The Minister for International Trade and Industry, Datuk Mustapha Mohamad had discovered that wherever he went, even at the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, he would be pursued, hounded and haunted by the international multi-billion dollar 1MDB kleptocratic money-laundering scandal which would not leave him in peace.
Mustapha is as wrong as the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak who declared in his 2016 New Year Message on Dec. 31, 2015 that his RM55 billion 1MDB and RM2.6 billion donation twin mega scandals had been resolved and were no more issues when the International Trade and Industry Minister said Malaysia must “move on” from the 1MDB scandal.
AFP quoted Mustapha saying “We’ve learned many lessons and we are moving forward” from the scandal, and said:
“Essentially we have to move on and we have confidence that a number of issues that came to limelight as a result of 1MDB will at some point, be behind us.
“We have the authorities to go after those responsible for creating the mess. The law is taking its course.”
Mustapha is not speaking his true self as he should know more than anybody else that it is not true that the Najib government had “learnt many lessons” from the 1MDB scandal and that “the law is taking its course” and that the “authorities” are going after “those responsible for creating the mess”.
Mustapha’s statement in Davos needs an important qualification as the law in Malaysia is not taking its course, and the authorities in Malaysia are not going after “those creating the mess”.
Mustapha need only ask his former Ministerial colleague, the former Second Finance Minister and one time Cabinet spokesman for the 1MDB scandal – Datuk Seri Ahmad Husni Hanadzlah if he needs confirmation, as this is why Husni was himself asking questions in Parliament as a backbencher about the 1MDB scandal despite a spell as Cabinet spokesman for 1MDB.
The important qualification to Mustapha’s statement is that it is the international law on the multi-billion dollar 1MDB kleptocratic money-laundering scandal which is taking its course and that it is the “international authorities” including foreign countries and jurisdictions like the United States, Switzerland and Singapore which are going after “those responsible for creating the mess”!
There is not a single person in Malaysia who is facing any peril or consequences, as a result of the actions taken by the authorities for the colossal abuses of power, embezzlement, misappropriation and money-laundering which made the 1MDB the largest kleptocratic scandal in the world!
The Malaysian government seems to be setting its face against the whole world – with Putrajaya claiming innocence while the rest of the world had adjudged Malaysia guilty of the biggest kleptocratic money-laundering scandal in the world!
The “issues that came to limelight” as a result of 1MDB scandal came from international sources, and not from investigations by the Malaysian authorities, and will not be “behind us”, until and unless there is full accountability and transparency – for example, Najib has still to find the courage to step forward to own up that he is “Malaysian Official 1” (MO1), and explain the teeming vexing and perplexing questions about the 1MDB scandal which caused Malaysia to be regarded worldwide as a “global kleptocracy”!
1MDB scandal will never “behind us” so long as Malaysia is regarded as a “global kleptocracy” and nobody can claim that that 1MDB scandal is “behind us” unless Malaysia cleanses and purges the ignominy or infamy of a global kleptocracy.
In fact, the year 2017 promises to be a worse year than 2016 or 2015 in terms of adverse international image and publicity for Malaysia – all because of the galloping 1MDB scandal.
Type “1MDB” into the Google search engine, and 255,000 search results appears in 0.42 seconds. Type “1MDB” into the Malaysiakini search engine, and some 200 reports and articles appear just for the 17 days of January, 2017.
How can Malaysia “move on” from the 1MDB scandal in such circumstances?
Malaysia must come to grips with the 1MDB scandal to ensure that it ceases to haunt and hound the nation and 30 million Malaysians.
The 36 Ministers in Cabinet should come to grips with the roiling 1MDB scandal and appoint a Royal Commission of Inquiry to chase down every sen from 1MDB and save Malaysia from the infamy and ignominy of a global kleptocracy.
If the Najib Government and Cabinet are not prepared to do the above, then only ordinary Malaysians can save Malaysia in the 14 General Election.
This must be the pre-condition for an effective opposition coalition in Malaysia – agreement on a minimal common objective to save Malaysia from ending up like Zimbabwe as a kleptocracy, Argentina as a failed state and North Korea as an autocratic state where the citizens have lost their basic democratic rights.
There are those in the opposition who do not see anything wrong with Malaysia being regarded world-wide as a “global kleptocracy”, who want proof that “MO1” mentioned 36 times in the US Department of Justice (DOJ) kleptocratic lawsuit to forfeit over US$1 billion 1MDB-linked assets is the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak or want evidence about the multi-billion dollar 1MDB global financial scandal.
Malaysians should have no truck with such “sheep in wolves’ clothing”!
(Media Statement in Ipoh on Wednesday, 18th January 2016)