Archive for August, 2015
A very long day at MACC
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Najib Razak on Sunday, 9 August 2015
By Radzi Razak
Malaysiakini
Aug 8, 2015
It was a long day at the Malaysia Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) yesterday as uncertainty lingered in wake of a ‘crackdown’ over its probe on SRC International Sdn Bhd’s money allegedly found in Prime Minister Najib Razak’s bank accounts.
However work continued at the commission with some departments holding a Hari Raya gathering in the last week of the Syawal month.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, an officer said while many heard about the impending transfers, they didn’t know who among them would get the order to pack their bags.
“That is until late in the evening when we finally get the news,” the officer told Malaysiakini.
True enough, the directive came late yesterday with MACC special operations division director Bahri Mohamad Zin and strategic communication director Rohaizad Yaakob told to clear their desks.
The pair was unceremoniously transferred to the Prime Minister’s Department purportedly for disciplinary reasons. However, there has been no official confirmation on the transfers. Read the rest of this entry »
How Low Can Malaysia’s Ringgit Go?
Posted by Kit in Finance, Najib Razak on Saturday, 8 August 2015
By ANJANI TRIVEDI
Wall Street Journal
Aug. 7, 2015
Malaysia’s ringgit is plumbing new lows and foreign-exchange reserves are dwindling
Malaysia’s tumbling ringgit, heading toward its weakest level in two decades, is highlighting the mounting pressure its central bank faces to stem the slide.
The currency has reset its 17-year trough for five consecutive days this week, losing 2.8% of its value in that period. It last traded at 3.9280 against the U.S. dollar Friday.
After weeks of pouring foreign-exchange reserves into currency markets to prop up the currency, the central bank’s pool of resources is dwindling. Foreign exchange reserves have fallen by almost $15 billion over the last six months and a half months, with the ringgit down 12.2% for the year so far. The pace of deterioration of Malaysia’s foreign reserves is unsustainable, analysts say.
Foreign-exchange reserves data for the two weeks ended July 31, due later Friday, likely will show the degree of the central bank’s worries. Read the rest of this entry »
Amid political crisis, Malaysia sees Asia’s fastest foreign exodus as stocks sink
Posted by Kit in Finance, Najib Razak on Saturday, 8 August 2015
Bloomberg
The Malay Mal Online
August 7, 2015
KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 7 ― International investors are selling Malaysian stocks at the quickest pace in Asia as Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak struggles to contain a political scandal and doubts grow over the outlook for the economy.
Foreign funds have pulled a net RM11.7 billion of the nation’s shares this year as the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI Index retreated 4.1 per cent. The ringgit has slumped to its lowest level since 1998 after tumbling 11 per cent against the dollar, the biggest decline among Asian currencies.
Overseas money managers are paring holdings amid concern the crisis will distract Najib as a commodities rout and the prospect of higher US interest rates threaten economic growth. The prime minister is fighting off a scandal linked to 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB), a debt-ridden state investment company. A probe into about RM2.6 billion that was deposited into Najib’s personal accounts found that the funds were legal donations from the Middle East.
“Already shaky trust of foreign investors is being eroded,” said Mixo Das, a strategist at Nomura Holdings Inc. in Singapore. “Further outflows are possible.”
Net foreign sales in Malaysian stocks this year are almost double the RM6.9 billion for the whole of 2014, exchange data show. Overseas investors have been net sellers for 14 straight weeks through the week ended July 31, the longest selloff since 2008, according to MIDF Amanah Investment Bank Bhd. Read the rest of this entry »
Political Scandal Consumes Malaysia at Time of Flight 370 Inquiry
Posted by Kit in Corruption, MH 370, Najib Razak on Saturday, 8 August 2015
by Michael Forsythe
New York Times
AUG. 7, 2015
HONG KONG — It was a breakthrough in one of the biggest mysteries in aviation history. When a wing part belonging to a Boeing 777 was found last week on the remote Indian Ocean island of Réunion, the world took notice, echoing the intense news media coverage that followed the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 on March 8, 2014.
But in the nation where the ill-fated flight originated, where its crew members were from and whose government owned the plane, the people’s attention was focused elsewhere: on a huge political scandal involving almost $700 million in funds that mysteriously appeared in bank accounts belonging to Malaysia’s prime minister, Najib Razak.
Even Mr. Najib’s solemn announcement in the early hours of Thursday claiming that the wing part, called a flaperon, was “conclusively confirmed” to have been from Flight 370 “looks to have been aimed at bolstering his standing in Malaysia,” said Clive Kessler, an emeritus professor at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, who has studied Malaysia since the mid-1960s. Read the rest of this entry »
All Malaysians must be incensed and outraged by Zahid’s contemptible justification for the immediate and punitive transfer of two MACC directors to PM’s Office
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Najib Razak, Zahid on Saturday, 8 August 2015
All Malaysians must be incensed and outraged by the Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister, Datuk Seri Zahid Hamidi’s contemptuous and contemptible justification for the immediate and punitive transfer of two Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) directors to the Prime Minister’s Office.
Zahid claimed that the transfers of the two MACC directors, special operations division director Datuk Bahri Mohamad Zin and strategic communications director Datuk Rohaizad Yaakob were not linked to a police investigation against them, and that it was ordinary for public servants to be transferred at any time and to any other agency.
He said: “It has completely nothing to do with the action by the Royal Malaysia Police against the two senior officers; in fact, I think it is only an administrative matter conducted by the Public Services Department.
“Every government officer is subject to circulars and general orders, and there is even an oath signed during their appointment.
“As such, I don’t think this issue should be politicised.” Read the rest of this entry »
First thing Najib should do this morning is to countermand the transfer orders to two MACC directors Bahri and Rohaizad to PM’s Dept with immediate effect
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Good Governance, Najib Razak on Saturday, 8 August 2015
The first thing the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak should do this morning is to countermand yesterday’s transfer orders to two Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) directors, Datuk Bahri Mohamad Zin (special operations division) and Datuk Rohaizad Yaakob (strategic communications division) to the Prime Minister’s Department with immediate effect, for the duo to report to the PM’s Office on Monday.
The biggest financial scandal in the country, the RM42 billion 1MDB scandal which Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said may have exceeded RM50 billion by now because of the turmoils of exchange and interest rates in his last speech to UMNO Cheras Division before he was sacked as Deputy Prime Minister on July 28, 2015, continues to wreak destruction in its wake, and Bahri and Rohaizad are the two latest victims of the 1MDB (1Malaysia Disaster Bhd) catastrophe.
The outrageous, vindictive and vengeful transfer of Bahri and Rohaizad to the PM’s Department cannot stand unless Najib wants to see the total destruction of his entire six-year National Transformation Programmes – which had listed the war against corruption as one of the seven NKRAs (National Key Result Areas) of his Government Transformation Programme (GTP).
For the past six years, the Najib had been boasting about “big results” of its GTP on its anti-corruption front, and undoubtedly the two unchallenged “big results” on the anti-corruption NKRA are the two issues of 1MDB scandal and the RM2.6 billion deposited into the Prime Minister’s personal banking accounts before the 13th General Election.
A multi-agency Special Task Force comprising Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM), Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), the Royal Malaysian Police and the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) had been formed to spearhead investigations into these twin issues, but these two issues are so toxic they have already subverted and gravely damaged three of these four agencies – BNM, MACC and ABC. Read the rest of this entry »
Zahid’s guarantee of no more arrest of MACC officers welcome but there must be full inquiry of why and whether there were “hidden hands” behind the “seven-day of madness in Putrajaya” with Police and MACC on war footing against each other
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Najib Razak, Zahid on Friday, 7 August 2015
The guarantee by the Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi that there would be no more arrests of MACC officers by the police, only to take their statements, is welcome but this cannot be the end of the sorry story of the “seven-day of madness in Putrajaya” with Police and the MACC on war footing with each other.
There must be a full inquiry of who were responsible and whether there were “hidden hands” behind the “seven-day of madness in Putrajaya”, when there was a complete breakdown of orderly governance and the rule of law in the country.
This inquiry into the “seven-day madness in Putrajaya” of Police-MACC “warring” must be a full, independent and comprehensive one, even in the form of a Royal Commission of Inquiry or by way of a Parliamentary Inquiry, to ensure that there could be recurrence of this “seven-day madness in Putrajaya”.
Clearly, the prompt and strong protests by DAP, PKR and Gerakan Harapan Baru leaders and Members of Parliament, with the visit to the MACC headquarters in Putrajaya yesterday, as well as adverse public reactions against such gross abuses of police powers, interfering with the MACC’s role to fight corruption, had not been completely in vain.
We in the DAP, PKR and Gerakan Harapan Baru cannot stay silent to allow the MACC, which has already disappointed Malaysians in being unable to act with independence, impartiality and professionalism to combat corruption, to be further undermined and subverted by the powers-that-be. Read the rest of this entry »
Muhyiddin’s daughter Najwa commended for her filial piety for her song “After the Rain” but it would be greater if she could compose and sang for higher cause of “saving Malaysia”
Posted by Kit in Muhyiddin Yassin, Najib Razak on Friday, 7 August 2015
I commend Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin’s daughter, Najwa Mahjaddin for her filial piety for her song “After the Rain” to give support to her father in his political travails after being sacked as Deputy Prime Minister.
This is the lyrics of her song:
We may all fall down, but we all get up.
Hold your head up, Malaysia.. after the rain comes the sun.
When life gets cold and skies aren’t blue, you’re not alone, I’m here for you.
My brothers and sisters, we’ll see you through.
These are the times we must get through, courage and wisdom must live in you.
The way of our future lies in you.
From the rising of the sun, together
we are one, we are stronger forever.
When a new political party emerges from Gerakan Harapan Baru in a few weeks time, a new Pakatan Rakyat – whether PR Baru, PR 2.0 or whatever name – will be ready to carry the torch for a Malaysia Baru
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Najib Razak, Pakatan Rakyat, PAS, Political Islam, UMNO on Friday, 7 August 2015
DAP Johor State Assemblyman for Pekan Nenas Yeo Tung Siong told me just now that Ayer Baloi tonight breaks record with the biggest crowd ever in history, signifying the powerful public support for Gerakan Harapan Baru and hopes for political change after nearly six decades of UMNO/Alliance/Barisan Nasional rule.
However, we want to create history not only in Ayer Baloi but in Johore and the whole of Malaysia in the forthcoming 14th General Election – when we are not only setting our sights on the Federal government in Putrajaya but also the state government in Nusajaya.
For over half a century, Johore had been regarded as an impregnable fortress for UMNO/MCA/MIC coalition and an invincible UMNO/Barisan Nasional “fixed deposit state”.
UMNO/BN leaders were so arrogant that they even talked about Johore being a “zero-opposition” state until such cockiness were buried by the historic Pakatan Rakyat breakthrough in the 13th General Election in 2013, winning 18 State Assembly seats – one seat short of denying UMNO/BN two-thirds majority in the Johore State Assembly.
But now Pakatan Rakyat is no more and the country needs a new Islamic political party which is all-embracing and inclusive which can unite not only Muslims and Malays but also non-Muslims and non-Malays, in other words, with all Malaysians to achieve the Malaysian Dream of ensuring that all Malaysians, regardless of race, religion or region, are entitled to basic human rights and dignity as citizens of a modern society. Read the rest of this entry »
Four among teeming questions about the 1MDB and RM2.6 billion in his personal bank accounts
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Najib Razak on Thursday, 6 August 2015
There are four among the teeming questions about the RM42 billion 1MDB scandal and the RM2.6 billion deposited into his personal bank accounts in March 2013 which cry out for instant answer from the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak, viz:
1. Did Najib give the green-light for the series of police arrests against Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) investigators and the disruption of MACC investigation into SRC International Sdn Bhd? Read the rest of this entry »
Political Donation in Najib’s Personal Bank Account?
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Najib Razak on Thursday, 6 August 2015
By K.Siladass
6.8.2015
The plethora of excuses that are now offered in regard to the huge amount deposited in the personal account of the Prime Minister Dato Seri Najib Razak do not satiate the troubled Malaysians. These excuses indeed raise far more profound questions which call for acceptable answers.
Firstly, if it is a political fund as it is now claimed why was it not disclosed earlier? Aside that, why is this childish challenge to the opposition that they disclose their donors before you disclose yours? A leader leads by example. He is a role model to be emulated and the challenge to the opposition is not a prudent move.
Secondly, it is not the opposition alone to whom Najib is answerable. He is also answerable to all Malaysians and to those who truly and sincerely love Malaysia and have its welfare at heart. Read the rest of this entry »
Call on former PMs, DPMs and Ministers, former and current MPs, former heads of Ministries and departments, former and current civil society leaders to step forward as patriots to save Malaysia from becoming a failed state because of a fractured government, rampant corruption, socio-economic injustices and collapse of good governance
Posted by Kit in Malaysian Dream, Najib Razak, nation building on Wednesday, 5 August 2015
Malaysia is terribly sick and in an unprecedented crisis.
Never before in the nation’s history has there been a more fractured government and divided nation – with the government warring against itself after the sacking of Gani Patail as Attorney-General, the scuttling of the multi-agency Special Task Force on 1MDB and the Wall Street Journal report of July 3 about RM2.6 billion deposited into Prime Minister’s personal accounts in AmBank in March 2013, and the “witch-hunt” against the other three agencies in the Special Task Force, the AGC, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) and Bank Negar Malaysia (BNM).
AGC had already been decapitated with the sudden and shocking sacking of Gani Patail (who seemed to have become the first Malaysian to become a non-person and disappeared into Malaysia’s Gulag Archipelago) and the appointment of a new head, Tan Sri Mohamad Apandi Ali, who had to instantly resign his Federal Court judgeship to replace Gani as Attorney-General.
The “witch-hunt”, grounded on the expose of an international conspiracy to “criminalise” Najib and topple the elected Prime Minister of Malaysia involving top government officers, seemed design to decapitate more than one enforcement agency.
The top two in the MACC, Chief Commissioner Tan Sri Abu Kassim Mohamed and his deputy, Datuk Mohd Shukri Abdull have gone on unexplained leave, raising the question whether their heads are on the chopping block. Read the rest of this entry »
Call on Najib to halt the “witch-hunt” in the past week in high government places to ferret out so-called traitors involved in an international conspiracy to topple him as the elected Prime Minister of Malaysia
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Financial Scandals, Najib Razak on Wednesday, 5 August 2015
The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak should halt the “witch-hunt” in the past week in high government places to ferret out so-called traitors involved in an international conspiracy to topple him as the elected Prime Minister of Malaysia.
The sacking of Tan Sri Gani Patail as the Attorney-General of Malaysia after serving as the first legal officer of the land for three Prime Ministers for nearly 13 years seems part of such a “witch-hunt”, so too the wave of police arrests or questioning since Friday night starting with the former MACC adviser Rashpal Singh, Attorney-General Chambers’ (AGC) officer Jessica Gurmeet Kaur, followed by six senior Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) officers including MACC deputy public prosecutor Ahmad Sazalee Abdul Khairi, MACC special operations director Bahri Mohamad Zin forensics director IG Chandran and MACC’s Special Operations Department officer Roslan Che Amat.
With the MACC Chief Commissioner Tan Sri Abu Kassim Mohamed and his deputy, Datuk Mohd Shukri Abdull on unexplained leave, the question is whether the heads of the two MACC chiefs are on the chopping block, especially with the latter being named as among the top government officers involved in an international plot to topple Najib as the elected Prime Minister of Malaysia. Read the rest of this entry »
When Najib sacks AG and DPM and produce a reshuffled 1MDB Cabinet, understandable MACC can only seek divine intervention to be allowed to carry out their anti-corruption duties
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Najib Razak on Wednesday, 5 August 2015
When the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak sacks Tan Sri Gani Patail as Attorney-General who had served three Prime Ministers in nearly 13 years, and Deputy Prime Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, for asking questions all Malaysians are asking about the RM42 billion 1MDB scandal, and the multi-agency Special Task Force on 1MDB becomes “the hunted” instead of being the hunters in the 1MDB investigations, it is understandable that the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) could only seek divine intervention to be allowed to carry out their anti-corruption duties.
The MACC often bragged that Malaysia is now the world’s model of a comprehensive systemic attack on corruption, and it is undoubtedly pioneering anti-corruption efforts in a new dimension – seeking divine help and intervention!
Najib’s reshuffled 1MDB Cabinet which meets today will not admit that Malaysia has becoming a laughing stock, not only among Malaysians, but to the world when the MACC made the astonishing admission that the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) was correct when its report of July 3 said that government investigators had found that US$700 million (RM2.6 billion) had been deposited into Najib’s personal accounts in AmBank in March 2013 just before the dissolution of Parliament for the holding of the 13th General Election, but that the RM2.6 billion was a donation and not from 1MDB funds.
This MACC statement did not come as a surprise as Najib’s new Ministerial “spin doctors” had been preparing the public for such an announcement, but it furnishes a classic example of Najib’s recent admission that he valued loyal people over smart people in Cabinet. Read the rest of this entry »
The scandal in Malaysia
Posted by Kit in Malaysian Dream, Najib Razak, NEP on Wednesday, 5 August 2015
– Danny Quah
The Malaysian Insider
31 July 2015
In 1971, more than forty years before the world would turn its attention to the top 1% and the problem of income inequality, Malaysia embarked on one of history’s boldest and most noble of experiments to reduce social disparity. Malaysia’s New Economic Policy or NEP would seek to “eradicate poverty for all” and “eliminate identification of race by economic function and geographic location”. This polity was setting out to solve the massive problem of injustice and inequality that other societies much more mature continued to struggle with.
Malaysia was a democracy that hewed the rule of law. The NEP would be Malaysia’s key political driver. Over the decades that followed, the NEP’s mantra would serve as backdrop to almost all political discourse in the country. NEP-themed policies would, among much else, flesh out the concept of Bumiputera – an ethnic-driven formulation of native peoples in Malaysia.
It is difficult to grow an economy – look at train wrecks strewn around the world. But seeking to do so and at the same reduce ethnic- and rural-urban inequality, and maintain social harmony among diverse ethnic and religious groups is an order of magnitude more arduous. Malaysia succeeded: Its income is now well above world emerging-economy average, and its urban infrastructure and worker skills approach those in the first world. Malaysia’s top bankers, business people, and entrepreneurs are admired everywhere. NEP reduced pockets of extreme poverty and created a significant, thriving, and successful Bumiputera middle class – a group of professionals and intellectuals whose contributions to Malaysian society would be the pride of any country.
And, although from time to time patchily diverging from the ideal, throughout this history Malaysia worked hard to maintain its young democracy and its adherence to rule of law, and to support a healthy vigorous open sphere of public debate. Sensitive racial questions were out of bounds, but open questioning of the government was lively. Top government officials routinely had the judiciary rule against them. And a national identity emerged, one that combined the best aspects of local culture and an easy-going open-minded cosmopolitanism developed from, among other things, the many Malaysians who have seen significant international experience. More so than even when within, Malaysians outside Malaysia saw each other for the warm and lively friends they genuinely were, people who felt driven by a mission to make their country better.
Since his 2009 swearing-in, Malaysia’s current prime minister has sought to articulate an international vision for a ‘coalition of moderates’. As leader of a successful moderate Muslim country, he carried an authority and credibility sorely needed in global discourse. He was widely accepted in international circles, and even famously golfed with Barack Obama.
All this is now at risk. Read the rest of this entry »
Economic research body says ringgit to decline further if confidence crisis remains
Posted by Kit in Finance, Financial Scandals, Najib Razak, Oil on Wednesday, 5 August 2015
The Malaysian Insider
4 August 2015
The ringgit can be expected to deteriorate further if Malaysia does not solve its confidence crisis stemming from political instability in the country.
Malaysian Institute of Economic Research (MIER) executive director Dr Zakariah Abdul Rashid said lack of public confidence is the key factor resulting in the weakening ringgit, should crude oil prices remain stable.
“The political situation is complex – from the lack of confidence on how 1MDB is handled to the Cabinet reshuffle – these have put pressure on investors’ confidence and the ringgit,” he said during MIER’s 13th national economic briefing. Read the rest of this entry »
An open letter to Paul Low
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Good Governance, Law & Order, Najib Razak on Tuesday, 4 August 2015
By Robert Hum
Malaysiakini
Aug 1, 2015
Mr Paul Low
Malaysian Minister of Integrity and Good governance
Putrajaya
Malaysia
Dear Sir
Please allow me to add some comments concerning your press statement of July 31, 2015.
Excerpt from your press statement: “I was brought into the federal cabinet specifically to promote good governance and to strengthen transparency and accountability in the government.”
Firstly the all important concept of good governance involves the rule of law, transparency and accountability.
Mr Low, all of these basic points were missing in the unceremonious dismissal of the attorney-general (AG) on Monday by PM Najib Abdul Razak. The incongruent statement of dismissal of the AG due to ill health by the chief secretary to the government smacks of the arrogance and the contempt of the PM for the office of the AG in order to stay in power at all costs.
There was no rule of law evidenced in the dismissal of the AG who was in the process of leading the investigation into the conduct of the PM concerning 1MDB. On the contrary the AG’s dismissal from office by PM Najib is against natural justice and is a direct interference by the PM who is being investigated. Read the rest of this entry »
Akmal Saufi Khaled’s hard questions about the RM2.6 billion in Najib’s personal bank accounts give hope to Malaysians facing a new dark age that the future is not totally lost
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Najib Razak, UMNO on Tuesday, 4 August 2015
The hard questions about the RM2.6 billion in Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s personal bank accounts by Akmal Saufi Khaled, son of Johore Mentri Besar Khaled Nordin, give hope to Malaysians facing a new dark age that the future is not totally lost.
It shows that the extraordinary statement by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) yesterday that the RM2.6 billion deposited into Najib’s personal accounts in AmBank in March 2013 just before dissolution of Parliament for the 13th General Elections came from donation and not from 1MDB funds is not only questioned by the older generation of Malaysians, but also by the thinking young generation as well.
Among the questions posed by Akmal, who is the Youth Parliament’s security, law and integrity committee chairperson, in his Facebook are:
The onus is on Najib to convince Malaysians and the world of his innocence
Posted by Kit in Najib Razak, Parliament on Tuesday, 4 August 2015
The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak has continued his roller-coaster governance of Malaysia after his “Black Tuesday” of July 28.
In the “Black Tuesday” last week, Najib summarily sacked the Attorney-General, Tan Sri Gani Patail who had served three Prime Ministers for nearly 13 years and some two months short of mandatory retirement when reaching the age of 60; launched the nation’s second wave of attacks on national institutions including Parliament, the Executive, key agencies comprising the “Special Task Force on the 1MDB” such as the Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM), Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) and the Press; sacked his Deputy Prime Minister-cum-Education Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin and Rural and Regional Development, Datuk Seri Shafie Apdal for raising questions about the 1MDB scandal which Malaysians and the world have been asking; reshuffled his Cabinet with “loyal people over smart people” and form his trio of Cabinet “spin doctors” to defend him and 1MDB; and most serious of all, setting off unprecedented convulsion in the most fractured Government in the nation’s history, with one enforcement agency investigating and pouncing on another.
The Prime Minister and his UMNO lieutenants have over the weekend been on a national roadshow with UMNO members bussed in tens of thousands to declare their support and loyalty to Najib at every stop, but all these theatrics, even with the support of UMNO’s erstwhile opponent, PAS President Datuk Seri Hadi Awang, cannot hide the fact that Najib is the weakest Prime Minister in the nation’s history.
This is not just in terms of popularity rating as Prime Minister with Malaysians – which fell to 44% in January but could have plunged now to the lower 30% levels – but most important of all, plumbed the lowest depth never reached by Malaysia’s previous five Prime Miniters, Tunku, Razak, Hussein, Mahathir and Abdullah in terms of moral authority, standing and credibility as Prime Minister. Read the rest of this entry »
The onus is on Najib to convince the world of his innocence
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Najib Razak on Tuesday, 4 August 2015
Editorial
South China Morning Post
02 August, 2015
Malaysia’s prime minister, Najib Razak, has repeatedly denied wrongdoing over the state sovereign fund 1MDB’s huge debts. He claims opponents are trying to orchestrate his removal through allegations that almost US$700 million was transferred into his bank accounts. Yet his explanations have not been convincing. The dismissal of critics in his cabinet, the disarray surrounding an official inquiry and the silencing of media have only heightened speculation. Restoring lost moral authority requires ensuring a genuinely independent investigation.
There is every reason why this has to happen. The 1MDB scandal has damaged Malaysia’s image and outlook, causing the stock market and the ringgit currency to plummet. Malaysia’s oil-driven economy was already in trouble over the sharp fall in prices. Allegations of corruption shrouding the leadership only deepens the crisis. Read the rest of this entry »
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