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Critical 1MDB Report Spares Malaysia’s Najib Razak

Tom Wright
Wall Street Journal
April 7, 2016

Board offers to resign; some allege an attempt to shield leader from damage in corruption scandal at fund he set up

By TOM WRIGHT

A Malaysian state development fund’s board of directors offered to resign after a report that found billions of dollars went missing from the fund but which made no mention of Prime Minister Najib Razak, prompting critics to accuse officials of shielding him.

The findings of the parliament’s Public Accounts Committee, released Thursday, mark the first time a Malaysian investigating body has leveled allegations of fraud connected to 1Malaysia Development Bhd., or 1MDB, which is the focus of corruption probes in Malaysia and at least six other nations.

Still, the report appeared to take pressure off Mr. Najib, who founded 1MDB in 2009, heads its separate board of advisers and has been the target of criticism over the scandal. Critics suggested the committee’s findings against 1MDB management, the absence of Mr. Najib’s name, and the directors’ offer to resign were orchestrated moves designed to protect the prime minister.

“It’s all planned that way; so we could attribute blame on [the board] but exonerate the prime minister. It means nothing,” said Zaid Ibrahim, a former cabinet minister and leader in an alliance opposed to Mr. Najib. Continue reading “Critical 1MDB Report Spares Malaysia’s Najib Razak”

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How could the PAC exonerate the Prime Minister of any criminal wrongdoing in the RM50 billion 1MDB scandal when it had not even summoned Najib to appear as a witness?

UMNO/Barisan Nasional leaders, media and cybertroopers have gone to town after the tabling of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) Report on 1MDB in Parliament yesterday, declaring as one UMNO/BN media has blared from its front-page today: “No criminal wrongdoing on the part of PM”.

How could the PAC exonerate the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak of any criminal wrongdoing in the RM50 million 1MDB scandal, when it had not even summoned Najib to appear as a witness?

It is noteworthy that these propagandists had also blissfully ignored the suppression of the Auditor-General’s final audit report on the 1MDB, which would normally be appended to the PAC report on 1MDB.

I have read through the 106-page PAC report on the 1MDB and I cannot find any exoneration of the Prime Minister in the 1MDB scandal.

May be Ministers and UMNO/BN leaders and propagandists who are going to town on this claim would like to point out and share the parts or paragraphs in the PAC report which had exonerated Najib of any wrongdoing! Continue reading “How could the PAC exonerate the Prime Minister of any criminal wrongdoing in the RM50 billion 1MDB scandal when it had not even summoned Najib to appear as a witness?”

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Can Pandikar explain how he could ban the Auditor-General’s final audit report on 1MDB from being presented to Parliament on the ground that it is a classified document when the same report had been presented to PAC earlier?

The Speaker, Tan Sri Pandikar Amin Mulia is reported to have told Parliament that the Auditor-General’s final audit report on 1MDB could not be tabled in Parliament because the document had not been declassified.

He said: “I cannot allow a classified document to be tabled in the House. I will be violating the Official Secrets Act 1972 if I allow it.”

Can Pandikar explain how he could ban the Auditor-General’s final audit report on 1MDB from being presented to Parliament on the ground that it is a classified document when the same report had earlier been presented to the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), which is a committee of Parliament, and should have been appended to the PAC Report on 1MDB which was tabled in Parliament yesterday?

Is Pandikar going to report the PAC Chairman, Datuk Hasan Arifin as well as all the PAC members to the police for having committed breaches of the Official Secrets Act when they had access to the Auditor-General’s final audit report on the 1MDB?

This is a most ludicrous situation, where a report had beenj presented to a parliamentary select or standing committee, but not to Parliament.

In fact, Pandikar is probably the only Speaker in the world who is barring the presentation of a report in Parliament on the ground that it is a classified document and official secret?

What type of a parliamentary reform is Malaysia pioneering in the world of Parliaments? Continue reading “Can Pandikar explain how he could ban the Auditor-General’s final audit report on 1MDB from being presented to Parliament on the ground that it is a classified document when the same report had been presented to PAC earlier?”

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PAC report into RM50 billion 1MDB scandal is only tip of the iceberg

The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) report into the RM50 billion 1MDB scandal is only the tip of the iceberg.

Anyone who have read the 106-page PAC report cannot help getting the feeling that the PAC report is wrestling with larger forces than those it has named and identified, which is why the PAC has attracted not only national, but international, interest and attention and why Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s RM50 billion 1MDB and RM4.2 billion twin mega scandals have catapulted Malaysia among the top ten nations in the world infamous for global corruption.

Has the PAC report succeeded in laying to rest or rebutting in any manner international perceptions that Malaysia is now one of the world’s top nations in global corruption

The sad answer is in the negative. In fact, the PAC report will only confirm these international perceptions and doubts, which is why the 1MDB scandal is the subject of separate investigations by half a dozen countries, including the subject of the US Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) and Department of Justice (DOJ) under the US Kleptocracy Assets Recovery Initiative, and none of them will halt investigations because of the PAC Report. Continue reading “PAC report into RM50 billion 1MDB scandal is only tip of the iceberg”