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. Read the rest of this entry »

All eyes are on the first Cabinet meeting today after the Wall Street Journal report making unprecedented and ground-shaking allegation of embezzlement against the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak when it reported last Friday that Malaysian government investigators have found almost US$700 million (RM2.6 billion) of 1MDB’s funds had been deposited into Najib’s personal accounts.

Today’s Cabinet meeting is a test for all the Ministers, whether they are model Malaysian patriots and leaders who will always put national interests above party and/or personal interests or whether they are just a coterie of self-seeking politicians who are not prepared to take a public and patriotic stand on the great issues of the day.

And the greatest issue of the day is undoubtedly the RM42 billion 1MDB scandal, the WSJ allegation of embezzlement and Prime Ministerial misconduct and Najib’s failure after five long days, in an information age of 24/7 communication of information, to categorically clear himself of impropriety by declaring two simple things: (I) that it is untrue that some US$700 million (RM2.6 bilion) had been deposited into his personal bank accounts; and (ii) that he has no personal bank accounts in AmBank.

Yesterday’s announcement that the special task force of the quartet of investigating agencies (Bank Negara Malaysia, Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission, Royal Malaysian Police and Attorney-General’s Chambers) into 1MDB and the allegation that RM2.6 billion of 1MDB funds had been transferred into Najib’s personal accounts, had frozen six bank accounts, three of them believed to belong to the Prime Minister, has cast a completely new complexion on the biggest Prime Ministerial crisis in the nation’s history.

Is the noose which the Wall Street Journal report had thrown around Najib’s neck getting tighter? Read the rest of this entry »