Next week is the last week of the 25-day parliamentary budget meeting, and there are no signs that the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak will come clean and give a full and satisfactory accounting of his twin mega scandals in the last four days of the six-week parliamentary meeting from Nov. 30 to Dec. 3.
Those who had hoped that the RM2.6 billion “donation” and RM50 billion 1MDB twin mega scandals, now that the ASEAN and Post-ASEAN Summits with the largest-ever gathering of Asia-Pacific leaders in Kuala Lumpur in recent times had been held without any mishap, will somehow disappear or fade away by the time the UMNO General Assemblies are held from Dec. 8 to 12, 2015 cannot be more wrong.
Firstly, Najib’s twin mega scandals had haunted and hounded the ASEAN and Post-ASEAN Summits in Kuala Lumpur last weekend.
There is no doubt that Najib’s twin mega scandals featured prominently in their own internal briefings of every ASEAN and Asian-Pacific leader who was in Kuala Lumpur over the weekend, receiving their personal attention even though not a single one of the ASEAN and Asian-Pacific leaders would have committed the diplomatic faux pax of breathing a word of Najib’s twin mega scandals in public.
This was why one commentator entitled a round-up of the ASEAN Summit with the heading: “ASEAN summit tarnished by Malaysian corruption scandal involving PM”.
After United States President Barack Obama’s meeting with Najib, Obama said he had raised the importance of transparency, accountability and rooting out corruption with Najib, though he would not comment on investigations against Najib as he would not touch on ongoing probes even on the US soil.
It is most demeaning and degrading for the Malaysian Prime Minister to be “lectured” by the US President on the importance of transparency, accountability and rooting out corruption – something Obama would never dream of doing in his meetings with the Prime Ministers of Japan or Singapore for instance.
This is because the Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe or Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong could simply shut up Obama by pointing out that in the 2014 Transparency International (TI) Corruption Perception Index (CPI), Japan is ranked No. 15 and Singapore No. 7, while United States is placed lower at No. 17.
Najib could not shut Obama up, not only because Malaysia’s is ranked No. 50 as compared to the United States No. 17 in the 2014 TI CPI, but also because of the New York Times revelation that Najib is being probed by Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) under the US Department of Justice Kleptocracy Assets Recovery Initiative 2010 in connection with his twin mega scandals.
Secondly, events after the ASEAN and Post-ASEAN Summits in Kuala Lumpur last weekend have conspired to show that Najib’s twin mega scandals will grow ever bigger as national and international scandals and there is no way to wish away Najib’s twin mega scandals – even with the appointment of a very pliant Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee who was not shy to say he had to “cari makan” when asked why the PAC was not summoning Najib as a “star witness” to PAC investigations into 1MDB.
Three recent developments are proof that Najib’s twin mega scandals will grow ever bigger as national and international scandals and that they are not going to disappear, even with the latest RM9.8 billion buy-out of 1MDB energy assets by state-owned China General Nuclear Power, viz:
1. Wall Street Journal (WSJ) special infographics yesterday on the 1MDB scandal and its “serpentine links to the Federal Government and beyond”.
2. The growing revolt among the three million UMNO members and 21,000 UMNO branches over Najib’s mishandlinhg of the twin mega scandals as well as other policy disasters like the Goods and Services Tax (GST).
3. The statutory declaration by Charles Morais raising disturbing questions about the murder of his brother, DPP Kevin Morais and whether it was connected with the 1MDB scandal.
The comprehensive and infographic-laden breakdown of the 1MDB scandal by WSJ yesterday, which followed the 1MDB’s “controversial transactions” and money trail with five succinct short videos, explained in layman terms the “behind-the-scenes machinations that led 1MDB to its current morass”.
Undoubtedly, the WSJ report, which detailed the sordid evolution of Malaysia’s biggest financial and political controversy in the nation’s history, and the subject of investigations by at least seven countries – Britain, Switzerland, Abu Dhabi, Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia and United States – marks a new level of international concern about Najib’s twin mega scandals.
This week has also seen the growing revolt of the three million UMNO members and the 21,000 UMNO branches over Najib’s twin mega scandals, and although there are no signs that Najib’s position as Prime Minister and UMNO President are facing any threat as he continues to command a very powerful grip on UMNO because of the support of the 300 UMNO chieftains, this is a new phenomenon in UMNO and Malaysian politics with far-reaching consequences.
But it is the latest revelations by Charles Morais over the murder of his brother DPP Kevin Moraes in Septebmer which has catapulted the 1MDB scandal to a new dimension.
In a statutory declaration which was made public today, Charles Morais alleged that Kevin’s murder was linked to a charge sheet he was preparing against a “high-ranking government official” and that Kevin had confided in him while he was preparing the charge sheet in the Attorney-General’s Chambers.
Charles said that two or three months before Kevin’s death, the deceased had told him that he was working on a case involving a very high-level government official.
Charles, who lives in Atlanta, USA, said his brother confided this to him over the phone and had spoken in Malayalam, fearing that his phone might be tapped.
Charles said that the alleged draft charge sheet against Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak released by whistleblower site Sarawak Report had carried Kevin’s initials.
He said when he saw the charge sheet that appeared on the website on July 30, he recognised his brother’s initials.
The new Attorney-general Tan Sri Mohd Apandi Ali had previously dismissed the alleged draft charge sheet as false.
Charles said in his statutory declaration that he always kept in touch with Kevin, including making two or three phone calls a month and constant e-mail correspondence.
Charles also claimed to be in possession of a pen drive sent to him by Kevin just before he was murdered.
Charles said: “It is in safe custody in the US with someone who has instructions to release it publicly should anything untoward happen to me for swearing this statutory declaration.
“The contents of this pen drive clearly and unequivocally reveal the investigation Kevin had been tasked with just before his untimely death, which implicates certain personalities who currently walk the corridors of power in Malaysia.”
Charles said in his statutory declaration that Kevin told him in August that he would send Charles something via courier for safekeeping.
He told reporters at a press conference in Kuala Lumpur that the pen drive arrived at his home in Atlanta in late October.
These are shocking revelations if true.
Malaysia seemed to have become the “Land of Shocking Statutory Declarations” and Malaysians are reminded eerily of the previous Statutory Declarations by private investigator PI Bala in connection with the murder of Mongolian Altantunya Shaariibuu.
Charles’ revelations in his Statutory Declaration warrants a new and full inquiry into Kevin’s murder, but it should be an international inquiry in view the implication of the alleged involvement of powerful personalities, including the new Attorney-General who had earlier dismissed the report about the alleged charge sheet against the Prime Minister.
One person who should know about Charles’ allegations will be Tan Sri Gani Patail, Kevin’s superior who was summarily sacked as Attorney-General for alleged “health” reasons, three months before his compulsory retirement.
But will Gani speak up?
(Speech at the “Solidarity with Lim Kit Siang & Mana RM2.6 billion?” ceramah organized by Batu Kawan DAP Parliamentary Liaison Committee at Dewan Saberguna Chai Leng, Prai on Wednesday, November 25, 2015 at 10 pm)