Category: Corruption

Will the Cabinet tomorrow discuss the violation of Malaysia’s 17-year Bill of Guarantee to the world of “No Internet censorship” in blocking access to Sarawak Report website or no Minister would dare to express disagreement?

In fact, it is not only the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak who is under a “cloud” with regard to his commitment to the principles of accountability, transparency, integrity and good governance (which are supposed to be the foundation principles of his highly-hyped National Transformation Programme), the integrity of the entire Cabinet is also under question.

This will be the first time in Malaysian history that the integrity of the entire Cabinet has come under a cloud.

Yesterday, I asked the newly-minted Barisan Nasional strategic communication director and Minister for Urban Wellbeing, Housing and Local Government, Datuk Abdul Rahman Dahlan whether he could “declare publicly that he and UMNO Sabah had not received a single sen from Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s personal accounts in AmBank for the 13th General Election campaign”, referring in particular to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) report of July 2 that Malaysian government investigators have found US$700 million (RM2.6 billion) deposited into the Prime Minister’s personal bank accounts in March 2013 just before the dissolution of Parliament and the holding of the 13th General Election.

It is no surprise that there is thunderous silence from Abdul Rahman on this question.

In fact, this question should also be directed to all Ministers in the Cabinet.

Can every Cabinet Ministers declare whether or not he or she had received any funding from Najib through the Prime Minister’s personal accounts in AmBank for the 13th General Election campaigning, and if so, to state the amount and whether the Cabinet Ministers concerned would not participate in any Cabinet discussion or decision relating to the WSJ report on July 2 and 1MDB scandal, in view of their conflict-of-interest position? Continue reading “Will Cabinet tomorrow discuss the violation of Malaysia’s Bill of Guarantee to the world of “No Internet censorship” in blocking access to Sarawak Report or no Minister would dare to express disagreement?”

Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) is to be commended for its swift and prompt denial at allegations that its officials were behind the leak of information concerning the 1Malaysia Development Berhad’s (1MDB) funds.

Denying the allegations, the bank said it had lodged a police report concerning the
Malaysia Today blog on Saturday naming three central bank officials who it said leaked information on the money trail.

In a statement yesterday, the central bank said such allegations were without basis.

It said “Bank Negara Malaysia remains steadfast in our quest to uncovering the truth in a fair and just manner,” and that it will investigate any potential breaches to the laws it administers.

“In discharging its accountability, the bank is not aligned to any faction and will not betray the trust of the public.”

I believe the overwhelming majority of Malaysians appreciate this statement by Bank Negara and are asking why the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak cannot emulate the example of Bank Negara and make swift and prompt denial if an allegation is untrue. Continue reading “Replace the “special task force” of four Tan Sris with a Royal Commission of Inquiry of three Tuns – Mahathir, Abdullah and Musa – to get to the bottom of the WSJ allegations”

“Fear not, ministers will ensure task force does its job” is one headline for the assurance by the Youth and Sports Minister, Khairy Jamaluddin that the special task force probing allegations concerning 1MDB will do its job without fear or favour.

I say, “Be Very Afraid!” when “ignoramus” Ministers give empty assurances about the special task force investigation when they may not even be qualified to comment because of conflict of interest.

Khairy said the task force would have to report to Cabinet and that “we the ministers will be there to ensure that the investigation is done without fear or favour”.

What nonsense is Khairy talking about. How can the Cabinet Ministers ensure that the investigation is done “without fear or favour” when the Cabinet Ministers cannot ensure that the establishment of the task force is done “without fear or favour”?

The 35 Cabinet Ministers cannot be unaware that Malaysians have no confidence in the special task force because its four “Tan Sri” heads of the quartet of enforcement/investigating agencies, namely Bank Negara, Royal Malaysian Police, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission and the Attorney-General Chambers are all junior, subordinate and beholden to Najib, whether as Finance Minister or Prime Minister, when Najib is in fact the “accused” in the investigations.

This is why Malaysians want independent and reputable Malaysians to investigate the Wall Street Journal allegation that US$700 million (RM2.6 billion) was deposited into Najib’s personal bank accounts in AnBank within two weeks of dissolution of Parliament on April 3, 2013. Continue reading ““Be Very Afraid!” when “ignoramus” Ministers give empty assurances about special task force investigation when they may not even be qualified to comment because of conflict of interest”

By Kee Thuan Chye
Malaysiakini
Jul 9, 2015

COMMENT A few things related to the Wall Street Journal’s expose of 1MDB funds having been deposited into Prime Minister Najib Razak’s private AmBank accounts are becoming clearer.

Najib has not denied that he received the US$700 million (RM2.66 billion). And that is very telling. Instead, he is constantly harping that he did not use the money for his personal interest.

He could be telling the truth there because the bulk of the money might have been used to finance Barisan Nasional’s campaign during the 13th general election (GE13) in May 2013.

But even so, it is wrong for him to receive the public funds – if he did receive them. It constitutes a crime. That is the main issue of the case. But he has not addressed it.

That is the issue that the special task force set up to investigate the scandal should focus on. But Najib has announced that the scope of the investigation is only to determine whether he misappropriated the funds for his own use. And this is the same line he is taking with WSJ. Continue reading “Najib, Misappropriation is Not the Main Issue”

By Malaysiakini Team
Jul 9, 2015

On July 3, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) dropped a bombshell on Malaysians by claiming that nearly US$700 million (RM2.6 billion) somehow made its way to bank accounts allegedly owned by our prime minister.

Given the complexity of the issue, Malaysiakini has compiled a series of questions sourced from our readers as well as our newsroom, and attempts to answer them.

1. What exactly was the WSJ report about?

The report claims that an ongoing probe by Malaysian investigators have traced nearly RM2.6 billion being transferred into what they believe to be Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak’s personal bank accounts.

2. Are the accounts really owned by Najib?

The WSJ report does not say this with certainty. They note that remittance documents show account numbers, but does not name Najib.

However, they are in possession of flow charts, purportedly obtained from Malaysian investigators, which attributed the accounts to Najib.

Whistleblower website Sarawak Report, which published a similar report on the same day as the WSJ, claimed that the accounts – bearing the name AmPrivate Banking-1MY, AmPrivate Banking-MY and AmPrivate Banking-MR – indeed belonged to Najib.

3. Has Najib explicitly denied owning the accounts?

No.

4. Has Najib explicitly denied that the transactions took place?

No. Continue reading “FAQ on WSJ’s money trail exposé”

One should thank the lawyers of the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak, for providing some relief to the long drawn-out (six years?), sordid, dreary and astronomical 1MDB scandal which is claiming more and more casualties in its wake, destroying reputations for integrity and even political and professional lives and futures.

The highly-publicised letter from Najib’s lawyers to Dow Jones, the owner of Wall Street Journal (WSJ), has become not only the toast of lawyers but of the international civil society as well.

There was no categorical demand for retraction of the WSJ report last Friday that Malaysian government investigators have found almost US$700 million (RM2.6 billion) deposited into Najib’s personal accounts at AmBank, unconditional apology for the defamation of the Prime Minister, undertaking of no repetition of the defamation and payment of damages, but a most extraordinary (Eric Paulsen of Lawyers for Liberty described it as “bizarre”) letter seeking clarification!

No one can describe the situation better than lawyer Azhar Harun (better known as Art Harun) who commented on Facebook this was the first time he found lawyers asking their potential opponent the meaning of what they had published. Almost every sentence made him cringe.

He said: “If I were acting for Dow Jones, I would advise them to reply as follows : Dear lawyers, inability to grasp and/or understand what we had published is not a known or established ground for defamation suits. Thank you.”

If more “relief” is needed, there is the top banker, CIMB Islamic Bank chief executive officer Badlisyah Abdul Ghani for everybody to joke about as Badlisyah joined the long queue of 1MDB casualties when in a matter of hours, he had to eat his own words for accusing WSJ of falling for false documents with regard to its report claiming that RM2.6 billion were deposited into Najib’s personal accounts in AmBank.

As if Fate has pity on Malaysia in having to suffer from the 1MDB scandal, Malaysians were presented with another “manna” today – the announcement that Najib is scheduled to speak at a high-profile international anti-corruption conference themed: “Ending Impunity: People. Integrity. Action” in Putrajaya from Sept. 2 amid allegations that he embezzled US$700 million in state funds! Continue reading “Cabinet Ministers guilty of abysmal dereliction of duty by giving solid backing to the Prime Minister without knowing whether RM2.6 billion were deposited into Najib’s personal accounts in AmBank, where the monies came from and were they went to”

The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak has notched up another precedent, sending lawyers’ letter which is ambivalent whether it paves the way for the Prime Minister to sue or not to sue Wall Street Journal (WSJ) for publication of report that Malaysian government investigators have found almost US$700 million (RM2.6 billion) of 1MDB’s funds deposited into Najib’s personal accounts at AmBank.

According to Malaysiakini, Najib’s lawyers, the legal firm Hafarizam Wan & Aisha Mubarak has asked Dow Jones, the owner of WSJ, to respond with 14 days “whether it is your position, as taken in the articles, that our client misappropriated nearly US$700 million from 1MDB”.

Najib’s lawyers’ letter to Dow Jones said: “You will no doubt appreciate the seriousness of the allegation made against our client in the said articles and confirmation is sought to enable us to advise our client the appropriate legal recourse he can take to seek redress in relation to the publication of these articles.”

If UMNO Supreme Council member and Deputy Agriculture Agro-based Industries Minister Datuk Tajuddin Abdul Rahman is right that WSJ never implicated Najib, but only 1MDB, such a letter should not have been sent.

However, this letter was not what Malaysians had been led to expect with the various threats of legal action against WSJ for its report and allegation, especially as conspicuously absent is any forthright demand to WSJ to apologise for the defamation of the Prime Minister and withdrawal of WSJ report concerned with the undertaking not to repeat such defamation. Continue reading “Najib has notched up another precedent, sending lawyers’ letter which is ambivalent whether it paves the way for the Prime Minister to sue or not to sue Wall Street Journal”