There is no stronger proof that Datuk Seri Hadi Awang’s PAS is not the PAS in Pakatan Rakyat when it was bound and guided by the Pakatan Rakyat Common Policy Framework for a united, harmonious, inclusive, successful, progressive and prosperous Malaysia with zero tolerance for corruption than the news yesterday that “Jasa chief uses Hadi’s argument to slam Tuan Ibrahim” – an UMNO propaganda operative using the PAS President to attack the PAS Deputy President!
When was there such similar incident in the 66-year history of the party?
As far as I know, such a thing had never happened before in the history of PAS.
Will the PAS President come to the defence of his deputy from such UMNO attacks? Quite unthinkable!
The Director of Special Affairs Department (JASA) and UMNO Supreme Council member, Datuk Puad Zarkashi slammed Tuan Ibrahim for claiming that Malaysia’s refusal to pursue the 1MDB case prompted foreign countries to investigate the financial scandal that has spanned the globe.
Puad said: “What paved the way for foreign powers were certain individuals lodging reports (against 1MDB abroad), with the intention of courting foreign intervention in the political conflict of our country.
“This argument is supported by PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang himself.”
Puad also rubbished the call by Tuan Ibrahim and several other opposition leaders for the government to set up a Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) into the 1MDB scandal.
It is indeed sad and a great political tragedy that UMNO and PAS have come together not to defend national sovereignty or promote the values and principles which are taught by Islam and the great religions which have made Malaysia their home, but to defend a political system which has brought unprecedented infamy and ignominy to Malaysians for being regarded world-wide as a global kleptocracy.
As far as I know, Hadi had never expressed any concern at Malaysia being regarded worldwide as a global kleptocracy as a result of Najib’s 1MDB scandal.
Why is this so?
But Tuan Ibrahim was not fully right when he claimed that Malaysia’s refusal to pursue the 1MDB case prompted foreign countries to investigate the financial scandal that has spanned the globe while Puad was completely wrong when he claimed that “what paved the way for foreign powers were certain individuals lodging reports (against 1MDB abroad), with the intention of courting foreign intervention in the political conflict of our country”.
I am reminded of the September/October 2015 episode when the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak suddenly cancelled his travel plans to the United States to attend the United Nation General Assembly, and sent his new Deputy Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Zahid Hamidi, instead to Washington.
Zahid had replaced Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin for less than three months after Muhyddin had been less than obedient, supine and dumb over the 1MDB scandal.
Zahid visited Washington for a four-day visit in October and met with the then US Secretary of State John Kerry and the senior officers of Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) and he told Malaysian journalists in Washington:
“Nothing on 1MDB was raised by the FBI or John Kerry or any party that I met when I was in Washington.
“(1MDB) is not a big issue to them at all.
“”Maybe the issue is big as it is shouted about in the country (Malaysia) because in our country it is used as a political issue.”
I had at the time asked Zahid why he was afraid to ask FBI whether Najib was being investigated by the US Department of Justice (DOJ) under the Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative (KARI) 2010 and whether this was for fear of an affirmative answer?
By the time of Zahid’s visit to Washington, it was already public knowledge that FBI was investigating into the international multi-billion dollar 1MDB money-laundering scandal, as New York Times had reported on Sept. 21, 2015 followed by other international media that a US federal grand jury was examining allegations of corruption involving Najib and people close to him under the Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative 2010.
Why didn’t Zahid ask point-blank whether the New York Times report on Sept. 21, 2015 that Najib was being investigated by the US DOJ under KARI was true or not when he met Kerry and the then Deputy Director of FBI, Mark F. Giuliano?
I searched the archives and was able to find the New York Times report of Sept. 21, 2015 entitled “Malaysia’s Leader, Najib Razak, Faces U.S. Corruption Inquiry”, which reported as follows:
“The embattled prime minister of Malaysia, facing mounting political turmoil and a parade of inquiries at home and abroad into a sovereign wealth fund that he oversees, is now coming under the scrutiny of American investigators as well.
“A federal grand jury is examining allegations of corruption involving the prime minister, Najib Razak, and people close to him, according to two people with knowledge of the investigation.
“The inquiry, being run by a unit of the Justice Department that investigates international corruption, is focused on properties in the United States that were purchased in recent years by shell companies that belong to the prime minister’s stepson as well as other real estate connected to a close family friend, said the people knowledgeable about the case, who asked for anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss it. Investigators are also looking at a $681 million payment made to what is believed to be Mr. Najib’s personal bank account.”
The New York Times report of Sept. 21, 2015 continued:
“The Justice Department investigation is still in its early days, and it could take years to determine if any federal laws were broken. It was opened partly in response to an examination by The New York Times of condominiums at the Time Warner Center in Manhattan whose ownership is hidden behind shell companies, according to the people with knowledge of the case.
“In one article, The Times documented more than $150 million in luxury residential properties connected either to Mr. Najib’s stepson, Riza Aziz, or to the family friend, a businessman named Jho Low. Mr. Low, The Times found, has also been involved in business deals with Malaysia’s sovereign wealth fund, which is a government investment fund.
“That fund, called 1MDB, has run into serious financial problems in part because of aggressive borrowing. Investigators in several countries are examining allegations that money from the fund is missing. This month, Swiss authorities said they had frozen several individuals’ bank accounts, and inquiries are underway in Hong Kong and Singapore as well as in Malaysia.”
The New York Times report also said:
“The details of the corruption allegations involving Mr. Najib and people connected to him are complex and multifaceted. Authorities in each country are focusing on the aspects that fall in their jurisdictions.
“In the United States, officials are examining the real estate tied to Mr. Najib’s stepson and to Mr. Low, which could be seized if a case could be made that the properties had been purchased with the proceeds earned in corrupt practices, according to the people familiar with the investigation. The $681 million payment being investigated falls under United States jurisdiction because it was routed through Wells Fargo, an American bank.
“The inquiry is being run by the Justice Department’s Kleptocracy Initiative, which has seized properties in the United States owned by relatives of politicians from Equatorial Guinea, Nigeria, South Korea and Taiwan.”
Was Puad correct when he parroted Hadi and alleged that US DOJ action was caused by “certain individuals lodging reports (against 1MDB abroad), with the intention of courting foreign intervention in the political conflict of our country”?
Among the first comprehensive media reports on the 1MDB scandal were the New York Times’ “Jho Low, Well Connected in Malaysia, Has an Appetite for New York” on Feb. 8, 2015 and the “Heist of the Century” expose by the joint London Sunday Times-Sarawak Report investigations into the 1MDB scandal in on Feb. 28, 2015 – well before any “certain individuals” lodged reports against 1MDB abroad.
I am very intrigued by Hadi’s concept of “foreign intervention” which caused him to issue an Open Letter to all Political Parties on the eve of Hari Raya Aidilfriti demonstrating his transformation to be a greater champion and apologist for Najib and his 1MDB scandal than anyone else in UMNO.
If the United States government or any of its agencies had donated and deposited US$681 million into the private banking accounts of any Pakatan Harapan leader, Hadi would undoubtedly railed against it as proof of unacceptable foreign intervention undermining national sovereignty.
If so, why is Hadi so mute when Najib claims that the US$681 million in his personal banking accounts were donation from Saudi royalty for the 13th General Election?
Why should it be wrong and grave foreign intervention to undermine Malaysia’s national sovereignty when the donation was from US sources but acceptable and enhancement of national sovereignty when it is from Saudi sources?
But what is worse is that these were “681 American pies” and not “681 Saudi pies”, as clearly demonstraied in the detailed trail of money disclosed by the US DOJ kleptocratic suits to forfeit US$1.7 billion 1MDB-linked assets arising from US$4.5 billion 1MDB money-laundering through American banks and financial institutions.
DAP does not support any foreign intervention into Malaysia’s domestic affairs but we cannot also justify Malaysia becoming a global kleptocracy.
DAP is fortified in this stand because there can be no religion which supports corruption or a kleptocracy and Hadi is misleading PAS members and the Malaysian public into believing that Islam supports Malaysia becoming a “global kleptocracy”!