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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”

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Three basic flaws of the long-awaited Public Accounts Committee (PAC) report on 1MDB

Two important events happened this morning which would have far-reaching consequences on the development of democratic governance in Malaysia.

The first was the unprecedented march by scores of Members of Parliament from Parliament House to Bukit Aman to protest the Inspector-General of Police, Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar’s utter contempt of Parliament in the police arrest of PKR Secretary-General and MP for Pandan Rafizi Ramli despite a long-standing parliamentary motion instructing the Inspector-General of Police to take all necessary measures to ensure that there is no obstruction to MPs travelling to and fro parliamentary meetings.

The second item was the tabling of the long-awaited Public Accounts Committee (PAC) report on 1MDB.

I have not read the PAC report but clearly the PAC report is guilty of major failings even without having to refer to it.

There are at least three basic flaws in the PAC report on 1MDB. Continue reading “Three basic flaws of the long-awaited Public Accounts Committee (PAC) report on 1MDB”

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Fed Warned Goldman on Malaysia Bond Deals

by Justin Baer and Bradley Hope
Wall Street Journal
April 6, 2016

Regulator raised concerns about risk to firm’s reputation from work on 1MDB transactions

Regulators at the Federal Reserve have raised concerns with Goldman Sachs Group Inc. that deals it helped put together for a controversial Malaysian government investment fund could have put the firm’s reputation at risk, according to people familiar with the matter.

Those deals are increasingly under a brighter spotlight, as additional details emerge about the alleged actions of the firm’s former Southeast Asia head who handled transactions for the fund, 1Malaysia Development Bhd. or 1MDB.

People familiar with the matter said the partner, Tim Leissner, was suspended from the firm for writing a letter vouching for a financier with ties to that fund. Mr. Leissner was suspended and later quit early this year after a review of his email found he had allegedly written an unauthorized reference letter on behalf of Jho Low, a Malaysian investor who helped found 1MDB and was involved in some transactions done by the fund, people familiar with the matter said.

When it disclosed Mr. Leissner’s suspension, Goldman didn’t name Mr. Low. The fact that Mr. Leissner wrote a letter of reference to another financial institution for someone involved in 1MDB puts the firm deeper into the controversy surrounding the fund, lawyers say.

People familiar with the matter said Mr. Leissner’s letter had included details on Mr. Low’s finances, while overstating the extent to which Goldman had done due diligence on him. Continue reading “Fed Warned Goldman on Malaysia Bond Deals”

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Lets work for a Three Wins result in the 11th Sarawak State General Election – victories for Pakatan Harapan, Sarawak and Malaysia

The Battle for Sarawak in the 11th Sarawak State General Election with the dissolution of the Sarawak State Assembly on April 11 is the Battle for Malaysia for future generations, in Sarawak as well as rest of the country.

Never before have the Sarawak state general election been so important in the 53-year history of Sarawak, for what happens on Sarawak polling day is not just about Sarawak, about how big a majority Chief Minister Datuk Adenan Satem will have in the new State Assembly, but even more important, how it will affect Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s tenure as sixth Prime Minister of Malaysia and his ability to deflect or to continue to disregard the national and international furore over his RM55 billion 1MDB and RM4.2 billion “donation” twin mega scandals.

In fact it is no exaggeration to say that the forthcoming Sarawak State General Elections is even more important to Najib than to Adenan in determining the fate of the sixth Prime Minister of Malaysia. Continue reading “Lets work for a Three Wins result in the 11th Sarawak State General Election – victories for Pakatan Harapan, Sarawak and Malaysia”

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Child marriage is another form of modern day slavery

Syerleena Abdul Rashid
April 7, 2016

Pasir Putih MP Nik Mazian Nik Mohamad made a mockery of our institution today, by opposing the ban of child marriages by justifying that “If we restrict them from getting married, (their) lust will remain, and they will be exposed to premarital casual sex”. Not only is this justification sexist, it is a huge blow to social justice and human rights in our country.

Child marriage is catastrophic. Common sense dictates that it is immoral and the response given by Nik Mazian, indicate the distressing deterioration of reason and logic in our present day society. According to UNICEF, approximately over ‘700 million women alive today were married as children’ and similar reports by the UN, estimate that between 2011 and 2020, over 140 million children – mostly, girls, will become child brides.

Although in Malaysia, the legal minimum age for marriage under civil law for both genders is 18, girls can marry at 16 under Islamic law – and sometimes even younger with the consent of the Syariah court. In 2014, the Malaysian Syariah Judiciary Department received roughly 600 marriage applications for couples below the age of consent and approximately 446 of these applications have been approved by the department. Continue reading “Child marriage is another form of modern day slavery”

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How Muslim Governments Impose Ignorance

Mustafa Akyol
New York Times
MARCH 16, 2016

ISTANBUL — I recently spent a few days in Malaysia, where I was promoting the publication of the Malay edition of my book, “Islam Without Extremes: A Muslim Case for Liberty.” The publisher, a progressive Muslim organization called the Islamic Renaissance Front, had set up several talks for me in Kuala Lumpur. As any author would be, I was happy to learn that the team was enthusiastic about my book and had been getting good feedback from audiences and readers. But I was troubled by something else that I suspect many Muslim authors have experienced: My publisher was worried about censorship.

The risk, I was told, was that the Department of Islamic Development, a government body that “was formed to protect the purity of faith,” could ban the book if it was viewed as violating traditional Islamic doctrine.

So far, the Malaysian government has not banned my book. But if it did I wouldn’t be surprised. The department has already outlawed more than a thousand books translated into Malay. Charles Darwin’s “On the Origin of Species” was banned because, according to the home minister, it “goes against Islamic teachings,” and even “endangers public harmony” — whatever that means. “Islam: A Short History,” a fairly sympathetic study by the best-selling author Karen Armstrong, was similarly banned for being “incompatible with peace and social harmony.” Continue reading “How Muslim Governments Impose Ignorance”

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The Panama Papers’ Sprawling Web of Corruption

by The Editorial Board
New York Times
APRIL 5, 2016

The first reaction to the leaked documents dubbed the Panama Papers is simply awe at the scope of the trove and the ingenuity of the anonymous source who provided the press with 11.5 million documents — 2.6 terabytes of data — revealing in extraordinary detail how offshore bank accounts and tax havens are used by the world’s rich and powerful to conceal their wealth or avoid taxes.

Then comes the disgust. With more than 14,000 clients around the world and more than 214,000 offshore entities involved, Mossack Fonseca, the Panama-based law firm whose internal documents were exposed, piously insists it violated no laws or ethics. But the questions remain: How did all these politicians, dictators, criminals, billionaires and celebrities amass vast wealth and then benefit from elaborate webs of shell companies to disguise their identities and their assets? Would there have been no reckoning had the leak not occurred?

And then the core question: After these revelations, will anything change? Many formal denials and pledges of official investigations have been made. But to what degree do the law and public shaming still have dominion over this global elite? A public scarred by repeated revelations of corruption in government, sports and finance will demand to know. Continue reading “The Panama Papers’ Sprawling Web of Corruption”

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Ministers’ failure of leadership and lack of moral courage which is why the Malaysian government has lost its moral compass and Malaysia lost its way in the sixth decade of nationhood

The Higher Education Minister, Datuk Seri Idris Jusoh today gave an example of the Ministers’ failure of leadership and lack of moral courage which is why the Malaysian government has lost its moral compass and Malaysia lost its way in the sixth decade of nationhood.

In answering the question by the PKR MP for Penampang Darell Leiking, Idris defended the two forums against Christianisation held by Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM), claiming that they were meant to explain the threat of Islamic State (IS) and Syiah teachings. Continue reading “Ministers’ failure of leadership and lack of moral courage which is why the Malaysian government has lost its moral compass and Malaysia lost its way in the sixth decade of nationhood”

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Inside Cyberjaya, Malaysia’s failed Silicon Valley

by NICOLE KOBIE
Wired
05 APRIL 16

It’s past three in the morning, and our cab driver is lost – not only had he never heard of the city of Cyberjaya, but he also couldn’t find our hotel at its centre, the wonderfully named Cyberview Lodge Resort, built twenty years ago when ground was first struck at this would-be Malaysian Silicon Valley.

As we swung around yet another empty roundabout in the middle of the jungle, naked of any buildings or road signs, it was hard to fault the driver.

Ask government officials and developers, and Cyberjaya is a success, the heart of its knowledge-based economy: 85,000 people live there, they say, and dozens of multinationals have offices – and in a few years the train lines will reach out here, too. But ask a taxi driver in capital city Kuala Lumpur, only thirty minutes’ drive away, and they haven’t a clue what you’re on about.

Even those embedded in the tech industry might not be aware of Malaysia’s early attempt to jump on the digital bandwagon; I first heard of it via a now obscure story by Canadian journalist Chris Turner, who visited Cyberjaya in 2000, three years after its press launch. Continue reading “Inside Cyberjaya, Malaysia’s failed Silicon Valley”

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IGP should be jailed by Parliament for contempt if he violates the unanimous resolution of Parliament and obstructs Rafizi from attending last two sittings of Parliament today and tomorrow

The Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar should be jailed by Parliament for contempt of Parliament if obstructs the PKR Secretary-General and MP for Pandan Rafizi Ramli from attending the last two sittings of the current parliamentary meeting, i.e. today and tomorrow.

This is because Khalid would have violated the unanimous resolution passed by Parliament at the beginning of the current parliamentary meeting instructing the Inspector-General of Police to ensure that there is no obstruction for MPs to make their way to and from Parliament.

Now we have the IGP himself obstructing an MP from attending the last two sittings of Parliament with the “ambush” and arrest of Rafizi outside the gates of Parliament yesterday.

If Rafizi is not allowed the liberty to attend today and tomorrow’s Parliamentary sitting, a motion should be passed unanimously by Parliament today citing the Inspector-General of Police for contempt and putting him in jail until he purges the parliamentary contempt.

This is not a partisan issue, affecting the MP from PKR or Pakatan Harapan but an issue affecting parliamentary privileges of all MPs, regardless of political party. Continue reading “IGP should be jailed by Parliament for contempt if he violates the unanimous resolution of Parliament and obstructs Rafizi from attending last two sittings of Parliament today and tomorrow”

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The Panama Papers: Here’s What We Know

by Liam Stack
New York Times
APRIL 4, 2016

A group of global news organizations published articles this week based on a trove of leaked confidential documents from a law firm in Panama. They exposed how some of the world’s most powerful people were said to have used offshore bank accounts to conceal their wealth or avoid taxes.

The documents, known as the “Panama Papers,” named international politicians, business leaders and celebrities in a web of unseemly financial transactions, according to the articles, and raised questions about corruption in the global financial system. Many of the figures named in the leak have denied in the strongest terms that they had broken any laws.

This explainer has been tracking significant developments resulting from the disclosures. Among them:

• The prime minister of Iceland, Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson, resigned Tuesday.

• Gonzalo Delaveau Swett, the president of Transparency Chile, a branch of a global anti-corruption group, stepped down on Monday. Continue reading “The Panama Papers: Here’s What We Know”

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How a Cryptic Message, ‘Interested in Data?,’ Led to the Panama Papers

by Nicola Clark
New York Times
APRIL 5, 2016

PARIS — The leak of millions of private financial documents linking scores of the world’s rich and powerful to a secretive Panamanian law firm peddling in shell companies and offshore bank accounts began more than a year ago with a cryptic message to a German newspaper from an anonymous whistle-blower.

“Hello, this is John Doe,” the source wrote to the Süddeutsche Zeitung, a Munich-based newspaper that had worked on several investigations into tax evasion and money-laundering scandals. “Interested in data?”

“We’re very interested,” replied Bastian Obermayer, a veteran of several investigations into financial scandals. Continue reading “How a Cryptic Message, ‘Interested in Data?,’ Led to the Panama Papers”

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Ariff: Malays must shed fairy tales, false notions

Joe Fernandez | April 5, 2016
Free Malaysia Today

Mahathir, like the Malays, was wrong to assume that Najib Razak’s nobility can be equated to him doing what’s right and carrying out noble deeds
ariff,mahathir

KUALA LUMPUR: Raub MP Mohd Ariff Sabri Abdul Aziz, taking to his blog, said that he was present at Dataran Merdeka on April 1 when former Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, at 91, addressed the crowd at an anti-GST rally. “The gathering this time was not as large as that during the Bersih rallies although the issue was also about Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak.”

“The weather was too hot and besides, the GST issue was too technical for many unlike what Bersih was all about.”

The people, added the MP, prefer the big picture. “The people want to see Najib out from Putrajaya and replaced by a government that’s aware of the environment.”

As Mahathir spoke, said Ariff, he couldn’t help but feel that Najib was also a result of the former Prime Minister’s fault. “It was a mistake on his part to believe that Najib comes from a noble family and will naturally do what’s right.” Continue reading “Ariff: Malays must shed fairy tales, false notions”

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ANZ quizzed over AmBank link to Malaysia’s 1MDB corruption scandal

Leo Shanahan
THE AUSTRALIAN
APRIL 4, 2016

ANZ’s deputy chief executive and acting chief financial officer has been quizzed over the bank’s holdings in Malaysia’s AmBank amid the multi-billion dollar 1MDB corruption scandal engulfing that country’s government.

Appearing at a Senate committee looking into constructive default loans, Graham Hodges defended the role of ANZ in sitting on the board of Malaysian bank AmBank which held billions in the 1MDB funds at the centre of a global financial scandal.

With ANZ holding almost a 25 per cent shareholding in the Malaysian bank, ANZ has three permanent positions on AmBank’s board, which will soon include Mr Hodges himself and, formally, ANZ’s chief executive Shayne Elliott.

Under questioning from senators Mr Hodges described as “simplistic” allegations ANZ had governance questions to answer over AmBank and the scandal involving state investment fund 1MDB.

“Clearly the directors on that board are not at liberty to talk about what goes on … we do not control that bank. We are directors on that bank, it is a separately listed public company,” Mr Hodges told the committee in Sydney.

“As an ANZ executive and one which is a shareholder in that are we happy with that? Certainly not. But that’s different to implying that the culture or the integrity of one of the people who sat on the board is less than it should be because they’ve sat on the board.” Continue reading “ANZ quizzed over AmBank link to Malaysia’s 1MDB corruption scandal”

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The Brain, Mind, and Mindset

M. Bakri Musa
5th April 2016

A discussion on the “free mind” begins with clarifying three related terms: brain, mind, and mindset.

The brain is the jelly-like structure in our skull, part of our central nervous system. To use the language of computers, the brain is the central processing unit of our nervous system. It is, however, much more; the brain is the core of our consciousness.

Like any other organ, the brain has its own blood supply, support structures, and nutritional requirements. Like the heart, any developmental or other abnormalities of the brain will adversely affect its many functions. Unlike the heart however, which is fully developed and functional at birth (a baby’s heart functions in the same manner as an adult’s), the brain continues its development for many years after birth. Indeed, significant development of the brain occurs after birth, especially in the first few critical years of early childhood.

There is another major difference between the brain and other organs. While the internal parts of the heart for example, do communicate with each other, they do so only so they can function in a coordinated and rhythmic way to make the organ mechanically efficient. In the brain however, the communications of its various internal parts define the function of the whole brain. The significant point is that this development of communication pathways is as much dependent on what had been programmed in that individual through his genetic make-up as much as on the environment, internal and external, physical as well as non-physical. Continue reading “The Brain, Mind, and Mindset”

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Battle of Sarawak in the 11th Sarawak State General Election is the Battle for Malaysia for future generations in Sarawak as well as rest of the country

The Battle for Sarawak in the 11th Sarawak State General Election with the dissolution of the Sarawak State Assembly on April 11 is the Battle for Malaysia for future generations, in Sarawak as well as rest of the country.

Never before have the Sarawak state general election been so important in the 53-year history of Sarawak, for what happens on Sarawak polling day is not just about Sarawak, about how big a majority Chief Minister Datuk Adenan Satem will have in the new State Assembly, but even more important, how it will affect Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s tenure as sixth Prime Minister of Malaysia and his ability to deflect or to continue to disregard the national and international furore over his RM55 billion 1MDB and RM4.2 billion “donation” twin mega scandals.

In fact it is no exaggeration to say that the forthcoming Sarawak State General Elections is even more important to Najib than to Adenan in determining the fate of the sixth Prime Minister of Malaysia.

This is the reason for Najib’s cryptic remark in Kuching yesterday that he was fighting fit for the crucial Sarawak state general election, with the symbolic reference of his choosing between two T-shirt sizes – XL and XXL. Continue reading “Battle of Sarawak in the 11th Sarawak State General Election is the Battle for Malaysia for future generations in Sarawak as well as rest of the country”