The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak, should confirm or deny that he had three other Ambank accounts which were active at the material time of the alleged payment of RM9.5 million to lawyer Shafie Abdullah as well as the payments themselves.
Silence is simply not an option for the Prime Minister if he wants Malaysians and the world to believe that he is committed to the principles of accountability, transparency and good governance.
The Attorney-General Tan Sri Mohamad Apandi Ali also cannot keep his silence to the claim by the PKR National Vice Chairman and MP for Pandan, Rafizi Ramli, who said that information on the flow of funds from these three accounts were detailed in a flowchart shown by the Attorney-General during a press conference in January 2016.
A prompt and straight-forward confirmation is called for if Najib had three other Ambank accounts at the relevant period concerned, or there should be denial; similarly, if Najib had paid Shafie RM9.5 million from his personal banking accounts – confirm if true, giving the reasons for the payment; deny, if untrue!
Why is Najib finding it so difficult to do a very simple thing?
It is now one whole week since the Sarawak Report whistleblowing website made its claim that Najib had paid Shafie RM9.5 million from his private Ambank account, which received funds from SRC International, a former subsidiary of 1MDB.
The linking of the payments to Datuk Seri Anwar’s Sodomy II case, the Court of Appeal’s overturning of Anwar’s acquittal by the Kuala Lumpur High Court, his conviction, imprisonment and the removal of a political threat to the Prime Minister, are the normal reaction of ordinary Malaysians in the absence of an explanation from Najib.
This is why Najib should speak up and abandon his policy of silence on matters which affect the good name of Malaysia, such as the upholding of a just rule of law, a truly independent judiciary and most important of all, to rebut Malaysia’s ignominy and infamy as a “global kleptocracy.