Minister for Rural and Regional Development, Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob came out with a gem of a statement yesterday when he said he did not know what was going on in Malacca Chief Minister, Datuk Idris Haron’s head when the latter claimed the United States was trying to topple Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak and the Malays.

Idris had claimed last Sunday that the US was doing this through the Department of Justice (DOJ) lawsuits related to 1MDB.

Sabri refused to comment on the alleged conspiracy, and asked journalists to ask Idris instead.

Sabri is not the only one who was bamboozled by Idris’ “conspiracy theory”, as nobody knew what Idris was blabbering about.

Which UMNO Minister or leader dare to specifically endorse Idris’ statement and talk sense instead of nonsense?

But the tragedy of Malaysia today is that Idris is not the only UMNO leader who make statements which cause everybody to wonder what was going on in the person’s head!

To be fair to Idris Haron, Malaysians are flummoxed most of the time by the statements of UMNO Ministers and leaders – as Idris Haron is the rule not the exception.

The Minister for Communications and Multimedia, Datuk Seri Salleh Said Keruak recently suggested that the US DOJ lawsuits were an attempt by the West to colonise Malaysians by “mind-control”.

The Minister for Agriculture and Agro-based Industries, Datuk Ahmad Shabery Cheek said the US DOJ forfeiture action of over US$1 billion 1MDB-linked assets “is nothing out of the ordinary” as “what happened is a normal matter” as the country had been faced with a bigger situation like the Bumiputra Malaysia Finance (BMF) scandal – conveniently ignoring the fact that the RM55 billion 1MDB scandal is more than 20 times bigger than the RM2.5 billion BMF scandal in the 1980s.

Into this category of statements by UMNO Ministers and leaders making people wonder what is going in their heads are the following:

1. Barisan Nasional Strategic Communications Director and Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department in charge of EPU, Datuk Seri Abdul Rahman Dahlan, saying that there is no secret who is Malaysian Official 1 (MO1) mentioned 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; and “only an idiot doesn’t know who that person was”; and

2. Statement by PAC member, Abdul Aziz Sheikh Fadzir that the re-opening of PAC investigation on 1MDB would not bring any concrete solutions as the PAC had already done its duty – ignoring the fact that the 136-page DOJ lawsuits had made it imperative that the PAC should summon “MALAYSIAN OFFICIAL 1” to testify about the theft, embezzlement, misappropriation and money-laundering of tens of billions of ringgit of 1MDB funds. Or are the PAC Chairman and members “idiots” in the parlance of Abdul Rahman Dahlan on the ground that they do not know the identity of “MALAYSIAN OFFICIAL 1”?

One would have thought that the best response to the DOJ lawsuits, the single biggest money-laundering forfeiture in the US and the world which stained and tarnished Malaysia’s image and reputation as a global kleptocracy is to vigorously and pro-actively debunk and rebut the grave allegations of kleptocracy against the Malaysian government, especially the litany of “criminal conduct” by “MALAYSIAN OFFICIAL 1” and others in Malaysia as well as the embezzlement and money-laundering of billions of dollars stolen from 1MDB meant for the country’s development!

Such a vigorous and pro-active response will put to rest all allegations of a conspiracy by foreign powers to topple the Malaysian Prime Minister or a to recolonize Malaysia via “mind-control” through the 1MDB scandal – as well as establish that the Malaysian government is and can prove that it is not a global kleptocracy.

Why are the UMNO or Barisan Nasional Ministers and leaders shying away from such a vigorous and pro-active response to the DOJ action?

Is it because they are incapable of such thinking and action but can only pour out statements which cause even other UMNO Ministers and leaders to wonder the rationality if not the sanity of such statements.