The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) report into the RM50 billion 1MDB scandal is only the tip of the iceberg.
Anyone who have read the 106-page PAC report cannot help getting the feeling that the PAC report is wrestling with larger forces than those it has named and identified, which is why the PAC has attracted not only national, but international, interest and attention and why Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s RM50 billion 1MDB and RM4.2 billion twin mega scandals have catapulted Malaysia among the top ten nations in the world infamous for global corruption.
Has the PAC report succeeded in laying to rest or rebutting in any manner international perceptions that Malaysia is now one of the world’s top nations in global corruption
The sad answer is in the negative. In fact, the PAC report will only confirm these international perceptions and doubts, which is why the 1MDB scandal is the subject of separate investigations by half a dozen countries, including the subject of the US Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) and Department of Justice (DOJ) under the US Kleptocracy Assets Recovery Initiative, and none of them will halt investigations because of the PAC Report.
There has been some controversy that there is disagreement between the two DAP members on the PAC on the PAC report, Dr. Tan Seng Giaw and Tony Pua.
This is not the case.
PAC Deputy Chairman Dr. Tan Seng Giaw is correct in pointing out that the PAC report has not directly involved Najib as being responsible for the 1MDB scandal. In fact, no PAC report making such connection, will ever see the light of day in Malaysia.
However, what is more important about the PAC report is not what is revealed, but what could be read between the lines of the report.
There is therefore no contradiction between what Seng Giaw said and the position taken by DAP MP for PJ Utara, Tony Pua, that critics of 1MDB in the past year and more have been vindicated by the PAC report about gross mismanagement and wanton neglect by those responsible for 1MDB. In fact, the crimes of the 1MDB scandal are even more heinous.
The PAC report needs further study and digestion, but what is important is the next step, how to probe further than just the “tip of of the iceberg” – a job which other countries of the world will do if Malaysians themselves are not up to it to get to the bottom of the truth of the 1MDB scandal, which will be to the eternal shame of Malaysia!