The MCA Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Seri Wee Ka Siong has confirmed my belief that the admission by the Barisan Nasional Strategic Communications Director and Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Seri Abdul Rahman Dahlan in his interview with BBC that “MALAYSIAN OFFICIAL 1” (MO1) referred to in the US Department of Justice (DOJ)’s biggest kleptocratic action against 1MDB and Malaysia was Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak had caught most Cabinet Ministers by surprise.

When asked by reporters today to comment on Abdul Rahman’s admission, Wee said he did not know who is “MALAYSIAN OFFICIAL 1” and suggested that the press should question Abdul Rahman himself.

I am astonished by Wee’s admission that he did not know who is “MO1” as it was six weeks ago that the US DOJ filed lawsuits which made reference to “MO1” 36 times.

Didn’t Wee think that it was a matter of national importance and even a public duty for him to try to find out who was this “MO1”, especially as he appeared to be the king-pin together with Penang billionaire Jho Low responsible for Malaysia’s international infamy and odium as an overnight global kleptocracy?

Wee’s admission is all the more shocking, especially as Abdul Rahman had gone on public record to say that “only an idiot doesn’t know what that person (i.e. MO1) was” as everyone who has read the court documents or familiar with the issues would know who was the person being referred to.

Is Wee, the MCA Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, an “idiot”?

Clearly going by Abdul Rahman’s definition, Wee fit fully and ideally into an “idiot” in the Cabinet!

Did the other two MCA Ministers in Cabinet, MCA President Datuk Liow Tiong Lai and the MCA Secretary-General Datuk Seri Ong Ka Chuan, know that “MO1” was none other than Primer Minister Najib, or are they also “idiots” like the MCA Deputy President – at least in the eyes of the Barisan Nasional Strategic Communications Director?

Let every Cabinet Minister, regardless of party affiliation, speak up as to whether he or she knew that “MOI” was none other than Prime Minister Najib, and in particular state whether they had been surprised by Abdul Rahman’s admission in the BBC interview yesterday.

I had said that unlike the majority of the Cabinet Ministers, Najib was probably not surprised by Abdul Rahman’s admission in the BBC interview.

I call on Najib to confirm that he is “MALAYSIAN OFFICIAL 1” referred to in the US DOJ lawsuits on forfeiture of 1MDB-linked assets in United States, and if he is not prepared to make such a confirmation, then let him explain why not.

The Inspector-General of Police, Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar, said earlier today that the police force does not want to be dragged into politics regarding the 1MDB issue.

He continues to maintain that the US DOJ action is a civil action and that the Police does not get involved in civil suits.

This is a pathetic excuse by the IGP to turn the Malaysian police’s blind eye to the series of criminal conduct in the international conspiracy in the multi-billion dollar theft, embezzlement, misappropriation and money-laundering of 1MDB funds which formed the basis of the DOJ’s civil action in rem for the forfeiture of the 1MDB-linked assets in the United States, United Kingdom and Switzerland.

If the persons named, whether directly or in code like “MALAYSIAN OFFICIAL 1”, “1MDB Officer 1”, “1MDB OFFICER 2”, “1MDB OFFICER 3” in the 136-page DOS lawsuits had referred to Pakatan Harapan or civil society personalities, would Khalid adopt such a dismissive, indifferent or nonchalant attitude?

Of course not. If the persons named as “MALAYSIAN OFFICIAL 1”, “1MDB Officer 1”, “1MDB Officer 2” and “1MDB Officer 3” had referred to Pakatan Harapan or civil society personalities, they would have spent the last six weeks since the DOJ filing of its lawsuits on July 20 walking in and out of police lock-ups and investigations!

This is a most glaring and blatant case of double standards by the police authorities, where there is one law for the powers-that-be while a different law for the rest of society.

Khalid should not fail in his duty and higher calling to the nation as Inspector-General of Police and should ensure that the police investigate and act on the information in the DOJ lawsuits about the hosts of criminal conduct in the theft, embezzlement, misappropriation and money-laundering of 1MDB funds which run into tens of billions of ringgit – completely without fear or favour of the high-ranking positions of the criminals implicated.

Najib has persistently denied that he had committed any wrongdoing in the 1MDB scandal.

The DOJ action had made two serious accusations, firstly, that “public officials and their associates” in Malaysia, some named specifically but others just referred to in code, of being active participants and co-conspirators of a multi-billion dollar international conspiracy to defraud 1MDB of billions of United States dollars; secondly, that Malaysia has overnight become a global kleptocracy.

Najib does not seem agitated in any manner for being referred by code in the DOJ lawsuits as a king-pin in 1MDB global financial scandal, although Abdul Rahman has “outed” the Prime Minister by admitting to the whole world in the BBC interview that “MO1” is none other than Najib himself.

We must however make an important distinction – Najib’s personal reputation is different and separate from the nation’s good name and reputation, and it is the nation’s good name and reputation which warrant priority and immediate protection and action to purge and cleanse the international indictment that Malaysia had become an overnight global kleptocracy.

Thirty million Malaysians must regard it as a national shame and infamy to be identified as an overnight global kleptocracy – which the President of Transparency International-Malaysia (TI-M), Akbar Satar, has rightly defined as “rule by thieves”.

No self-respecting people would want their country to be known as a kleptocracy, let alone a global kleptocracy.

National interests and imperatives do not allow a single day to pass without concrete and positive action by the government to purge and cleanse Malaysia of the infamy and odium of an overnight global kleptocarcy in international forums and platforms, but the Malaysian government had done absolutely nothing in this direction in the past six weeks!

Is Najib prepared to subordinate his personal interests to national interests; and is he prepared to perform his national duty as Prime Minister and speak at the United Nations General Assembly at the end of this month to purge and cleanse
Malaysia of the international indictment of an overnight global kleptocracy?

Malaysians are entitled to an answer from Najib.

[Speech at the Chennah (Negri Sembilan) DAP 50th Anniversary Dinner in Pekan Titi on Friday, 2nd September 2016 at 8 pm]