The Sungai Besar and Kuala Kangsar voters should speak and vote on behalf of all Malaysians in the two by-elections on June 18 to demand that the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak give full and satisfactory accounting for his RM55 billion 1MDB and RM4.2 billion “donation” twin global scandals or step down as Prime Minister of Malaysia.

In both by-elections, the battle is between the Amanah and Barisan Nasional candidates as far as the 1MDB and “donation” twin global scandals are concerned, as the two topmost PAS leaders have not only become the “advisors” but the “defenders” of Najib in these two mega scandals!

I do not know whether Najib deserves the credit as he has achieved world-class notice for Malaysia which none of the five previous Prime Ministers, including his father Tun Razak, had ever done in five decades – international notoriety as one of world’s top countries infamous for global corruption.

Wherever one goes in the world, Malaysia is now equated with the notorious and infamous RM55 billion 1MDB and RM4.2 billion donation scandals – which have been described by the international financial news agency, Bloomberg, as one of the “world’s biggest financial scandals”.

Everybody knows that the RM55 billion 1MDB scandal is huge, but how huge is it?

I myself cannot fully envisage how astronomical is RM55 billion and I believe that 99% of Malaysians cannot imagine how huge is RM55 billion!

How many zeroes do we have in our bank accounts? RM100 is two zeroes, RM1,000 is three zeroes, RM10,000 is four zeroes and RM100,000 is five zeroes.
The overwhelming majority of Malaysians will not even have five zeroes in their bank accounts, even if they have property or assets worth five zeroes.
Having bank accounts of more than six zeroes (millionaires) will be beyond the reach of ordinary Malaysians, but RM55 billion or RM55,000,000,000 is to have 10 zeroes – a completely unthinkable sum of money.

Hidden in the RM55 billion 1MDB scandal is Najib’s RM4.2 billion “donation” scandal, and I don’t think there is a single leader in the democratic world who believes in democracy, good governance, accountability and transparency who has huge sums of money involving nine zeroes deposited into his private banking accounts and refused to account for them!

The RM55 billion 1MDB scandal is so humongous that if divided among 42,837 voters in Sungai Besar, every voter would get RM1.3 million!

Najib knows that the 1MDB scandal is his Achilles’ heel, which is why he is abusing and misusing his powers to sweep the issue under the carpet in the country, including sacking the Deputy Prime Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, Senior UMNO Minister for Rural and Regional Development, Datuk Seri Shafie Apdal, the Attorney-General Tan Sri Gani Patail in his crackdown against critics and opponents, which include immediate transfers for government servants, shutdown of independent media, arrests and prosecution of critics under a variety of repressive laws, whether Sedition Act, Penal Code, Printing Presses and Publications Act or Multimedia Communications Act.

But a wrong is a wrong, and it cannot become a right just become one is in power. This is why even Mustapha Kamil had resigned as New Straits Times group editor at the end of last month, precisely because the RM55 billion 1MDB and RM4.2 billion “donation” scandals are just heinous wrongs that cannot be sanitised to become a right because of power positions!

Would the UMNO/BN candidates in Sungai Besar and Kuala Kangsar by-elections dare to take a stand on Najib’s twin global financial scandals?

The world is now looking askance at Malaysia, regarding that something is very wrong with Malaysia when various countries in the world are taking action against multi-billion ringgit 1MDB crimes of embezzlement, money-laundering and corruption except in Malaysia – as if there are no moral rules and principles in Malaysia.

If there can be political miracles in the Sungai Besar and Kuala Kangsar by-elecitons – as both constituencies have been impregnable UMNO strongholds for the past six decades – and the Amanah candidates can achieve the “impossible” to win in the by-elections, it will go a long way to win the moral war for Malaysia in the world, and send out the message to the world and other countries that Malaysia is no exception as far as moral rules and principles are concerned, and that embezzlement, money-laundering and corruption are equally as wrongful and criminal in Malaysia as in other countries.

Can the voters of Sungai Besar and Kuala Kangsar save the reputation of Malaysia in the world and debunk the perception that the crimes of embezzlement, money-laundering and corruption are permissible in Malaysia if they involve those in power?

This will be the main question to be decided on June 18 in the Sungai Besar and Kuala Kangsar by-elections.

Najib’s strategists are working overtime to ensure that Najib’s 1MDB and “donation” twin global corruption scandals would not feature prominently in the two by-elections, which explains for the Najib-Hadi plot in Parliament on May 26, where the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said moved a Ministerial motion to fast-track PAS President, Datuk Seri Hadi Awang’s hudud private member’s bill motion.

The voters of Sungai Besar and Kuala Kangsar must not fall into the Najib-Hadi political trap, as 1MDB and “donation” twin global scandals must be the foremost issues in the two by-elections.

I call on Najib to appear at both by-elections to give full and satisfactory explanation about the RM55 billion 1MDB and RM4.2 billion “donation” twin global scandals as voters must not be distracted by the Najib-Hadi hudud gambit.

(Media Statement in Sungai Besar after the Sungai Besar by-election nomination on Sunday, June 5, 2016 at 10 am)