Author: Kit

by Alex Ritman
The Hollywood Reporter
9/12/2016

Save Rivers, which is active in Malaysia, and Ambiga Sreenevasan, recipient of the U.S. International Women of Courage Award, are the latest to speak out about money linked to a corruption scandal.

Leonardo DiCaprio dropped by the Toronto International Film Festival on Saturday to present the world premiere of his latest environmental doc Before the Flood, directed by Fisher Stevens, to a packed audience at the Princess of Wales theater.

The film, which follows the Oscar-winning U.N. Messenger for Peace around the world as he sees the devastating effects of climate change firsthand, was warmly received, The Hollywood Reporter’s John DeFore describing it as “well-intentioned,” noting the special access available to its star, who speaks to John Kerry, Barack Obama and Pope Francis.

But the very same day Before the Flood bowed at TIFF, another charity added its voice to a growing list of organizations and activists criticizing DiCaprio’s association with individuals connected to a major corruption scandal and called on him to return millions of dollars in donations made to his environmental charity. Continue reading “Human Rights Activist, Charity Demand Leonardo DiCaprio Return “Ill-Gotten” Donations”

Wartawan Sinar Harian
11 September 2016

PENGUNDURAN bekas Menteri Kewangan II, Datuk Seri Ahmad Husni Hanadzlah daripada Kabinet dan Umno menimbulkan tanda tanya banyak pihak.

Sebelum ini, Ahmad Husni pernah berkata hanya mahu tumpu tugasnya sebagai ahli parlimen tanpa mengulas lanjut tentang tindakan diambilnya. Sinar Harian berpeluang bertemu Ahli Parlimen Tambun itu mengenai perkembangan terbarunya dan sudi menceritakan detik-detik yang membawa beliau mengambil keputusan berundur.

Bila Datuk Seri lepaskan semua jawatan kerajaan dan parti, kecuali sebagai wakil rakyat, masih ramai yang tidak puas hati dengan kenyataan ringkas Datuk Seri. Boleh ulas sedikit apa yang mendorong kepada tindakan itu?

Saya ada terfikir untuk letakkan jawatan tahun lalu. Saya tetapkan pada Januari 2016 sebagai tarikh akhir dalam Kabinet. Saya telah bincang dengan setiausaha politik menyatakan rasa tidak serasi dengan pembawaan pimpinan. Bila tiba Januari, saya rasa tidak tergamak pula untuk meletakkan jawatan, saya terus berkhidmat. Kemudian, pada April lalu niat hendak meletak jawatan kembali dan semakin kuat. Pada awal April itu, saya membeli alat bacaan tekanan darah untuk isteri bila pulang dari pejabat. Tiba di rumah jam 7 malam, saya pasang pada tangan saya untuk tunjuk pada isteri cara hendak menggunakan alat tersebut. Tetapi, saya pula yang terkejut apabila bacaan tekanan darah saya begitu tinggi. Continue reading “Darah naik 5 jam! Husni kongsi cerita”

Until 18 months ago, 1MDB was a national scandal, the subject of constant parliamentary questions and badgering by DAP MP for PJ Utara, Tony Pua and the PKR MP for Pandan, Rafizi Ramli the previous five years – with Pua asking his first question in Parliament about the 1MDB scandal with regard to the rationale of 1MDB investment in PertroSaudi International as far back as March 2010.

But 18 months ago, the 1MDB scandal escalated and graduated from a national into an international scandal.

I remember I was in Labis on the evening of 1st March 2015 to take part in a DAP Chinese New Year kopitiam ceramah, and just before my turn to speak, I read on the Internet the shocking expose by the Sarawak Report whistleblower website in its “Heist of the Century” article which announced that together with London Sunday Times, they had completed an in-depth investigation into the 1MDB scandal.

It claimed to have obtained access to thousands of documents and emails relating to transactions by 1MDB, including its initial joint venture with the little known oil company PetroSaudi International from 2009.

It alleged that the documents establish that, in spite of copious official denials, the entire joint venture project was conceived, managed and driven through by the Prime Minister’s associate and family friend the party-loving billionaire tycoon, Jho Low and that the documents also prove that the USD$700 million so-called “loan” that was supposedly repaid to PetroSaudi as part of the joint venture agreement, was actually a “front” to channel the money to a company controlled by Jho Low.

It was a shocking tale about the makings of the biggest financial scandal in the nation’s history. At the time, the figure quoted for the 1MDB scandal was RM42 billion, which was already the greatest of all the financial scandals in the country, eclipsing even the worst and biggest of financial scandals in the country’s history, whether the RM2.5 billion BMF (Bumiputra Malaysia Finance) scandal, Bank Negara forex exchange scandal, Maminco, MAS and Perwaja scandals.

Now the 1MDB scandal would have ballooned easily from RM42 billion to RM55 billion as the RM42 billion figure was for 1MDB liabilities on March 2014 – some 30 months ago – as the audited accounts for 1MDB for the past two years remain in the realm of mystery to the public including parliamentarans!

The tragedy of the 1MDB scandal is that in retrospect, all the grave allegations whether in the Sarawak Report in the article “Heist of the Century”, or in international newspapers like the New York Times or the Wall Street Journal, both before and after the “Heist in the Century” article, had withstood the test of time and neither 1MDB nor the Malaysian Government had been able to puncture or cast doubt on the veracity of anyone of the serious and myriad allegations about the theft, embezzlement, misappropriation and money-laundering of billions of ringgit of 1MDB funds – with the “MALAYSIAN OFFICIAL 1” cast like a spider at the centre of the spider web. Continue reading “Is Husni prepared to lead a national and international campaign to save Malaysia to purge and cleanse Malaysia of the ignominy of a global kleptocracy so that not only he could be healed, but the nation and 30 million Malaysians could be healed of the 1MDB sickness?”