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?
In any event, the ineluctable reality is that the Save 1MDB Roadmap is in fact a Save Najib Roadmap, as the Prime Minister is the final approving authority for all 1MDB deals.
Under Clause 117 of the 1MDB Memorandum and Articles of Association (M&A) Agreement, the Prime Minister must give his written approval for any of 1MDB deals, including the firm’s investments or any bid for restructuring.
The clause states that for any avoidance of doubt, none of three things can be executed “without the written prior approval of the prime minister”.
This includes “any financial commitment (including investment), restructuring or any other matter which is likely to affect the guarantee given by the Federal Government of Malaysia for the benefit of the company, national interest, national security or any policy of the Federal Government of Malaysia”.
The clause also stipulates that the government shall have the “final and conclusive” right to determine what constitutes national interest and national security.
Other matters which need the PM’s approval are amendments to the company’s Memorandum and Articles of Association of the Company and appointments and removal of directors and senior management team of the company.
Under the circumstances, how can Najib escape responsibility or liability for all the major 1MDB decisions in the past six years.
This was why I had suggested at the Cabinet meeting yesterday, Najib should “tell all” to the Ministers about his 1MDB dealings in the past six years, including:
(I) the number of times each year since 2009 that Najib had acted under Clause 117 of the 1MDB M&A Agreement which stipulates that the Prime Minister must give his “written approval” for any 1MDB deals, including the firm’s investments;
(ii) the details of every such decision of the Prime Minister under Clause 117 of the 1MDB M&A Agreement;
(iii) whether Najib had personally given “written approval” under Clause 117 of the 1MDB M&A Agreement in the major 1MDB deals whether involving Petrosaudi Interrnational Limited, Good Star Limited, Utama Banking Group (UMG), Goldman Sachs International, IPIC, Cayman Islands transaction, Mongolian-based company Gobi Coal and Energy Ltd and the sale of Tun Razak Exchange land to Lembaga Tabung Haji.
Did Najib report to the Cabinet yesterday all the 1MDB deals which he had given “written approval” in the past six years or no Cabinet Minister had dared to ask?
As Najib is the final approving authority for 1MDB deals, and the 1MBD Board or management would be committing grave offences of criminal breaches of trust, negligence and abuse powers if they had carried out major 1MDB deals without the “written approval” of the Prime Minister, did Najib excuse and absent himself from yesterday’s Cabinet decision on the 1MDB Roadmap because of personal conflicts of interest?