Siang is not done yet. The powers-that-be still want to silence him because they know many Malaysians listen to Kit Siang. The people trust Kit Siang more than they do Barisan Nasional.

So, what did Kit Siang do at the Parliament this week? He was merely doing his duty as a Member of Parliament, i.e., to voice his opinions and to state facts. He was commenting on Speaker Tan Sri Pandikar Amin’s role in preventing the Public Accounts Committee to hold its meetings after chairperson Datuk Nur Jazlan Mohamed was elevated to the government’s frontbench.

The PAC was at the height of investigating the 1MDB scandal with the troubled company’s past and present CEOs were about to appear before the Committee. The hearings never took place. Continue reading “Kit Siang’s battle is not over yet”

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Malaysia’s Eventual Fall From Grace

STRATFOR Global Intelligence
Analysis
OCTOBER 22, 2015

Forecast

  • In the near-term, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak will survive efforts to oust him over mounting corruption allegations.
  • Whether or not Najib holds onto power longer, the years leading up to the next general elections will be turbulent ones.
  • Political stability, crucial to Malaysia’s economic rise, will be challenged by demographic changes that stress the country’s delicate ethnic balance.

Analysis

A deepening political crisis in Malaysia is highlighting the country’s longstanding ethnic divides and its uncertain road ahead. Since early this year, Prime Minister Najib Razak has been caught in a scandal surrounding the heavily indebted 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) sovereign wealth fund. Among other points of controversy, Najib is struggling to explain the source of nearly $700 million deposited in his personal account.
Continue reading “Malaysia’s Eventual Fall From Grace”

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Malaysia’s Najib caught between politics and the economy

Hafiz Noor Shams
Financial Times
20th Oct 2015

Scandal-stricken premier faces tough choices between pleasing voters and keeping fiscal balance

Najib Razak, Malaysia’s beleaguered prime minister and finance minister, is being pulled in opposite directions by conflicting imperatives.

One is political. Voters, dismayed by a slowing economy and allegations of personal corruption and other irregularities at state fund 1MDB — vigorously denied by Mr Najib and the fund — are piling on the pressure for an increase in public spending.

The economic imperative, however, demands spending cuts, as depressed energy prices and slowing growth threaten to reverse the benefits of fiscal reforms enacted over the past several years. Continue reading “Malaysia’s Najib caught between politics and the economy”

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Statement on Speaker’s ruling that I retract and apologise unconditionally to the Speaker for my remarks on PAC investigation into 1MDB

I rise as the Speaker has sent word that “at the next opportune time” for me to come to Parliament, I must unconditionally apologise to him and retract what I said in Parliament on Monday, 19th October.

The country has been under unprecedented haze for weeks, closing schools, disrupting the economy and causing havoc to the livelihood of the people.

Former Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said yesterday that Malaysia is enshrouded in a “political haze”, referring to the multiple crisis of confidence concerning the economy, politics, governance and nation building.

Now we have a parliamentary haze enveloping Members of Parliament.

I waited for the Hansard of yesterday’s proceeding which was uploaded at about noon today.

According to Hansard, the Speaker alleged that I had said:
Continue reading “Statement on Speaker’s ruling that I retract and apologise unconditionally to the Speaker for my remarks on PAC investigation into 1MDB”

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Solving Malaysia’s economic crisis

BY DATUK RAMESH CHANDER & BRIDGET WELSH, GUEST CONTRIBUTORS – 19 OCTOBER 2015
New Mandala

Ahead of the Government’s 2016 budget, Malaysia is staring down fiscal challenges unlike any that it has faced over its history as an independent nation.

In this special in-depth report, Datuk Ramesh Chander and Bridget Welsh examine whether Malaysia can resolve its economic woes, and offer several key reforms to get the nation back on track.

2015 – a year of economic decline
This year has seen tumultuous changes across the entire spectrum of the Malaysian body politic and economy. Unlike in earlier years of Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak’s six-and-a-half year tenure, Malaysia’s economy is now seen to be in trouble, with contracting growth, rising inflation, continued high levels of capital flight, declining consumer and investor confidence, and a depreciating currency.
Continue reading “Solving Malaysia’s economic crisis”