This forum stemmed from the failure of the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib
Razak, Cabinet Ministers and Barisan Nasional leaders in the past week to respond to my challenge to substantiate Najib’s claim – that the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) Report on 1MDB had cleared Najib of any wrongdoing in the 1MDB scandal.

I am not surprised that the Prime Minister, all Cabinet Ministers and Barisan Nasional leaders have kept their mouth shut, for it is just untrue that the PAC had cleared Najib of any wrongdoing in the 1MDB scandal, which Tony Pua, DAP MP for PJ Utara and a member of PAC, will explain in detail to this forum.

Najib’s claim that he had been cleared of any wrongdoing in the PAC report over 1MBD is false and baseless and is the most recent and worst example of the “fake news” concocted and peddled by the Prime Minister and his Cabinet Ministers in the country.

Tomorrow, the Dewan Rakyat will continue its debate on the Anti-Fake News Biill 2018 and pass it as the first step of the bill becoming law.

Will the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Azalina Othman, who is responsible for the Bill in Parliament, dare to answer the question whether Najib will be the first to be charged under the Anti-Fake News Act 2018 for the fake news that he has been cleared by the PAC of any wrongdoing in the 1MDB scandal when the Bill becomes law?

Azalina will not dare to answer this question – and her omission will be the best proof that the Anti-Fake News legislation is not to fight fake news especially those coming from Barisan Nasional quarters, but the latest form of censorship to stop continuing expose of corruption and abuses of power in the country, like the 1MDB scandal.

Last week, a Swiss magazine, Republik, carried a long and detained article – which is available online – on corruption in Sabah in the past 15 years entitled: “UBS in the jungle”, after examining more than one thousand pages of bank statements and court documents, and carrying out extensive interviews with more than a half-dozen people involved in Europe and Asia.

But the story of the corruption and money-laundering scandal about logging in Sabah in the past 15 years, including reports on anti-corruption investigations and arrests, were virtually buried by another larger scandal – the 1MDB – involving greater personalities!

The long expose of corruption in Sabah by the Swiss magazine last week is further proof of the depth Malaysia has fallen in international esteem and respect after being regarded worldwide as a global kleptocracy

In the information era where information travels at the speed of light, it is foolhardy to censor reports about the 1MDB scandal, which the Anti-Fake News Bill seeks to do – as it is like Canute trying to stop the tide rising.

(Speech at the DAP forum “Has PAC cleared Najib of wrongdoing over 1MDB?” at Tropical Inn, Johor Baru on Sunday, 1st April 2018 at 8 pm)