Sama ada Najib mangsa atau dalangnya, kewibawaan beliau telah remuk...
Wall Street Journal menyatakan bahawa 1MDB telah memindahkan hampir AS$700 juta (kira-kira RM2.6 bilion) ke dalam akaun bank peribadi Perdana Menteri Najib Razak pada tahun 2013. Pemindahan itu dikatakan telah berlaku beberapa hari sebelum PRU13 tahun itu.
Sebuah panel pasukan petugas dengan empat anggota telah pun ditubuhkan untuk menyiasat dakwaan tersebut. Pasukan petugas itu dilaporkan telah membekukan 17 akaun bank untuk memudahkan siasatan. Walau bagaimanapun, tiada akaun bank ini dikatakan dimiliki Najib.
Ahli-ahli pasukan ini adalah Gabenor Bank Negara Zeti Akhtar Aziz, Peguam Negara Abdul Gani Patail, Ketua Polis Negara Khalid Abu Bakar, dan ketua pesuruhjaya Suruhanjaya Pencegahan Rasuah Malaysia Abu Kassim Mohamed.
Jika dakwaan ini benar, adalah tidak munasabah bahawa perbuatan sekeji ini terlepas tanpa hukuman. Ia adalah satu pengkhianatan terhadap amanah yang dipegang oleh lelaki berjawatan tertinggi di negara ini. Tetapi jika tuduhan tersebut didapati tidak benar, maka Najib pasti telah menjadi mangsa kempen fitnah yang kejam.
Dalam responsnya, Najib hanya menyatakan bahawa beliau tidak pernah menggunakan mana-mana dana untuk "kepentingan peribadi". Tetapi ketiadaan penafian dan kecaman beliau terhadap pendedahan Wall Street Journal, telah menyebabkan desas desus tercetus mengenai masa depan politiknya. Ada yang membuat spekulasi bahawa wang itu mungkin telah digunakan untuk "membeli undi" dalam PRU13.
Apa sahaja keputusan akhir siasatan, kewibawaan Najib telah remuk. Ia mungkin sukar untuk dipulihkan. Ramai pihak kini membandingkan keadaan Najib dengan skandal Watergate yang menyebabkan Presiden Amerika Syarikat, Richard Nixon meletakkan jawatan pada tahun 1974.
Ia berkisar tentang integriti. Ia adalah topik yang hangat diperkatakan pada bibir semua orang sejak dakwaan skandal ini timbul. Menariknya, pada 20 Februari 2013, Najib telah menandatangani Ikrar Integriti Pilihan Raya Transparency International.
Melalui ikrar ini, Najib dan kerajaan komited untuk "menegakkan integriti dan mengukuhkan komitmen agenda negara dalam membanteras rasuah terutamanya dalam PRU13 akan datang.
Selepas menandatangani ikrar itu, Najib kemudiannya menulis: "Saya percaya sebagai pemimpin BN saya perlu menetapkan nada yang lantang. Hanya seorang calon yang dianggap telah berjuang secara bersih dan adil dalam pilihan raya akan membawa kepada sebuah kerajaan yang boleh dipercayai dan dihormati oleh rakyat. "
Ironis, jika dilihat dari apa yang berlaku beberapa hari lalu.
Adakah sesiapa yang masih percaya terhadap Najib pada masa ini ini? Jika beliau tidak menggunakan wang tersebut untuk "kepentingan peribadi", adakah wang ini digunakan untuk tujuan bukan peribadi, bagi membantu BN memenangi pilihan raya?
Mengapakah begitu banyak wang tunai telah dipindahkan ke dalam sebuah akaun individu? Begitu banyak persoalan. Namun tiada jawapan.
Satu perkara yang pasti adalah, sama ada Najib adalah mangsa atau dalangnya, kewibawaan beliau telah hancur. - theantdaily
Mr PM, don’t give us the slip on your RM2.6 billion scandal...
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Rajak is obviously trying to get himself and his party off the hook by claiming that the scope of work of the special task force is confined to ascertaining whether the RM2.6 billion funds found in his accounts were used for his personal interest. The inference is that if the finding is negative, then the case is closed, full stop.
How marvellous for Najib, if only the case were so simple!
Let me quote what Najib said:
“The investigation of the special task force is to determine whether the Wall Street Journal allegation that I took 1MDB funds for my personal interest has basis or not.”
This statement contains two errors: WSJ never said the funds came from 1MDB; neither did it say the money was used for Najib’s personal interests. In fact, WSJ in its article dated July 2 (US time) stated the exact opposite. I quote:
“The original source of the money is unclear and the government investigation doesn’t detail what happened to the money that went into Mr Najib’s personal accounts.”
So, by completely distorting what WSJ said, is Najib trying to pave the way for the special task force to close the case?
Criminal implication of Najib’s RM2.6 billion
What is undisputed at this stage is the existence of the said RM2.6 billion that went into Najib’s accounts, because Najib has persistently failed to categorically deny the allegation which was made with specific details.
The veracity of the claim was given further credence when WSJ uploaded on July 7 the banking documents detailing these deposits into Najib’s accounts, which Najib has again failed to deny.
So, this part of the work (establishing the RM2.6 billion deposits in Najib’s account) has already been done, since the documents upon which WSJ based its article actually came from Malaysian investigators according to WSJ, and hence there is no need for the special task force to do much more work on the issue.
What the task force has to do now is to trace the ultimate source of these funds and to ascertain how these funds have been spent.
RM2,600 million is a gargantuan sum; it couldn’t possibly have come suddenly from a charitable well-wisher and just as quickly disappeared. The criminal implication of the mysterious movements of such huge quantities of cash through the accounts of the prime minister is awesome, to say the least.
And this is exactly where the special task force must dig in: to establish and unveil the whole truth to the public, for which the nation is now holding its breath.
In fact, not only the nation, but the whole world is watching now that this mega scandal has made headlines in leading media around the globe.
The Malaysian government cannot afford to falter on the current investigation or to fail to apply the necessary remedies, lest it lose its credibility, with serious adverse consequences economically and politically.
Now, let us take a quick look at how and when these funds flowed into Najib’s accounts.
The link to 1MDB’s US$3 billion bond
The RM2.6 billion came from two sources at two different times. The bulk of it, US$681 million came from a foreign company in late March 2013, shortly before the 2013 general election. The second source was local, totalling RM42 million.
The source of US$681 million looks suspiciously linked to the US$3 billion bond raised by 1MDB, ostensibly for investment in a joint venture with IPIC of Abu Dhabi to develop the TRX project, which never really took off the ground.
It was on March 21 & 25 that US$681 million arrived at one of Najib’s account at AmIslamic Bank in KL from Tanore Finance (based in British Virginia Islands) from its account in the Singapore Branch of Falcon Private Bank, a Swiss bank owned by IPIC, with whom 1MDB had sealed a joint venture only days earlier, on March 12, 2013.
Coincidentally, two days before the payment to Najib’s account, on March 19, the US$3 billion was urgently raised, for which a whopping commission of 10% (US$300 million) was paid to Goldman Sachs due to the bond’s urgency.
Days later, on April 3,2013, Parliament was dissolved.
Question is now asked, what is the urgency of the bond (raised only 7 days after sealing the joint venture) since the joint venture with IPIC never took off the ground, if such massive cash was not urgently needed to fund Umno/BN’s election campaign for the imminent GE13? An audit on 1MDB’s account for this period would provide the answer.
As for the local source of RM42 million, it came from SRC International which conveyed the money via two other companies to Najib’s other two accounts in AmIslamic Bank in December 2014 and February 2015.
SRC International, a company set up by 1MDB and later taken over by the Finance Ministry, gained notoriety for having repeatedly failed to properly account for the RM4 billion loan it took from pension fund KWAP in 2011.
Why should a ministry of finance entity pay such a large sum of money to the prime minister cum finance minister’s personal bank account? Isn’t this act alone a breach of the law, whatever the subsequent usage of the fund might be?
Integrity of task force impaired
What is worrisome now is the integrity of the current investigation carried out by the special task force made up of the police, MACC, attorney-general and Bank Negara.
None of these has displayed independence in the past. In fact, they have persistently and consistently sided with the ruling elite whenever any of them is in trouble with the law. With the prime minister cum finance minister still over lording these institutions (since he has refused to go on leave), public confidence in the current investigation is near zero.
An example of such lack of independence is demonstrated in the failure of the task force to interrogate the chief suspect who is Najib himself, despite the discovery of such improprieties during the official investigations on 1MDB which started months ago.
It is hence imperative that a truly independent royal commission of inquiry be set up forthwith to carry out the current task if public confidence both at home and abroad is to be restored. Members of this RCI must be persons who enjoy public confidence and meet bi-partisan approval of Parliament.
As such inquiry takes time, Parliament must hold an emergency session to seek urgent and interim measures to meet the current unprecedented crisis, with both the attorney-general and Bank Negara governor mandated to brief parliament, as called for the during the meeting of a hundred members of Parliament and civil society leaders held in Parliament house on July 7.
People must rise to the challenge
In the 58-year history of this country, we have never had a prime minister who has been so explicitly implicated in such grave breach of trust and breach of law as the current case, and unless we rise up as a people to meet this challenge resolutely, we will have maimed our image and credibility with disastrous consequences on our economy and political standing among nations. – Kim Quek,tmi
Najib calls Anwar: 'Can your cell take two people'...
One Internet meme going around has Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak phoning a jailed politician to ask: "Anwar, can your cell take two people?"
The reply from the former deputy premier Anwar Ibrahim: "Can, bro. Even the mattress is thicker now."
Short on facts in the country's hottest political scandal in years, some Malaysians are using dark humour and conspiracy theories to fill in the gaps.
PM Najib is fighting his biggest political battle following a Wall Street Journal report last Friday that funds linked to state investor 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) flowed into his personal accounts in AmBank in Malaysia between March 2013 and February 2015. AmBank is the country's fifth largest lender by assets.
The sensational claims are the hottest since the run-up to the 2008 general election, when former premier Mahathir Mohamad began attacking his successor Abdullah Badawi.
One Whatsapp message going around this week has a list of new movies linked to the scandal.
The titles include Saving Private Funds, Indiana Jho - Raiders of The Lost Funds, and The Silence of the PM.
"Jho" refers to businessman Low Taek Jho whose name has been often linked to debt-laden 1MDB though he has repeatedly denied any role in the state investment fund.
In the list are also several movie titles tied to the ringgit, widely referred to as RM in Malaysia. The Malaysian currency is trading near record lows against the US dollar and the Singapore dollar.
Among them: Honey, I Shrunk The Ringgit; Lord of the Ringgits: The Return of Dr M; and Crouching PM, Hidden RM.
The Internet meme is often used as political satire in Malaysia, with several wildly popular ones going around last year when Datuk Seri Najib used the humble kangkung vegetable to talk about inflation.
Another current meme has Dr Mahathir using a phone to say:
"Hello WSJ? Execute order 66."
The reply: "Noted sir."
PM Najib has accused Dr Mahathir, his most strident critic, of working with "foreign nationals" to topple him.
Another meme showed the movie poster of The Wolf of Wall Street, in which Mr Najib's head is superimposed on Leonardo DiCaprio's. The new title of the movie? The Wolf of Wall Street Journal.
Reports about the scandal are now widely reported in Malaysian and international media. Indeed, there is a concern among Malaysian officials that the Prime Minister is facing a trial by media and has already been judged guilty.
"What's being waged is a war of perception where the truth is irrelevant," said an aide to PM Najib.
The rise of social media in recent years has had governments around the world scrambling to ensure that budding scandals and rumours are quickly nipped in the bud with official answers.
With the investigations expected to take weeks if not months, impatient conspiracy theories have begun to surface.
One has it that the gunning down of AmBank founder Hussain Ahmad Najadi in July 2013 is linked to the 1MDB case.
On Tuesday, veteran opposition politician Lim Kit Siang tried to link his killing to the scandal, after a Whatsapp claim on this went viral.
The police chief's reply: "Hussain's case has been solved with the killer already detained. End of story." - Asiaone
Reports about the scandal are now widely reported in Malaysian and international media. Indeed, there is a concern among Malaysian officials that the Prime Minister is facing a trial by media and has already been judged guilty.
"What's being waged is a war of perception where the truth is irrelevant," said an aide to PM Najib.
The rise of social media in recent years has had governments around the world scrambling to ensure that budding scandals and rumours are quickly nipped in the bud with official answers.
With the investigations expected to take weeks if not months, impatient conspiracy theories have begun to surface.
One has it that the gunning down of AmBank founder Hussain Ahmad Najadi in July 2013 is linked to the 1MDB case.
On Tuesday, veteran opposition politician Lim Kit Siang tried to link his killing to the scandal, after a Whatsapp claim on this went viral.
The police chief's reply: "Hussain's case has been solved with the killer already detained. End of story." - Asiaone
PAC to summon Jho Low...
cheers.
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