Posted on

10 Questions on 1MDB for dummies for Cabinet Ministers at their meeting today

Bravado is no answer to the mountain of queries by Malaysians as to why Cabinet Ministers had not raised questions about the propriety, accountability and transparency of the various deals in the RM42 billion 1MDB scandal at the last Cabinet meeting on Friday.

“Do you think Nazri can be threatened?” is sheer bravado and does not answer the question why Ministers, according the Minister for Tourism and Culture, Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz himself, were satisfied and happy with the second Finance Minister, Datuk Seri Ahmad Husni Hanadzlah’s explanation on the 1MDB Roadmap and that no minister, including the Rural and Regional Development Minister Datuk Seri Shafie Apdal, voiced any objection at last Friday’s Cabinet meeting – when it is obvious that any ordinary person cannot be happy with Husni’s explanation of the 1MDB Roadmap.

Either the Ministers were living in a different planet and did not know the almost daily queries about the RM42 billion 1MDB scandal or they just buried their heads in the sand like ostriches to shut out the mountain of 1MDB queries for the past few years.

The Ministers will be guilty of the height of irresponsibility and negligence if they had given approval to the 1MDB Roadmap without understanding the issues of propriety, accountability and transparency of the numerous deals in the 1MDB imbroglio, out of fear of stepping on the toes of Datuk Seri Najib Razak Prime Minister-cum-Finance Minister.

The Ministers must make amends for their gross sins of irresponsibility and negligence on the 1MDB Roadmap at the Cabinet meeting this morning, and the following ten questions on the 1MDB for dummies should be among the questions which Ministers should pose on the 1MDB Roadmap at today’s Cabinet: Continue reading “10 Questions on 1MDB for dummies for Cabinet Ministers at their meeting today”

Posted on

Death camps are a ‘blight on the soul of the nation’

— MCCBCHST
Malay Mail Online
June 2, 2015

JUNE 2 — The Malaysian Consultative Council of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism and Taoism (MCCBCHST) is deeply saddened by the discovery of mass graves of migrants at the Malaysian/Thai border in Perlis. We are distressed to read reports that they were victims of abuse and torture at the hands of human traffickers and that several members of our police force may have been complicit.

The exploitation, torture and killing of our fellow human beings at these “death camps” on Malaysian soil are a blight of our nation and humanity. These victims deserve more than the indignity of un-mourned deaths and unmarked graves and their souls call for our prayers and for justice.

As such the MCCBCHST calls on Malaysians of all faiths to hold prayer sessions for the solace and rest of the victims and to ask for those responsible for these “death camps” to be brought to justice.

We call upon regional and national leaders to legislate and enforce sustainable humane solutions to the long-standing challenge of refugees, migrants and stateless people being exploited and abused by human traffickers across our borders. Continue reading “Death camps are a ‘blight on the soul of the nation’”

Posted on

Race, religion, royalty, reality and MAS

By Mariam Mokhtar
Malaysiakini
Jun 1, 2015

MAS is not a commercial enterprise, but an offshoot of a government department, and run along government lines. It takes its orders from politicians, it bows to various political demands, it can never be re-structured unless the torrid cocktail of political patronage and building personal empires is eliminated.

After years of Ketuanan Melayu and Biro Tata Negara (BTN) spewing division, with claims that the Malays are God’s chosen people, it is ironic that the saviour of MAS is a German, Christoph Mueller.

What a slap in the face of the rakyat, the planes in the fleet are being sold off, to save some money, and yet Najib Abdul Razak and the self-styled First Lady of Malaysia (Flom) wastes millions of ringgit on a new aeroplane for ministerial junkets.

Our politicians bled MAS dry and now Mueller wants to perform a cull and punish the employees, instead of the politicians and fat cats, who sit on the management board.

It is outrageous that the people in positions of authority refuse to take any responsibility for their failures, and will probably be retained with a more lucrative package. Continue reading “Race, religion, royalty, reality and MAS”

Posted on

What’s at stake in the PAS election?

– Liew Chin Tong
The Malaysian Insider
2 June 2015

The fault lines in PAS election this Thursday (June 4) are very stark. Incumbent president Datuk Seri Hadi Awang has asked members to choose between his loyalists and what his camp dubbed as “DAP sympathisers”, and in reply, former Perak menteri besar Datuk Seri Nizar Jamaluddin has said in jest that the choice was actually between DAP sympathisers and Umno puppets.

Last Saturday, I was speaking at a forum with Nik Omar Nik Aziz, the eldest son of Datuk Nik Aziz Nik Mat. It just struck me that even within the family of the former PAS spiritual leader there are some different views: Nik Abduh claimed that his father was never against working with Umno while Nik Omar held a contrasting view.

The lines are drawn between those who aspire to win Putrajaya and those who only want to keep Kota Baru; between those who are prepared to work with other opposition parties to topple an already corrupt and monolithic Umno in the next general election for broader reforms and those who want to work with Umno for immediate implementation of hudud; and between those who see Malaysia as a multiethnic/multi-religious project and those who think of Malaysia as a single ethnic/religious entity.

The party poll is unlikely to end the conflict as it is too deep-seated, at least dating back to events unfolded in 1998. This Thursday could be a fresh beginning for PAS, for better or worse. Continue reading “What’s at stake in the PAS election?”

Posted on

What my proposal for a post-BN, post-PR “Save Malaysia” grand coalition is and is not

As my proposal for a post-BN, post-PR “Save Malaysia” grand coalition continues to be the subject of controversy and misunderstanding, deliberate or otherwise, let me clarify what the proposal “is” and “is not”, and the background for such a proposal.

Firstly, I had said that the proposal for a post-BN, post-PR “Save Malaysia” grand coalition is based on the premise that the two existing political coalitions in the country, Barisan Nasional and Pakatan Rakyat, have lost all public trust, credibility and legitimacy, in which case, Malaysians must think the unthinkable and move beyond the present political scenario dominated by two political coalitions in a post-BN, post-PR phase of Malaysian politics.

We need not tarry here as to why and how the two political coalitions, BN and PR, could lose all public trust, credibility and legitimacy.

Clearly, if anyone of the two political coalitions, BN or PR, can continue to command public trust, credibility, legitimacy and support of Malaysians, then we have not arrived at the post-BN, post-PR phase of Malaysian politics. Continue reading “What my proposal for a post-BN, post-PR “Save Malaysia” grand coalition is and is not”

Posted on

Nik Aziz percaya Pakatan wadah terbaik mencapai objektif politik PAS

– Zairil Khir Johari
The Malaysian Insider
2 June 2015

Pada Sabtu, 30 Mei 2015, Penang Institute menganjurkan forum peringatan bagi mengenang jasa dan legasi seorang tokoh besar dalam politik Malaysia, Allahyarham Datuk Bentara Setia Tuan Guru Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat, atau lebih dikenali dengan panggilan Tok Guru.

Forum yang bertempat di The Light Hotel, Seberang Jaya ini menghadirkan tiga orang ahli panel, iaitu ahli Parlimen Kluang Liew Chin Tong, ahli Parlimen Parit Buntar Datuk Dr Mujahid Yusoff Rawa dan Ustaz Nik Omar Nik Abdul Aziz, pengetua Maahad Darul Anuar dan juga anakanda kepada Tok Guru. Forum dikendalikan saya selaku moderator.

Topik yang diwacanakan dalam forum adalah “Islam dan Kepelbagaian,” dan perbincangan malam itu mengupas dengan lebih mendalam keperibadian Tok Guru, khususnya berkenaan persoalan hubungan kaum dan agama serta hubungan parti-parti politik dalam dan luar Pakatan Rakyat. Continue reading “Nik Aziz percaya Pakatan wadah terbaik mencapai objektif politik PAS”

Posted on

Ministers should redeem themselves at their meeting tomorrow to prove that Cabinet is not a magic show for a David Copperfield to perform the hat-trick of producing a rabbit from an empty hat

The Malaysian Cabinet is being held in even lower esteem among Malaysians after last Friday’s Cabinet meeting for two reasons:

Firstly, for giving approval to a 1MDB Roadmap when it is clear that no Minister has any clue how 1MDB and the Malaysian Government is going to be saved from 1MDB’s RM42 billion loans scandal; and

Secondly, no resignation by any Minister although the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said that Ministers can resign if they do not support him on the 1MDB issue.

It is simply incredible that the Malaysian Cabinet has degenerated into a magic show for a David Copperfield to perform the hat-trick of producing a rabbit from an empty hat, with no Minister daring to expose the illusion of the whole exercise!

The reason why the UMNO Vice President and Minister for Rural and Regional Development Minister, Datuk Seri Shafie Apdal had objected to the application of the principle of collective Ministerial responsibility on the 1MDB scandal was that although Ministers had asked questions about the strategic investment firm during Cabinet meetings, Ministers are just unclear as the public over the firm’s opaque deals.

Shafie had said that Ministers wanted answers to the 1MDB scandal as they wanted to know, not for their own benefit, but to explain to the people at large. Continue reading “Ministers should redeem themselves at their meeting tomorrow to prove that Cabinet is not a magic show for a David Copperfield to perform the hat-trick of producing a rabbit from an empty hat”

Posted on

Why do Malaysians hate migrants?

Syerleena Abdul Rashid
The Malaysian Insider
29 May 2015

When a racial riot broke out in southern Italy sometime in early 2010, the mindless attacks on African immigrants prompted Pope Benedict XVI to respond by reminding people that, “an immigrant is a human being, different in background, culture and tradition, but a person to be respected, and possessing rights and duties”.

Malaysians tend to get emotional when such issues arise and share the same concerns with the rest of the world when it comes down to how we feel about migrants.

Whether you want to believe or not, Malaysia is one of those countries made up of migrants. Continue reading “Why do Malaysians hate migrants?”

Posted on

The young boy who ‘shook’ Malaysia

Khoo Ying Hooi
The Malaysian Insider
1 June 2015

My diary on May 30 was marked as this, “Joshua Wong, Dubook Press, 9am”.

I was eager to meet Joshua in person when I found out about his road tour in Malaysia. Then my “dream” was crushed as he was barred from entering Malaysia on the morning of Tuesday, May 26.

I was keen to hear his talk. Apart from him being a high-profile teenager, I wanted to meet him in person, as I wanted to know how a young boy at his age manages to mobilise or influence his peers to engage in acts of civil disobedience. Continue reading “The young boy who ‘shook’ Malaysia”

Posted on

Have all Ministers accepted collective responsibility for the 1MDB scandal to “sink or swim” with Najib on the issue?

Have all Ministers, including Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin and the Minister for Rural and Regional Development, Datuk Seri Shafie Apdal accepted collective responsibility for the 1MDB scandal to “sink or swim” with the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak, on the issue?

This question becomes pertinent when two UMNO-owned newspapers, Utusan Malaysia and New Straits Times reported in prominence the online portal Malaysia Today article last night that the Prime Minister had told his Cabinet members at Friday’s meeting to resign if they do not support him on the 1MDB issue.

The Malaysia Today article headlined “NAJIB ASKS HIS CABINET MEMBERS NOT WITH HIM TO RESIGN” reported:

Anyway, after Second Finance Minister Ahmad Husni Hanadzlah presented the Ministry of Finance’s plan for 1MDB to the Cabinet on Friday, Najib looked at all the Cabinet members and asked them who were not with him. Those not with him can tender their resignation and walk out the door. Continue reading “Have all Ministers accepted collective responsibility for the 1MDB scandal to “sink or swim” with Najib on the issue?”

Posted on

Why things like 1MDB happen

By P Gunasegaram
Malaysiakini
May 28, 2015

QUESTION TIME Malaysia had no major financial scandals – as in billion-ringgit ones – until the infamous case of Bumiputra Malaysia Finance or BMF emerged in the early eighties and captured the imagination of the press and the public.

Before we are a bit quick to point the finger at former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad for that, let’s point out that Mahathir became prime minister only in 1981, after BMF, Bank Bumiputra’s wholly-owned Hong Kong subsidiary, started loaning money to George Tan’s Carrian group, eventually amounting to RM2.5 billion in all.

The loans were made between 1979 and 1983, which means that loans continued to be made to Carrian even after Mahathir became PM, implying that Mahathir cannot be totally absolved.

Carrian was a rising star in the Hong Kong property market then but subsequently went bust, making it the biggest bankruptcy in Hong Kong at the time. The scale of the scandal was simply enormous and record-breaking, putting Malaysia on the top of the list in terms of banking failure at that time.

The question is what was a unit of Bank Bumiputra, a bank set up to provide bumiputeras access to funding as part of the effort to increase their participation in business, doing lending money to a Hong Kong property group?

This was at that time, the largest banking scandal in the world and the interest in it spiked further when a Bank Bumiputra senior officer sent to Hong Kong to investigate was murdered and his body dumped in a banana plantation. Continue reading “Why things like 1MDB happen”

Posted on

The PR Common Policy Framework, repudiated by PAS President, should form the basis of a Grand Coalition, post-BN, post-PR to “Save Malaysia”

PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang has said that the PAS party elections at the 2015 Muktamar beginning on 4th June is the choice between PAS loyalists and DAP sympathisers.

This attracted a rejoinder from the Perak PAS Deputy Commissioner and former PAS Perak Mentri Besar Nizar Jamaluddin whether the PAS delegates are being asked to choose “UMNO puppets” instead.

The DAP has firmly and steadfastly refused to be drawn into the PAS party elections as we do not want to interfere or to get dragged into what is essentially PAS internal affairs to decide on the PAS leadership and its future directions.

Yes, the DAP is concerned about the outcome of the PAS party elections next Thursday but DAP will not interfere or meddle in PAS party elections. Continue reading “The PR Common Policy Framework, repudiated by PAS President, should form the basis of a Grand Coalition, post-BN, post-PR to “Save Malaysia””

Posted on

Sarawak and Sabah should have one-third of the parliamentary seats which is not only be in the spirit of the Malaysia Agreement 1963 but a crucial safeguard to preserve and protect the fundamental principle of the constitution of Malaysia as a secular nation with Islam as the official religion

Malaysia wants to become a developed nation in five years time in 2020.

In the developed nations in Europe, the rural areas would enjoy basic infrastructures and amenities like piped water, electricity supply, as well as the most elementary educational, economic and health facilities which are non-existent for rural areas in Malaysia, particularly in Sarawak and Sabah.

I can still remember that more than half a century ago in the early sixties, there would be delegation after delegation of Sarawakians and Sabahans visiting Peninsular Malaysia because the Prime Minister at the time, Tunku Abdul Rahman, his deputy Tun Razak and other Ministers in the Cabinet in Kuala Lumpur wanted to convince Sarawak and Sabah leaders the advantages of the formation of Malaysia, promising that Sarawak and Sabah would be as advanced and developed as Malaya if Sabah and agreed to the formation of the new federation of Malaysia together with Malaya and Singapore.

Malaysia is now 52 years old since its formation in 1963, and the promises half a century ago that Sarawak and Sabah would be as developed as Peninsular Malaysia have still to be met, or tens of thousands of Ibans would not have to leave Sarawak to seek greener pastures in Johor Baru – which is why we are having a Gawai celebration in Johor Baru tonight. Continue reading “Sarawak and Sabah should have one-third of the parliamentary seats which is not only be in the spirit of the Malaysia Agreement 1963 but a crucial safeguard to preserve and protect the fundamental principle of the constitution of Malaysia as a secular nation with Islam as the official religion”

Posted on

Will Mahathir knuckle under the threat of RM1 million reward for information about his wrongdoings as Prime Minister for 22 years causing RM100 billion losses to Malaysia from his various financial scandals and fade from the political scene?

I read today of a new NGO which has offered a reward of up to RM1 million for information about the wrongdoings of Tun Dr. Mahathir during his 22 years as Prime Minister causing RM100 billion losses to the country from his various financial scandals.

As one of the few who had stood up in and out of Parliament to consistently and persistently criticise and oppose the series of financial scandals and abuses of power during Mahathir’s premiership from 1981 – 2013 – and paying a heavy price of being detained for a second time for 18 months under the Internal Security Act during Operation Lalang where Guan Eng and I were the first to be detained but the last to be released – I find the report of a RM1 million bounty for information about Mahathir’s wrongdoings both amusing and interesting.

Why wasn’t such a RM1 million bounty offered during Mahathir’s 22-year tenure as Prime Minister from 1981-2003? Was it because such an offeror would find himself in incarceration even before the ink of such an offer could dry?

Why was such a RM1 million bounty offered only 12 years after Mahathir had stepped down as the fourth Prime Minister of Malaysia? Were they sleeping for the past 12 years and could not pluck up the courage for such a public-spirited offer?

Has the RM1 million bounty any connection with Mahathir’s stepping up of his attacks on Datuk Seri Najib Razak as Prime Minister of Malaysia, whether on the RM42 billion 1MDF financial scandal or the murder of Mongolian Altantuya Shaariibuu, which will bring it within the zone of a proxy war in the escalation of the Najib-Mahathir titanic battle? Continue reading “Will Mahathir knuckle under the threat of RM1 million reward for information about his wrongdoings as Prime Minister for 22 years causing RM100 billion losses to Malaysia from his various financial scandals and fade from the political scene?”

Posted on

Malaysians should seriously consider the possibility of a new political configuration to “Save Malaysia” which is post-BN and post-PR, based on principles and national interests and not opportunism or self-interests

More than two months ago have passed since I first broached the idea of a new political alignment in the country to form a new coalition Federal Government which is post-BN and post-PR with a new Prime Minister to “Save Malaysia” to resolve the debilitating multiple political, economic, educational, social and nation-building crisis plaguing the country.

Since mid-March, the crisis in both political coalitions, UMNO/Barisan Nasional and Pakatan Rakyat have worsened with no light at the end of the tunnel.

The war between the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak and the former longest-serving Prime Minister, Tun Mahathir, whether directly or through proxies, has reached a new pitch.

Today, I read of a new NGO threatening to sue Mahathir for RM100 billion losses as a result of the numerous financial scandals during Mahathir’s 22-year premiership from 1981 to 2003. Continue reading “Malaysians should seriously consider the possibility of a new political configuration to “Save Malaysia” which is post-BN and post-PR, based on principles and national interests and not opportunism or self-interests”

Posted on

As Save 1MDB Roadmap is in fact Save Najib Roadmap, did Najib excuse and absent himself from yesterday’s Cabinet decision on the 1MDB Roadmap because of personal conflicts of interest?

On Thursday, the second Finance Minister, Datuk Seri Husni Hanadzlah said he would table a roadmap for 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) to the Cabinet on Friday to strengthen and solve the problems plaguing 1MDB and that the roadmap would be made public after it is tabled in the Cabinet.

The Save 1MDB Roadmap has not been made public after the Cabinet meeting as promised, only the announcement by Husni that 1MDB will receive US$1 billion (RM3.67 billion) from Abu Dhabi’s International Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC) to repay a US$975 million loan maturing in August but which a consortium of German lenders is seeking an early settlement due to a breach of covenant in the loan agreement by 1MDB.
But the Malaysian public have not been told what 1MDB’s USD$1 billion Abu Dhabi lifelife would cost Malaysia as everybody should know of the truism that there is no free lunch in the world.

Malaysians have also not been informed of the other details of the agreement with International Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC) and its Aabar Investments unit, which are said to include “further measures to comprehensively address the various financial asset and liability transactions between the parties” or aspects of the rationalisation plan of 1MDB.

Have these details of the Save 1MDB Roadmap been presented to the Cabinet yesterday or were the Cabinet Ministers as usual asked to give a blank cheque approval for the Save 1MDB Roadmap without any details to allow the Ministers to discuss and decide on the viability and sustainability of the of the Roadmap and whether to approve the conditions to save 1MDB – even though the Ministers will have to be collectively responsible for the Save 1MDB Roadmap?

Are the Ministers in the same position as members of the Malaysian public, or to use the words of UMNO Vice President and Minister for Rural and Regional Development, Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal on Wednesday, that the Ministers were just as unclear as the public over the 1MDB’s opaque deals? Continue reading “As Save 1MDB Roadmap is in fact Save Najib Roadmap, did Najib excuse and absent himself from yesterday’s Cabinet decision on the 1MDB Roadmap because of personal conflicts of interest?”

Posted on

Najib’s choice is clear when he had to choose between holding support of BN’s 48 MPs in Sarawak and Sabah or wooing PAS’ 21 MPs

The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak is fighting for his political life, with the former longest-serving Prime Minister, Tun Dr. Mahathir leading the charge in the campaign for Najib to step down as Prime Minister to save UMNO and Barisan Nasional (BN) from defeat in the next general elections.

Lines are being drawn in Najib’s titanic life-and-death battle as the sixth Prime Minister and UMNO President, but there is no reason for Pakatan Rakyat to take sides whether to throw Najib a life-line or to support Mahathir’s campaign to save UMNO/BN as Pakatan Rakyat’s objective must surely, firmly and unswervingly remain on the larger objective to save Malaysia and Malaysians and not to save any one political party or even one person!

This is UMNO/BN’s weakest moment in the federal government coalition’s history. In fact, the UMNO/BN had already lost majority support of the Malaysian voters in the recent 13th general elections as it is Pakatan Rakyat and not Barisan Nasional which had secured the majority support of the electorate in the national polls two years ago and the Malaysian Prime Minister of the day should have been Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and not Datuk Seri Najib Razak.

Unfortunately, Pakatan Rakyat is itself at its weakest in its 7-year history, and it is unable to take advantage, let alone full advantage, of the turmoils in UMNO/BN. Continue reading “Najib’s choice is clear when he had to choose between holding support of BN’s 48 MPs in Sarawak and Sabah or wooing PAS’ 21 MPs”

Posted on

Google I/O is latest round in escalating high-tech arms race

Jon Swartz, Jessica Guynn and Marco della Cava
USA TODAY
May 28, 2015

SAN FRANCISCO — Google fired the latest salvos Thursday in an escalating arms race among tech’s Big 4 for the hearts, minds and coding of developers.

At the eighth annual I/O conference here, Google laid out a futuristic road map to throngs of 5,000 software developers, its infantry in the war against Apple, Facebook and Microsoft.

The tech titans are locked in a worldwide skirmish to make devices of all kinds smarter — whether smartphones and tablets, wearable devices, Internet-connected televisions, cars or virtual reality.

With most people on the planet within an arm’s length of an electronic device, the quartet is vying to become the primary vendor supplying technology underpinning five key battlefields — the Internet of Things, autos, virtual reality, mobile payments and wearable devices – worth hundreds of billions of dollars. Continue reading “Google I/O is latest round in escalating high-tech arms race”

Posted on

Cabinet should be given adequate time for Ministers to understand and study the Save 1MDB roadmap before a Cabinet decision is taken while Najib should “tell all” about his 1MDB dealings in the past six years

The Second Finance Minister, Datuk Seri Ahmad Husni Hanadzlah announced yesterday that the Finance Ministry will present a roadmap for 1MDB to the Cabinet today to solve the problems plaguing the 1MDP and to counter negative perceptions on the strategic investment fund company.

The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak and the second Finance Minister Husni should be fair to their ministerial colleagues in the 35-strong Cabinet, who should be given adequate time to understand and study the Save 1MDB Plan before a Cabinet decision is taken as all the Ministers have to bear collective responsibility for the success or failure of the Save 1MDB Plan once it is approved by the Cabinet.

The Cabinet should not repeat the farce of its March 4 meeting when the Ministers went through the motions of being briefed by 1MDB and its auditors Deloitte, with few Ministers understanding what was going on, but the Cabinet still prematurely and foolishly cleared the troubled fund of wrongdoing and issued 1MDB with a clean bill of health and integrity.

Without comprehensive Cabinet papers for the Ministers to understand the 1MDB scandal, without access to the thousands of 1MDB transactions and email which London’s Sunday Times and Sarawak Report said they had obtained access to, despite attempts by 1MDB at the end of last year to call in all of its computers, employee laptops and servers to wipe them clean of such transactions and emails, how could the Cabinet clear the 1MDB of any wrongdoing?

This has led to the shocking spectacle of the Deputy Prime Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, declaring after more than two months after the Cabinet meeting which cleared 1MDB of wrongdoing that the 1MDB Board should be sacked and the police called in to investigate 1MDB. Continue reading “Cabinet should be given adequate time for Ministers to understand and study the Save 1MDB roadmap before a Cabinet decision is taken while Najib should “tell all” about his 1MDB dealings in the past six years”

Posted on

Is Shafie breaking ranks with the Prime Minister and declaring that he is not prepared to “swim or sink” with Najib on the 1MDB scandal and that if Najib is to drown, he should do it alone without dragging down others?

The statement by UMNO Vice President and Rural and Regional Development Minister, Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal raised eyebrows all round.

It is not just his repudiating the principle of collective Ministerial responsibility, but even more significant, his striking a posture which is tantamount to Shafie breaking ranks with the Prime Minister and declaring that he is not prepared to “swim or sink” with Najib on the 1MDB scandal and that if Najib is to drown, he should do it alone without dragging down others.

This is the only interpretation of Shafie’s protest against claims that the entire Cabinet should be held responsible for the 1MDB scandal, saying that it would be unfair to do so when he and his colleagues were just as unclear as the public over the firm’s controversial and opaque deals.

It is shock enough that a senior three-term Cabinet Minister does not understand the principle of collective Ministerial responsibility but it boggles the minds of Malaysians that Shafie could assert both ignorance and innocence about the enormity of the 1MDB scandal, claiming that he was in the position of the ordinary aggrieved Malaysian on the ground that he was as unclear as the public about the 1MDB scandal.

How could this be when the Cabinet at its meeting on 4th March this year cleared the troubled fund of wrongdoing, making all the 35 Ministers individually and collectively for the 1MDB scandal! Continue reading “Is Shafie breaking ranks with the Prime Minister and declaring that he is not prepared to “swim or sink” with Najib on the 1MDB scandal and that if Najib is to drown, he should do it alone without dragging down others?”