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Swiss Authorities Repeat Call for Malaysia’s Help in 1MDB Probe

By JOHN LETZING
Wall Street Journal
Oct. 6, 2016

The Swiss attorney general’s office made an initial request for assistance last January

ZURICH—Swiss authorities said they are trying to advance a probe into the alleged misappropriation of billions of dollars from a Malaysian state investment fund but haven’t yet received anticipated help from Malaysian counterparts.

Switzerland’s Office of the Attorney General said in a statement on Wednesday that its probe, begun in August last year, had uncovered an alleged “Ponzi scheme” at the fund, 1Malaysia Development Bhd., or 1MDB.

Malaysia’s attorney general said Thursday that it had not yet received the additional request for assistance from Switzerland. It didn’t mention an earlier request from January, which Swiss officials say is pending but said it was committed to international cooperation. Continue reading “Swiss Authorities Repeat Call for Malaysia’s Help in 1MDB Probe”

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Najib-Mugabe meeting very troubling: a get-together of one of world’s oldest surviving kleptocrats and the new kleptocrat on the block?

The news today that President of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe is on a working visit to Malaysia and will have a meeting with the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak is very troubling to Malaysians deeply concerned about democracy and human rights as well as integrity and good governance.

Will the Najib-Mugabe meeting be a get-together and note-exchanging between one the world’s oldest surviving kleptocrats and the latest new kleptocrat on the block?

The term “kleptocrat” was only coined in the late 1990s to describe African dictators like Joseph Mobutu, Sani Abacha and Robert Mugabe plundering their own countries.

Wikipedia defines “kleptocracy” as “power, rule by thieves” and is applied to a government seen as having a particularly severe and systemic problem with officials or a ruling class (collectively, kleptocrats) taking advantage of corruption to extend their personal wealth and political power. Typically this system involves the embezzlement of state funds at the expense of the wider population, sometimes without even the pretense of honest service. Continue reading “Najib-Mugabe meeting very troubling: a get-together of one of world’s oldest surviving kleptocrats and the new kleptocrat on the block?”

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“Biggest corruption bust ever” more a reflection that MACC has yet to become an independent and professional anti-corruption agency to combat the scourge of corruption which has become a runaway problem tarring the country as “global kleptocracy”

This is the biggest “corruption bust ever” in the nation’s history – RM114million recovered from the top two officials of the Sabah Water Department, including RM53.7mil in cold hard cash that took more than 30 officers 15 hours to count.

Also recovered from the homes and offices of the department’s director and his deputy were nine mostly luxury vehicles, expensive watches, jewellery and 94 high-end handbags.

The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) said the cash – RM45mil seized from the director and RM7.5mil from his deputy – was found stashed inside safes, cupboards, drawers and also a car boot.

Also seized was RM1.18mil in over half-a-dozen foreign currencies.

Among the vehicles seized were a BMW 535i (which costs RM500,000), Mercedes-Benz C300 (RM308,000), Range Rover SE V8 (RM1.1mil), Mazda6 (RM195,000), Volvo XC60 (RM270,000), Lexus ES (RM260,000), Audi A1 (RM180,000) and Ford Ranger (RM112,000) – in all, the cars total some RM3mil in value.

The luxury watches comprised brands like Patek Philippe, Tag Heuer, Rolex, Cartier and Guess while the handbags included Chanel, Burberry, Versace, Louis Vuitton and Hermes.

The two senior state civil officers were arrested by MACC yesterday and remanded for a week for investigations into alleged kickbacks involving RM3.3bil worth of federal infrastructure projects.

The corruption figure may even reach a staggering RM300 million as MACC revealed the amount of money, in cash and from accounts of the suspects, recovered so far did not include the value of properties and possible deposits made overseas. Continue reading ““Biggest corruption bust ever” more a reflection that MACC has yet to become an independent and professional anti-corruption agency to combat the scourge of corruption which has become a runaway problem tarring the country as “global kleptocracy””

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Biggest MACC seizure in history

Elton Gomes
Borneo Post
October 6, 2016

KOTA KINABALU: The Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission (MACC) has made their biggest cash seizure in its history following the arrest of two senior government officers here on Tuesday.

About RM112 million in cash was seized from four individuals, namely a 54-year-old director and his 51-year-old deputy, the deputy director’s 55-year-old businessman brother with a Datuk title, and his 50-year-old accountant.

The director and deputy director were arrested at their office on Tuesday while the businessman and the accountant were picked up by MACC yesterday.

The director and deputy director were suspected to have handled infrastructure construction projects valued at over RM3.3 billion since 2010 and had given all of them to their siblings. Continue reading “Biggest MACC seizure in history”

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Swiss investigators seek Malaysia’s help in 1MDB probe

Nikkei Asian Review
October 5, 2016

BANGKOK — Switzerland’s Office of the Attorney General, looking into allegations that a Malaysian state investment fund was involved in money laundering, said Wednesday it has determined that a Ponzi scheme was used to misappropriate $800 million from the fund and requested further information from authorities in Malaysia.

As part of the Swiss criminal investigation into 1Malaysia Developer Berhad that began in August 2015, the Attorney General’s office said it had uncovered a “Ponzi scheme fraud” that it said was used to launder $800 million belonging to SRC International, a former 1MDB subsidiary.

Ponzi schemes involve paying returns to initial investors from sources other than income generated from the investments, often the funds of those who invest later.

The Attorney General’s office said its initial request in January for legal assistance from the Malaysian authorities to examine funds passing through Swiss financial institutions is still pending. Continue reading “Swiss investigators seek Malaysia’s help in 1MDB probe”

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What would have happened if Bersih 5 supporters had been as unruly, provocative and violent as the Red Shirts in Teluk Intan on Saturday?

What would have happened if the Bersih 5 supporters had been as unruly, provocative and violentn as the Red Shirts in Teluk Intan on Saturday?

Undoubtedly, the Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar would have tweeted for the whole world to know about the Bersih 5 supporters’ provocative and violent conduct, how they had deliberately defied the law and order in the country as well as tweeted his “instant” directive to the relevant police officers to bring the offending persons to book or to hunt them down if they do not surrender themselves to the authorities within 24 hours!

More than 72 hours have passed since the hooliganism and thuggery exhibited by the Red Shirts in Teluk Intan, but there is not a squeak either from the Inspector-General of Police or the top police authorities!

What is even more ignominious and infamous is that the Barisan Nasional political leaders are using the Red Shirts hooliganism and thuggery in Teluk Intan as an excuse to issue seemingly even-handed calls to organisers of the Berish 5 and Red Shirt rallies to call off their demonstrations, publicly exhibiting the continuing loss of the UMNO/BN leaders of their moral compass to be unable to distinguish right from wrong. Continue reading “What would have happened if Bersih 5 supporters had been as unruly, provocative and violent as the Red Shirts in Teluk Intan on Saturday?”

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48-hour silence of top MCA, Gerakan and MIC leaders on Tengku Adnan’s claim that BN has arrived at a consensus on Hadi’s private member’s bill is more eloquent than any statement by them

The 48-hour silence of the top MCA, Gerakan and MIC leaders who are also Cabinet Ministers to the claim by the UMNO and Barisan Nasional secretary-general Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor that the Barisan Nasional has arrived at a consensus regarding PAS President Abdul Hadi Awang’s private member’s bill is more eloquent than any statement anyone of them could make.

As usual, the top MCA, Gerakan and MIC leaders allow their low-level underlings to cast doubt on Adnan’s claim, but they dare not personally contradict Adnan’s statement and their silence are louder than the protestations by the MCA, Gerakan and MIC underlings.
Before the Barisan Nasional Supreme Council meeting two Fridays ago, I had said that the BN Supreme Council had degenerated from the Barisan Nasional Federal coalition government’s highest decision-making body into a superfluous and even superannuated creature without any bite, role, authority or purpose whatsoever.

What UMNO leadership decides is the order of the day, and this is what happened to Hadi’s private member’s bill in the May meeting of Parliament. Continue reading “48-hour silence of top MCA, Gerakan and MIC leaders on Tengku Adnan’s claim that BN has arrived at a consensus on Hadi’s private member’s bill is more eloquent than any statement by them”

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The Pakatan Rakyat Common Policy Framework can be the basis of the Grand Opposition Coalition to bring about fundamental political changes in Malaysia in 14GE

AMANAH Deputy President, Sallehudin Ayub reported that AMANAH has 85,000 members on its first anniversary.

I congratulate Parti AMANAH on its success, for DAP can only boast of having 85,000 members after a decade of political struggle.

Today is a special day for BERSIH 5 launched off its Nov. 19 campaign with publicity convoys from six places in Malaysia – Johor Baru, Lumut, Kangar, Kota Baru, Sandakan and Miri.

The BERSIH 5 campaign for clean, free and fair elections is even more pertinent than in the four previous four BERSIH campaigns, as the proposed redelineation of electoral constituencies have demonstrated that we have an electoral system which is utterly rotten and corrupt to the core.

The Election Commission had violated the constitutional mandate as laid down in the Thirteenth Schedule of the Constitution which stipulates that in any constituency redelineation, “the number of electors within each constituency in a State ought to be approximately equal except that, having regard to the greater difficulty of reaching electors in the country districts and the other disadvantages facing rural constituencies, a measure of weightage for area ought to be given to such constituencies”, but have instead done the exact opposite – widening the disparity between the largest and smallest electorates in both parliamentary and state assembly constituencies.

The Election Commission was not only acting against the Thirteenth Schedule of the Constitution, but was working with a political agenda to gerrymander the constit uency redelineation so that in Parliament, it an achieve the twin objectives of returning UMNO-BN to power in Putrajaya and with a two-thirds parliamentary majority; while at the State Assembly level, ensure that UMNO-BN can win back Selangor state power and ensure that UMNO-BN maintain the state government in both Perak and Kedah, and even secure a two-thirds state assembly majority in Perak. Continue reading “The Pakatan Rakyat Common Policy Framework can be the basis of the Grand Opposition Coalition to bring about fundamental political changes in Malaysia in 14GE”

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Great regret that Ku Li is playing the racial card of reducing Malaysian politics into Malay versus Chinese when it should be a battle between integrity, good governance and democracy versus corruption, bad governance and authoritarian rule

The launch of the seven-week Bersih 5 convoy in Johor, which is held simultaneously today in five other locations in the country, is a historic occasion for patriotic Malaysians regardless of race, religion, region or politics to reclaim the country from undemocratic, corrupt and opportunistic forces in the country which are prepared to see the country hurtle down the slippery slope towards a failed state provided they can achieve their selfish and greedy objectives.

The Election Commission’s most undemocratic redelineation of electoral constituencies in the nation’s history, even more unfair and undemocratic than the four previous redelineation exercises, has only highlighted the importance, relevance and urgency of the Bersih’s cause and primary objective to have clean, free and fair elections.

Nov. 19 should be a rendevous with history for all Malaysians concerned not only about the future of democracy but also the future of the plural Malaysian nation – why a country with so much promise for greatness in various fields of human endeavour and which could be a showcase of successful multi-racial, multi-lingual, multi-religious and multi-cultural nation to the world has overnight becoming a “basket-case” of nation-building? Continue reading “Great regret that Ku Li is playing the racial card of reducing Malaysian politics into Malay versus Chinese when it should be a battle between integrity, good governance and democracy versus corruption, bad governance and authoritarian rule”

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Ku Li’s DAP Bashing: A Cynical Play for UMNO Leadership

Koon Yew Yin
1.10.2016

All sorts of developments have taken place in our political arena this past fortnight which have tempted me to write about.  The most prominent is the attempt by the Election Commission to steal the next election for the BN. However many other analysts have commented and written about it so there is no need for me to say anything much except to urge our Malaysian electorate to vote in the next election – wherever their constituency and the outcome of the re-delineation exercise  – so as to finish off once and for all, UMNO’s and BN’s monopoly of power.

Assuming the next election is in 2018, I propose that one of the key electoral slogans for the opposition parties is

“Malaysians Have Had More Than Enough of 59 Years of BN Misrule and Power Abuse”.  

Continue reading “Ku Li’s DAP Bashing: A Cynical Play for UMNO Leadership”