Ever since the beginning of this year, the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak had been declaring that his twin mega scandals were no more issues as they had been “resolved”.
In a way, Najib is right, as his RM2.6 billion “donation” scandal is no more an issue as it has been replaced by an even bigger RM4.2 billion donation scandal.
Najib’s RM2.6 billion “donation” scandal has become history, and we should now talk about Najib’s RM4.2 billion “donation” scandal!
It is sad that Malaysians have to piece together from various bits and pieces of information in the public domain to get a handle of the scale and monstrosity of Najib’s twin mega scandals, as the Prime Minister and his Ministerial cohorts in Parliament have simply refused to give a proper, full and satisfactory accounting about the twin mega scandals even in Parliament.
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s 45-minute Four Corners’ documentary “State of Fear: Murder and Money in Malaysia” on Monday has helped many Malaysians to realize that there were actually three separate tranches of deposits into Najib’s personal banking accounts at AmBank, pre the RM2.6 billion donations, the RM2.6 billion donations itself and post-RM2.6 billion donations, viz:
(i) some US$300 million from 2011 to March 2013;
(ii) two transactions in March 2013 totalling US$681 (the often-reported RM2.6 billion political donation) – bringing the total deposited into Najib’s accounts to US$1.03 billion (RM4.14 billion) by April 10, 2013, just over a month prior to the 13th General Election; and
(iii) deposits of £50 million (RM285 million) as well as “a series of cash deposits” in June 2014 and after.
Najib had never contradicted these facts and figures, elevating Najib’s RM2.6 billion “donation” scandal into at least RM4.2 billion “donation” scandal.
Former Kuala Lumpur police Criminal Investigation Department chief Datuk Mat Zain Ibrahim had lodged a police report early this month against the attorney-general Tan Sri Mohamed Apandi Ali, claiming that the AG was suspected to have “abused his powers, hidden information, and or used false statements” when clearing Prime Minister Najib of wrongdoing in the then RM2.6 billion donation case.
In his report, Mat Zain dissected Apandi’s claims that the donation came from the son of a Saudi King, to prove his claim that the AG had allegedly given false information.
Citing the Forbes 2013 list of the world’s richest Arabs, Mat Zain said only four princes were in the list.
They are Prince Alwaleed Talal who then had a reported fortune of US$20 billion; Prince Sultan Mohammed with US$2.6 billion; Prince Abdullah Musaad with US$144.5 million; and Prince Mutaib Abdulaziz with US$110.1 million.
Of the four, only Prince Mutaib is the son of a king, but his US$110.1 million nett worth is far less than the US$681 million donated to Najib. Mat Zain surmised that if Najib did return US$620 million to the donor in August 2013, the donor would have climbed up the Forbes list.
However, Prince Mutaib did not make it to Forbes’ 2014 list of wealthy Arabs, making Prince Alwaleed, Prince Sultan, and Prince Abdullah the only Saudi royals named in the annual shortlist.
Mat Zain said these deductions rendered Apandi’s remarks on the RM2.6 billion donation “false, and suspected to have been made up”. What is the truth?
Malaysians are none the wiser some nine months after Wall Street Journal carried an exclusive report on the RM2.6 billion “donation” scandal in early July – which was clearly a gross under-estimate as at least RM4.2 billion “donations” had been involved.
The 1MDB scandal is no less perplexing.
According to Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin in his last speech as Deputy Prime Minister on July 26 last year, the total 1MDB debts were more than RM50 billion. By November last year, before the start of the “rationalisation” of 1MDB with the sale of Edra to China General Nuclear Power Corp Ltd. (CGN), the total 1MDB debts could have reached RM55 billion.
Why is Najib and 1MDB so shy in revealing 1MDB’s latest total debts before sale of Edra to CGN at the end of November?
This is because the oft-mentioned RM42 billion figure is not the latest update figure, as it represents 1MDB’s total debts as at the end of March 2014 – 1MDB’s last audited accounts – and not in November 2015.
So have Najib’s twin mega scandals been grossly underestimated when they are close to RM55 billion 1MDB and RM4.2 billion donation scandals?
Malaysia has indeed become a most extraordinary country, with the Prime Minister and the Malaysian Government regarding Najib’s twin mega scandals as “no problems” which cannot even be debated intelligently and fruitfully in Parliament, while 30 million Malaysians and the world regard them as the top issues and scandals in the country.
Najib’s twin mega scandals are responsible for Malaysia being regarded as the top ten countries notorious for “Grand Corruption”, netting for Malaysia infamous third-ranking mention in ForeignPolicy’s “world’s worst corruption scandals in 2015” and a second-place mention in the recent Time magazine listing of five countries notorious for “global corruption”.
Even more shameful, Najib is subject of investigations by United States Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) and Department of Justice under the US Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative over the twin mega scandals.
Najib should take a courageous decision to give a full report to the current Parliament on the twin mega scandals which had been hounding and haunting the country for the past two years.
Najib should present a White Paper on his twin mega scandals to Parliament and slot the last two days of Parliament next Wednesday and Thursday for a full parliamentary debate on two scandals which had infamously catapulted to the top of the world for global corruption.