The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak said in Parliament yesterday that Saudi Arabian King Salman’s visit to Malaysia had put to rest lies about Malaysia.
I do not know what Najib was referring to, but there is no doubt that to the 31 million Malaysians, the most important question which King Salman could have cleared up and “put to rest” and which he failed to do, is about the RM2.6 billion “donation” deposited into Najib’s personal banking accounts before the 13th General Election in March 2013.
The Prime Minister had said that the extraordinary amount of RM2.6 billion was a “donation” from the Saudi Arab royal family, although this is doubted not only by informed opinion in Malaysia but the whole wide world as well.
When I spoke in Parliament yesterday in the royal address, I said that UMNO Ministers and leaders have been trying to exploit the four-day visit of King Salman of Saudi Arabia to Malaysia as proof that there was nothing hanky-panky about the RM2.6 billion in Najib’s personal banking account in 2013, and even claiming that Salman’s silence could only mean confirmation that the RM2.6 billion in Najib’s personal banking account had come from Saudi Arab royal circles.
I had in Parliament described such claims are “nonsensical and preposterous”.
I reiterated in Parliament that the most significant thing about King Salman’s visit to Malaysia was not what was said or done by the Saudis, including the signing of the US$7 billion (RM31 billion) agreement by Saudi Aramco to take a 50 per cent stake in Petronas’ Refinery and Petrochemical Integrated Development (RAPID) project in Pengerang but what was not said about the RM2.6 billion “donation” in Najib’s personal bank accounts.
I told Parliament that the reason why Salman could not say RM2.6 billion in Najib’s personal banking account was his donation was very simple – the Saudi Arabian king knew that the US Department of Justice (DOJ) legal suit to confiscate US$1 billion 1MDB-linked assets, is a public document in black and white, and it had traced in detail the “to and fro” “money trail” of the RM2.6 billion “donation”, establishing beyond a shadow of doubt that they could not be a donation from Saudi Arabian royal circles.
I even referred to the sections, naming the paragraphs and pages, of the 126-page 512-paragraph of the US DOJ kleptocratic lawsuits to seize US$1 billion of 1MDB-linked assets in the United States, United Kingdom and Switzerland, which outlined the three “phases” of the “criminal conduct” of the international multi-billion dollar 1MDB money-laundering – divided into the “Good Star” first phase at the beginning of 1MDB in 2009 involving more than US$1 billion; the “Aabar-BVI” second phase involving approximately US$1.367 billion in 2012; and the “Tanore” third phase involving some US$1.26 billion in 2013.
I told Parliament yesterday that the US DOJ lawsuits gave in detail the “money trail” of the RM2.6 billion “donation” into Najib’s personal bank accounts – that the monies came from 1MDB, transferred to the Tanore Account in Singapore, i.e. in March 2013, US$681 million were transferred into Najib’s personal banking accounts from Tanore Account in Singapore, and on or about August 26, 2013, about US$620 million was returned to the Tanore Account.
There was nothing to show that the US$681 million (or RM2.6 billion) originated from Saudi Arabia or that any amount from this sum had been returned to someone in Saudi Arabia.
The whole of next week in Parliament will be the Ministerial winding-up of the seven-day debate on the Yang di Pertuan Agong’s Royal Address at the official opening of Parliament on 6th March.
Let Najib show Malaysians the money trail of RM2.6 billion into his personal banking accounts – where the monies came from and where they have gone to – during the Ministers’ Winding up in Parliament next week.
I hope Najib will not evade and avoid answer of this important question of the “money trial” of the RM2.6 billion “donation” – where they came from and where they have gone to.
If Najib avoids or evades answer on the 1MDB scandal, in particular the key question of the money trail of the RM2.6 billion “donation” – where they came from and where they have gone to – then we can only hope that the answer to this question could be found in the Mahathir-Nazri debate on 1MDB scandal in Kuala Kangsar on March 25.
(Speech at the DAP Voters’ Registration Campaign at Balakong, Selangor on Thursday, 16th March 2017 at 8 pm)