The reaction of everyone in Malaysia and the world to the news that the Najib government is establishing a Royal Commission of Inquiry on the 1980s/1990s Bank Negara foreign exchange scandal is: “Why no RCI on 1MDB scandal? Not even a RCI on FGV scandal? Is there going to be RCI into Scorpene scandal?”
Last Saturday, I said that no loyal and patriotic Malaysian can read the updated 251-page US Department of Justice (DOJ) kleptocratic suit to forfeit US$1.7 billion MDB-linked assets arising from US$4.5 billion 1MDB money-laundering without shame, mortification, consternation and horror and only those who are prepared to commit treason will be unaffected, unmoved and untouched by the US DOJ action.
I called on the entire Cabinet yesterday to take a principled stand at its first meeting after the DOJ’s latest kleptocratic action to cleanse and purge Malaysia of the infamy and ignominy of being regarded world-wide as a “global kleptocracy” or to collectively if the 36 Ministers are unable to defend Malaysia’s good name and reputation in the world.
The various statements by Ministers, like Defence Minister, Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein, the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Abdul Rahman Dahlan and the Minister for Communications and Multimedia, Datuk Seri Salleh Syed Keruak have not dispelled any queries about the latest DOJ action, but only reinforced shame, mortification, consternation and horror at the monstrosity of the 1MDB scandal.
The Malaysian Cabinet would have gained world recognition and admiration, as well as salvaged Malaysia’s good name in the world and for posterity, if the Ministers had collectively resigned to pave the way for a national cartharsis to restore the country’s reputation and international standing as a moral and upright country where public integrity and good governance are not meaningless lip-service phrases but living principles and values in the government and country.
Instead, the Cabinet chose the path of moral cowardice – attracting world attention not for their courage and conviction, but for their unbelievable incapacity to differentiate right and wrong and to feel shame by burying their heads in the sand, ignoring the colossal elephant in the Cabinet room and embarking on a caper into the past.
Yes, I stand my speech in Parliament in April 1994 calling for a Royal Commission of Inquiry into the colossal Bank Negara forex losses to ascertain (I) Bank Negara’s forex losses since 1992, and whether they could exceed RM30 billion; (2) whether there had been any financial malpractices and abuses; and (3) how the Bank Negara could incur such colossal losses.
This is what I told the 1992/3 Bank Negara forex losses Special Task Force , set up by the Cabinet, when I was summoned to appear before it on Thursday, 4th May 2017.
I told the Special Task Force that the key lesson of the Bank Negara forex losses a quarter of a century ago is the failure of Ministers, top civil servants, MPs and the press to play their respective roles to uphold the principles and accountability and good governance.
This is the same expensive mistake that the Cabinet is committing. This is what I asked the Special Task Force when I appeared before it on May 4:
“The special task force has been described as ‘exhuming an elephant’s carcass from Dr. M’s era’.
“Why are we missing the ‘elephant’ in the room – the international 1MDB money-laundering scandal which has earned for Malaysia the ignominy and infamy of a global kleptocracy?
“Or are we to wait for a quarter of a century before we have a special task force to ‘exhume’ the ‘elephant carcass’ of the 1MDB kleptocratic scandal – some time in 2040?”
May be, this is what Najib meant by Transformasi Nasional (TN50)!
Instead of earning plaudits and credits for Malaysia, the Cabinet decision yesterday in only wanting to exhume an elephant’s carcass in a binge of vendetta against Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, while ignoring the living and breathing monstrous elephants in the room, like the international multi-billion dollar 1MDB kleptocratic money-laundering scandal and the FGV scandal, the Cabinet has gained further ignominy and infamy for Malaysia for its gross act of moral cowardice.
It is now left to ordinary Malaysians to redeem the nation’s honour and save the country.