Is the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) Chairman, Datuk Hasan Arifin’s refusal to re-open investigations into the 1MDB scandal a signal that Malaysia is to become a nation in denial about the 1MDB global scandal on top of a new infamy of Malaysia becoming a global kleptocracy?

Yesterday, DAP National Publicity Secretary and MP for PJ Utara, Tony Pua, walked out of the PAC meeting after Hasan rejected his proposal to re-open PAC investigations to 1MDB and to summon the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak to testify at the PAC in the light of lawsuits filed by the United States Department of Justice (DOJ).

Are we going to have a situation where all the key national institutions, starting with the Prime Minister, the Cabinet, Parliament, the PAC, the Attorney-General’s Chambers, the Police, Bank Negara, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission, the Auditor-General, the mainstream mass media, are going to act in concert as a nation in denial about the 1MDB scandal, virtually ignoring the largest US and global action in the DOJ forfeiture of over US$1 billion assets in the United States, United Kingdom and Switzerland as a result of an international conspiracy of embezzlement, money-laundering and misappropriation of 1MDB funds?

The Cabinet meeting tomorrow will be a litmus-test whether Malaysia is going to adopt the stance of a nation in denial about the 1MDB scandal, ignoring the 136-page DOJ lawsuits, coupled with a “wait-and-see” attitude for the US legal process to take its course, hoping that this will take years!

At the Cabinet meeting tomorrow, which will be 21 days and third Cabinet meeting after the DOJ lawsuits filed on July 21, the Cabinet must prove that it is a Cabinet of Malaysian patriots and not a Cabinet of idiots or kleptocrats.

Barisan Nasional Strategic Communications Director and Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department in charge of EPU, Datuk Seri Abdul Rahman Dahlan, has said that there is no secret who is ‘MALAYSIAN OFFICIAL 1 (MO1)’ and mentioned 36 times in the US DOJ civil lawsuits “as everyone who has read the court documents or familiar with the issues” would know who is the person being referred to.

He said “only an idiot doesn’t know who that person was”.

Let us therefore not have any Cabinet idiot of any Minister who does not know who is “MALAYSIAN OFFICIAL 1”.

As all Minister should know the identity of “MALAYSIAN OFFICIAL 1”, who is accused as a “co-conspirator” and implicated in the “criminal conduct” of embezzlement, money-laundering and misappropriation of some US$3.5 billion 1MBD funds which formed the basis of the US DOJ lawsuits to forfeit over US$1 billion of 1MDB-linked assets in the United States, United Kingdom and Switzerland, inaction as happened in the past three weeks is no option for a Prime Minister, government and nation serious about their reputation, standing and integrity.

Unless the Cabinet is going to deny that “MALAYSIAN OFFICIAL 1” does not refer to Prime Minister Najib Razak, and maintain that Malaysia’s reputation and good name have not been besmirched or stained by the DOJ action, the Cabinet must debunk the DOJ complaint about the litany of “criminal conduct” by “MALAYSIAN OFFICIAL 1” as well as the embezzlement and money-laundering of billions of dollars stolen from 1MDB meant for the country’s development?

The Cabinet must not go down in Malaysian history as a Cabinet of kleptocrats whose Ministers do not mind Malaysia gaining overnight an international infamy and notoriety as a kleptocracy, which has been defined as a rule by a thief or thieves, without taking prompt, immediate, serious and effective action to purge the country of such infamy and notoriety.

There has been a national craze in the past three days to catch Pokemons since the arrival of Pokemon Go in Malaysia on Saturday. It would be more useful is there is a national craze to identify and exonerate “MALAYSIAN OFFICIAL 1”.