Malaysia is the laughing stock of all foreign offices in the world with the infantile and moronic justification by the Malaysian Foreign Ministry that the news portal The Malaysian Insider had to be banned to maintain peace, stability and harmony in the country to safeguard the multi-racial and multi-cultural values, norms and practices in Malaysia.

Wisma Putra’s response to United States’ concern about the move to restrict access to domestic and international reporting on Malaysian current affairs and the call by the US State Department spokesman John Kirby to the Malaysian government to ensure that its laws respected freedom of expression including the free flow of ideas on the Internet is one of the most asinine statements ever issued in the name of the Malaysian government in the nation’s 48-year history.

Has the intellectual depth and breadth of the “Mandarins” in the Malaysian civil service become so scarce and shallow that such a statement could pass muster as to be released in the name of the Malaysian government?

What has happened to the Malaysian Governments’ 20-year Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) Bill of Guarantees especially on “No Internet Censorship”?

Are all the ten guarantees in the MSC Bill of Guarantees now to be regarded as no better than a worthless scrap of paper?

Even more important, does Wisma Putra really believe in the garbage it has trotted out that the ban on The Malaysian Insider was necessary “to maintain peace, stability and harmony to safeguard the multi-racial and multi-cultural values, norms and practices in Malaysia”?

Malaysians would like to know who are the Ministers in the Cabinet who believe in such garbage?

When has zeal, fervour and passion to combat corruption and financial scandals like Najib’s twin mega scandals undermined or threatened “peace, stability and harmony in the country” or inimical to the “multi-racial and multi-cultural values, norms and practices” in Malaysia?

The contrary is in fact the case, as all the great religions, cultures and civilisations which find a confluence in Malaysia place a high premium on the values and ethos of clean, honest, ethical and incorruptible living.

I have strong differences with the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak but I do not believe that he has become so intellectually bankrupt as to believe in the garbage dished out by Wisma Putra to justify the banning of The Malaysian Insider, which is another international disgrace for Malaysia.

The Prime Minister has asked Internet users to differentiate truth from lies before forming a judgment – but the violation of the MSC Bill of Guarantee of “No Internet Censorhip” and the ban on Internet news portals are not helping Malaysians to differentiate truth from lies, as they only sought to hide the truth from the Malaysian citizenry.

Najib’s Ministers are ectastic that the Prime Minister’s visit to Saudi Arabia is a success, claiming that if the RM2.6 billion political donation was fraudulent, the Saudi royal household should be enraged with Najib instead of giving him VVIP treatment.

Such an argument does not wash. Even more pertinent is the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) report on March 1 that deposits into Najib’s personal bank accounts totalled more than US$1billion and not just US$681 million (RM2.6 billion) as earlier alleged.

Quoting “two people familiar with flows into his (Najib’s) accounts and a person familiar with one overseas probe”, WSJ reported that “most money beyond the previously identified $681 million arrived in 2011 and 2012”.

WSJ also claimed that most of the US$1 billion originated from 1MDB, and not from Saudi Arabia.

WSJ also reported that “according to those familiar with their probes”, “the international investigators have found no evidence any of this (US$681 million deposited into Najib’s accounts) came from Saudi Arabia”.

What is significant is that Najib has not dared to sue Wall Street Journal for all the past and the latest allegations about the gargantum sums of money deposited into his personal bank accounts.

The Attorney-General Tan Sri Mohamad Apandi Ali said in January that Najib had returned RM2.03 billion out of the RM2.6 billion to the purported “Saudi royal family” donor several months after receiving the money as the sum was not used.

Now that the allegation has mushroomed from RM2.6 billion to RM4.2 billion, what has Apandi Ali got to say and what amount of unused money had actually been returned to Saudi Arabia by Najib? And where are the documentary proofs of the return of such sums of money?