Malaysians should not be surprised that the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Paul Low yesterday expressed sympathy with US President Donald Trump with regard to the proliferation of “fake news” on the social media in the US, giving another example to the saying “Birds of the same feather flock together”.

This is because the maker of the biggest fake news in Malaysia is none other than the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak, himself – in his pretence in the last two years that the international multi-billion dollar 1MDB scandal does not exist and a sheer figment of the imagination.

The former Cabinet Minister and current UMNO Information Chief, Tan Sri Annuar Musa, want Malaysians to believe that the Bank Negara’s forex loses a quarter of a century ago were real while 1MDB losses are only on paper.

I am still waiting for Annuar’s response whether 1MDB’s payment of some US$350 million to IPIC a day before the August 31 deadline was “just only on paper” and another one of the fake transactions by 1MDB.

UMNO/BN leaders, propagandists and cybertroopers are continuing their attack on me for my Open Letter to all Cabinet Ministers on August 28 to veto Najib’s scheduled visit to the White House and meeting with US President Trump.

They said that US President Trump’s invitation to Najib to the White House is a recognition of the highest order to the country.

They asked what I was afraid about Najib’s visit to the White House as there is no reason for Najib not to accept the invitation.

“All the more, the prime minister needs to go with the recognition accorded. This is a golden opportunity for Malaysia to attract more US investments to the country”, they claimed.

I do not agree.

When Najib visits the White House and meets Trump, he would have the dubious honour of being the first government leader in the world who have been branded as a “kleptocrat” by the US Government through the US Department of Justice (DOJ) under the US Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative to pay homage to the US President.

Should Malaysians regard this Najib-Trump meeting in the White House on Sept. 12 as an honour to Malaysia or an unmitigated national shame and disgrace to Malaysia?

If in the last two years, Najib had taken steps to clear or cleanse himself of the US DOJ charge that he is a “kleptocrat” as “MO1”, his forthcoming visit to the White House and meeting with US President Trump will not only be the greatest honour for him and the country, but a vindication and even a “triump over Trump” in the White House.

But Najib did absolutely nothing to rebut 1MDB allegations, which continue to hog international headlines in the past two years.

As it is, Najib cannot 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 referring to none other than Najib.

The corruption problem in Malaysia has come to a stage where even Perak Sultan Nazrin has declared it as one of the four “apocalypse” of the country sixty years after Merdeka.

Speaking at the launching of the book “Fulfilling A Legacy – Tun Razak Foundation” by Shahreen Kamaluddin in Kuala Lumpur on the eve of the 60th Merdeka anniversary, Sultan Nazrin said that if Tun were alive today, he would be disappointed by the scale and magnitude of the corruption problem in Malaysia today.

Najib seems to have sub-contracted the task of fighting corruption to the new Chief Commissioner of Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), Datuk Dzulkifi Ahmad, provided the MACC respects the “no trespass” boundaries in its anti-corruption campaign – the Prime Minister and the top government leaders and the subject of the 1MDB scandal which has resulted in Malaysia getting the international infamy and ignominy of a global kleptocracy.

Dzulkifli issued an unprecedented Merdeka Day message and urged Malaysians to reject graft and to appreciate the true meaning of independence and to free themselves from the culture of corruption that could destroy the nation.

Dzulkifli should asks Najib when the Prime Minister is going to come clean on the 1MDB scandal, and state when MACC is going to launch a campaign to prove that Malaysia is not a global kleptocracy?

[Speech at the DAP Johore election workshop in Batu Pahat on Sunday, 3rd September 2017 at 10 am]