UMNO/BN strategists and propagandists think that the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s forthcoming visit to the White House and meeting with President Trump on Sept. 12 is a great “coup” for Najib before the 14th General Election.

I do not agree.

Najib’s scheduled visit to the White House and meeting with US President Trump has already given rise to questions such as “MO1 vs US01”, “Will Najib triumph over Trump” and “Will Trump trumph Najib?’

I think it is a great national shame for Najib to go to the White House to meet President Trump when he has not cleared himself of the American Government “indictment “ as a kleptocrat and “MO1” in the US Department of Justice (DOJ)’s largest kleptocratic forfeiture suit of over US$1.7 billion of 1MDB-linked assets

Najib’s visit to the White House and meeting with Trump will deepen and aggravate Malaysia’s international infamy and ignominy by showing that the Malaysian government and leadership have ceased to know the meaning of “shame”, as honest and rational Malaysians – or anyone in the world – will regard it as a great national shame and dishonour for Najib to go to the White House to meet President Trump when Najib has not cleared himself of the US Government’s civil suit “indictment” of a kleptocrat and “MO1” in the US DOJ’s largest kleptocratic forfeiture suit of US$1.7 billion of 1MDB-linked assets.

Najib should only visit the White House with honour, pride and rectitude as Prime Minister of Malaysia when he had cleared or cleansed himself of the infamy and ignominy of a “kleptocrat” and “MO1”.

I shudder to think of the shame and dishonour of a Malaysian Prime Minister visiting the White House with the “indictment” of a kleptocrat and “MO1” hanging over his head, which placed Najib in the inferior and dishonourable position as a supplicant.

Is President Trump going to apologise to Najib for the US DOJ kleptocratic suit to forfeit US$1.7 billion 1MDB-linked assets and the civil suit “indictment” of him as a kleptocrat and “MO1”, or even going to the extent of informing Najib that the US DOJ was wrong and would be withdrawing the kleptocratic suit and all criminal investigations into the international multi-billion dollar 1MDB money-laundering scandal?

Malaysia’s honour and reputation are at stake.

Najib should not go to the White House to meet with President Trump unless Najib has cleared or cleansed himself of the American indictment as a kleptocrat and “MO1” – but sadly and to Malaysia’s great and eternal shame, Najib has taken no action whatsoever in the past two years since the filing of the US DOJ suits in July 2015 to clear or cleanse himself of the US DOJ “indictment’ in its kleptocratic forfeiture suit against 1MDB-linked assets.

The Cabinet meeting on National Day Eve on Wednesday, August 30, 2017 should step forward to safeguard national honour and dignity by resolving that Najib should not visit White House to meet President Trump on Sept. 12 as the US Government had “indicted” the Malaysian Prime Minister as kleptocrat and “MO1” and that Najib must first clear or cleanse himself of the American Government “indictment” as a kleptocrat and “MO1”.

The least Najib should do before leaving for the United States next month would be to announce the establishment of a Royal Commission of Inquiry into the 1MDB scandal to demonstrate to Malaysians, the United States and the world that he is not a kleptocrat and that the US DOJ’s indictment of him as “MO1” has completely no basis whatsoever.

Only then can Najib can meet Trump in the White House as a equal and not in an inferior and humiliating role akin to a supplicant.

There are many other reasons why it would be most demeaning and humiliating to Malaysian national honour and reputation for Najib to visit the White House and meet with President Trump.

Firstly, Najib cannot know deny that he is “MO1” as his Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department in charge of Economic Planning Unit, Datuk Seri Abdul Rahman Dahlan, had told the world in a BBC interview last September that only an idiot would not know that the US DOJ reference of “MO1” was none other than Najib.

Secondly, Malaysian Ministers and Najib’s top officials have accused the US Government of flagrant interference in Malaysian domestic affairs, even involvement in a plot to topple Najib as Prime Minister, with the US DOJ kleptocratic suits.

Najib even succeeded in roping in the PAS President, Datuk Seri Hadi Awang to make public pronouncements that the US DoJ kleptocratic suits were unacceptable violation of Malaysia’s sovereignty and foreign intervention with the country’s domestic affairs.

If this is the case, and the Malaysian government is convinced that the US Government is guilty of unacceptable meddling in Malaysia’s domestic affairs and violation of Malaysia’s sovereignty, how can the Prime Minister be going to the White House to meet US President Trump without full acknowledgement and contrite apology by the US Government for such unacceptable interference with Malaysia’s domestic affairs and violation of Malaysia’s sovereignty?

Thirdly, Najib’s senior staff seem to be full of nincompoops like the latest statement by a senior UMNO leader and a former Cabinet Minister, Tan Sri Annuar Musa who claimed
that Bank Negara’s foreign exchange (forex) losses a quarter of a century ago and over which a Royal Commission of Inquiry had been set up, are real but the 1MDB losses are only on paper.

I am shocked beyond words by such a claim.

Is Annuar suggesting that the infamous US$27.3 million (RM117 million) 22-carat rare pink diamond gifted to “wife of MO1”; the billions of ringgit worth of jewelleries, art pieces and luxury properties like hotels in Beverly Hills and London misappropriated by Jho Low from 1MDB including those gifted to Leonardo Di Caprio and Miranda Kerr, and Jho Low’s US$250 million (approximately RM1.069 billion) world’s 54th largest mega yacht in existence and US$35.4 million for a Bombardier Global 5000 jet, are just “phantoms on paper” and not real at all?

American actor Leonardo DiCaprio and Australian supermodel Miranda Kerr have handed over their multi-million US dollar gifts from Jho Low which were misappropriated from 1MDB funds to the US Department of Justice (DOJ).

Are these valuable properties just exist on paper and not real at all?

In the kleptocratic forfeiture cases, the US DOJ alleged that between 2009 and 2015, more than US$4.5 billion belonging to 1MDB was diverted by high-level officials of the state investor and their associates.

Are these all just paper losses?

Furthermore, we have an Attorney-General Tan Sri Mohd Apandi Ali who must be the butt of jokes of the Attorney-Generals in the world.

The 251-page US DOJ civil forfeiture case for US$1.7 billion of 1MDB-linked assets, from Paragraphs 339 to 348, traced the money trail of the RM2.6 billion in Najib’s personal accounts establishing they were stolen 1MDB funds, but we have an Attorney-General declaring in January 2016 (six months before the US DOJ suits) that the US$681 million were a “personal donation to MO1 from the Saudi royal family which was given to him without any consideration”, and the Attorney-General, the Police and the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission have refused to re-open investigations with such irrefutable new evidence!

Will the Cabinet next Wednesday step in to save Malaysia’s honour and dignity and resolve that under such circumstances Najib should not visit the White House and meet US President Trump on Sept. 12?

(Speech at the Pakatan Harapan ceramah “Sayangi Malaysia, Hapus Kleptocracy” at Pasar Cabang Tiga, Kuala Terengganu on Saturday, 26th August 2017 at 11 pm)