Archive for June, 2018
In view of his strategic role in 1MDB scandal, why was Najib not summoned or himself volunteer to testify at the PAC Inquiry in 2015/6 into 1MDB?
Posted by Kit in Financial Scandals, Najib Razak on Saturday, 30 June 2018
The fourth instalment of the exclusive interview of former Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak with Malaysiakini has raised even more questions than his three previous instalments.
Najib admitted that he should have been more open on the Auditor-General’s Report on 1MDB instead of placing it under the Official Secrets Act and on hindsight, he would have also implemented 1MDB in a different manner.
According to Najib, Pakatan Harapan had exploited the 1MDB issue against BN leading up to the national polls with a “negative” campaign involving character-smearing. Read the rest of this entry »
Public Accounts Committee committed one of its greatest national disservice in six decades in allowing its 1MDB Report to be distorted as exonerating Najib from any wrongdoing in the 1MDB scandal
Posted by Kit in Financial Scandals, UMNO on Saturday, 30 June 2018
One of the highlights of the “live” UMNO Presidential candidates’ debate last night was the admission by Khairy Jamaluddin that one of his regrets in life was to accept the explanation of the 1MDB scandal.
Although he felt there were holes in the explanation provided on 1MDB, Khairy said he accepted the explanations as the investigations that was conducted by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) did not implicate the prime minister at that time.
This is in fact the greatest disservice of the Public Accounts Committee in six decades where, instead of revealing cover-ups, it helped to cover up the greatest financial scandal in the land. Read the rest of this entry »
What supreme irony – Najib trumpets his achievements for UMNO while Syed Hamid bids farewell to UMNO as it has betrayed its founding principles
What a supreme irony -Datuk Seri Najib Razak trumpets his achievements for UMNO while another famous son of UMNO, Syed Hamid Albar, bids farewell to UMNO as it has betrayed its founding principles.
In an exclusive interview with Malaysiakini, Najib said that his successor must be someone who is able to regain the confidence of party members and Malaysians.
He stressed: “This is an opportunity for us to regain the trust, so the person must be someone who can do that so that Umno can emerge as a stronger party.” Read the rest of this entry »
UMNO should be encouraged to become an effective and constructive Opposition and there should no notion of deregistering UMNO or declaring it illegal
UMNO has clearly acted against the Societies Act 1966 requirements.
Under the UMNO constitution, Umno is required to hold supreme council elections once every three years, but it has the power to give an 18-month extension under special circumstances, like preparing for the 14th general election.
The last Umno triennial elections were held on Oct 20, 2013, which means that Umno supreme council elections should have been held by Oct 19, 2016, to comply with the three-year requirement, or by April 19, 2018, if an 18-month extension was decided upon by the UMNO supreme council. Read the rest of this entry »
Have UMNO leaders learnt the right lessons from UMNO’s electoral disaster in the 14th General Election?
Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah has joined his rival Datuk Seri Zahid Hamidi in “whistling in the dark”, expecting UMNO to be back in power before the 15th General Election by 2023.
Four days ago, Zahid said he expects an implosion of the Pakatan Harapan coalition and the fall of the Pakatan Harapan government in Putrajaya before the 15th General Election.
Both Zahid and Razaleigh are entitled to their fantasies although both should realise that the Pakatan Harapan coalition parties are committed to make the Pakatan Harapan government a success not only at the national level, but also in the states where the Pakatan Harapan is the government – not just for one term, but in the subsequent general elections as well. Read the rest of this entry »
Najib should conduct a “1MDB Tell-All” special session for UMNO delegates at the UMNO General Assembly this week
Posted by Kit in Financial Scandals, Najib Razak, UMNO on Thursday, 28 June 2018
During the 14th General Election campaign, the 1MDB Chief Executive Officer Arul Kanda Kandasamy toured the country on a national “Tanya Tanya” roadshow, covering over 30 locations, even challenging DAP leaders to ask him questions about what the government claimed was the fake news about the 1MDB international money-laundering scandal.
I said at the the time that nobody was interested in Arul’s fairy tales about the 1MDB scandal, unless the then Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak, stepped forward to account fully for the 1MDB “kleptocracy at its worst” which had landed Malaysia with the ignominy, infamy and iniquity as a global kleptocracy!
When he was Prime Minister, especially in the past three years since July 2015 when information about the RM2.6 billion 1MDB monies went into his personal banking accounts first became interntional news, Najib had avoided the subject of the 1MDB scandal like a plague, sub-contracting it to Arul, probably with the highest remuneration the Malaysian government had ever paid to a private person, all at the taxpayers’ expense!
But the 1MDB scandal was no fake news, which the Najib government had tried to make it into one with the Anti-Fake News Act passed hurriedly before the dissolution of Parliament. Read the rest of this entry »
KPMG’s declaration that no 1MDB accounts are “true and fair” since its formation in 2009 should be the last straw that breaks the camel’s back and make the 1MDB scandal the single biggest issue in the UMNO Assemblies this week
Posted by Kit in Financial Scandals on Wednesday, 27 June 2018
Never before in the history of UMNO Assemblies are there so many elephants in the room which every UMNO leader is strenuously trying to ignore in the UMNO Assemblies this week.
The biggest elephant is undoubtedly the international 1MDB money-laundering scandal, which brought infamy and ignominy to Malaysia as a global kleptocracy, but there are also other elephants in the shoal of mini-1MDB scandals like those affecting MARA, Felda and Tabung Haji.
The 1MDB elephant has continued to grow in size since UMNO/BN was evicted from Putrajaya in the 14th General Election on 9th May 2018, and the UMNO Assemblies this week will be doing UMNO and the nation the greatest disservice if the charade to ignore the 1MDB elephant is continued.
This charade cannot go on, especially after the shocking revelation by one of the Big Four auditors in Malaysia, KPMG, that the accounts of 1MDB cannot be relied on from the time of its inception in 2009 – as it should be the last straw that breaks the camel’s back and make the 1MDB scandal the single biggest issue in the UMNO Assemblies this week. Read the rest of this entry »
UMNO Assemblies this week present an unbelievably fertile ground for the writing of Greek tragedies and even comedies
Posted by Kit in Financial Scandals, UMNO on Wednesday, 27 June 2018
The UMNO Assemblies this week beginning tomorrow present an unbelievably fertile ground for the writing of Greek tragedies and even comedies!
Yesterday, the incumbent contender for the post of UMNO President, Datuk Seri Zahid Hamidi forecast that Pakatan Harapan will implode before the 15th General Election by 2023 and that UMNO will return to Putrajaya soon without the hassle of having to go through a general election.
This is a revised timeline as earlier UMNO leaders were comforting themselves about the disintegration of the Pakatan Harapan government in one or two years’ time. Read the rest of this entry »
Lawyer Siti Kasim’s wrongful arrest and police abuse of powers have catapulted the issue of IPCMC to the forefront of agenda for institutional reforms in a New Malaysia
Lawyer Siti Kasim’s wrongful arrest and the police abuse of powers have catapulted the issue of Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC) to the forefront of the agenda for institutional reforms in New Malaysia.
Malaysians are not interested in any police-bashing as the police play a vital and essential role in any ordered and civilized society. Read the rest of this entry »
MALAYSIA’S MORNING BREAKS
By Pauline Fan | May 23, 2018
If politics is ‘the art of the possible’, Malaysia’s 14th General Election has reignited a call for a politics of hope, what Václav Havel – dissident playwright turned President of the Czech Republic – beautifully termed ‘the art of the impossible’.
In the two weeks since GE14, the impossible has become reality. Malaysians have witnessed changes we never imagined we would see in our lifetime – the fall of the ‘invincible’ Barisan Nasional, Mahathir Mohamad’s return as prime minister, the release and royal pardon of Anwar Ibrahim, former political prisoners sworn in as top cabinet ministers.
Like the Velvet Revolution of Czechoslovakia, Malaysia’s historic yet peaceful transition of power unseated a regime that ruled for decades and saw a people’s movement swept into government. Yet our ‘revolution’ was won quietly through the ballot box as much as through people power campaign rallies throughout the country. What impelled most Malaysians to bring down the old regime was the need to restore the rule of law and reform systems of governance plagued by corruption. In essence: a yearning to return to a Malaysia that could have been. Read the rest of this entry »
Will the UMNO Assemblies this week make serious amends on three major issues confronting the nation?
There are at least three things to look for in the upcoming UMNO Assemblies to be held this week beginning from Wednesday.
1. 1MDB and global kleptocracy
First is whether UMNO will embrace, ignore or repudiate the Najib legacy in particular with regard to the 1MDB international money-laundering scandal and the infamy, ignominy and iniquity of a global kleptocracy.
When Tunku Abdul Rahman took over the UMNO leadership from Onn Jaafar in 1951, he had to sell his house in Penang to fund the running of UMNO. Contrast this with the Prime Minister-cum- UMNO President rejected by the electorate in the 14GE – the nearly 300 boxes of designer handbags and dozens of bags filled with cash and jewellery among the items taken away by police in raids at properties linked to the former Prime Minister’s family, which contained RM114 million in cash in 26 currencies and Birkin handbags each worth up to hundreds of thousands of dollars! Read the rest of this entry »
After 67 years, the great difference between the first-generation and present-generation UMNO leaders
UMNO veteran and political secretary to the first Penang Chief Minister, Tan Sri Yusoff Latiff is fond of reminiscing that when the late Tunku Abdul Rahman took over the UMNO leadership from Onn Jaafar in 1951, the party had no money, and Tunku sold his house in Penang to fund the running of UMNO.
Sixty-seven years later, we do not have an UMNO President who had to sell his house to fund the running of UMNO, but instead, there was the international spectacle of nearly 300 boxes of designer handbags and dozens of bags filled with cash and jewellery among the items taken away by police in raids at properties linked to the former Prime Minister’s family – which contained RM114 million in cash in 26 currencies and Birkin handbags each worth up to hundreds of thousands of dollars! Read the rest of this entry »
Three camps on 1MDB scandal and Malaysia as global kleptocracy in the UMNO elections
Posted by Kit in Financial Scandals, Najib Razak, UMNO on Friday, 22 June 2018
Former Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak is so predictable but he is getting to be slow-witted and slow-paced.
I told my staff yesterday that Najib was sure to come out with a clarification of his Reuters interview on Wednesday and sure he did – but very much later than I had expected. He seems to have become slow-witted and slow-paced, as I had expected his clarification by mid-day yesterday and not till the evening at 6 to 7 pm.
And what a clarification – one of its kind, for it is a clarification which does not clarify but further obfuscates!
Najib denies blaming the 1MDB board for the financial scandal that plagued the state development fund.
His spokesman said Najib was not shifting the blame to the board as reported in the Reuters interview, and “clarified” that what he said was any board had a fiduciary duty to act in best interests, and that the 1MDB board had a duty and responsibility to advise him on the running of the investment fund.
His faceless and nameless spokesman said: “He did not at any time during the interview said that the 1MDB board was to be blame for what had happened.”
Najib should stop going round in circles and get to the point. Read the rest of this entry »
Let the opening of the 14th Parliament in July make history for democracy by amending the Constitution to lower the voting age to 18
In my first year in Parliament 47 years ago in 1971, (Parliament was suspended for 18 months after the 1969 General Elections because of the May 13 riots and the declaration of emergency), I made three proposals for electoral reforms, viz:
– Lowering the voting age to 18 years;
– Automatic registration of eligible voters; and
– Compulsory voting.
I therefore welcome almost half a century later the proposal by the Prime Minister, Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad that the Pakatan Harapan government lower the voting age from 21 to 18.
In fact, since my suggestion for the lowering of the voting age from 21 to 18 in 1971, the majority of the countries in the world have adopted this electoral reform but Malaysia seemed to be frozen in time as far as democratic and electoral reforms are concerned. Read the rest of this entry »
Najib has not only failed to clear his name, he has impaled himself on the 1MDB scandal
Posted by Kit in Financial Scandals, Najib Razak on Thursday, 21 June 2018
Former Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak has not only failed to clear his name but has instead impaled himself on the 1MDB scandal with his Reuters interview.
He said he should’nt be blamed for the 1MDB scandal and declared that he knows nothing about money from 1MDB appearing in his personal account.
He claimed that his advisers and the management and board of 1MDB had wrongly kept the alleged embezzlement of funds a secret from him.
If so, he is the most incompetent head of government in the world! Read the rest of this entry »
The day when a 12-year-old primary school kid showed an ex-Prime Minister the true meaning of patriotism
Posted by Kit in Financial Scandals, nation building, Youth on Thursday, 21 June 2018
At 9 a.m yesterday, I officiated the opening of the constituency centre of the new DAP MP for Segambut Hannah Yeoh at Taman Tun Dr. Ismail in Kuala Lumpur yesterday and received the DAP membership application from 24-year-old activist Heidy Quah, who received the prestigious Young Leaders Award from Queen Elizabeth II in London last year.
Heidy had been involved in advocacy work from a young age, having set up an NGO at age 18 to help refugees from Myanmar, forming the NGO Refuge for The Refugees (RFTR), which she founded with her friend Andrea Prisha.
There was a third item. Standard Six pupil Ervin Devadasan was at the centre with his father Ernest to donate the money he had been saving for months in his piggy bank to purchase a drum set to Tabung Harapan Malaysia.
I was very touched and moved – a 12-year-old primary school kid demonstrating by deed his deep love for the country!
Later that evening, I received a call from a reporter for my reaction to a very unfriendly attack on the boy’s donation, describing Tabung Harapan as a “politically-charged fund” and deploring Ervin’s donation as “ridiculous”, “exploitative”, “a gimmick” and “a pretty cheap stunt”. Read the rest of this entry »
Malaysians must dare to “reach for the sky” to achieve big dreams to fulfill Tunku Abdul Rahman’s Malaysia Dream for Malaysia to be a “beacon of light in a difficult and distractred world”
Posted by Kit in nation building, Youth on Wednesday, 20 June 2018
It is a special occasion to be here to receive the DAP membership application of award-winning activist Heidy Quah, 24 who received the prestigious Young Leaders Award from Queen Elizabeth II last year.
Heidy had been involved in advocacy work from a young age, having set up an NGO at age 18 to help the refugees from Myanmar, forming the NGO Refuge for The Refugees (RFTR), which she founded with her friend Andrea Prisha.
Twenty-four was also the age when I dedicated myself to Malaysian politics to create a better Malaysia for all Malaysians, which have occupied me for 53 years culminating in the historic and watershed 14th General Election of May 9, 2018.’
Despite all the forecasts that the corrupt and decadent UMNO/BN regime would win the 14GE, Malaysian voters regardless of race, religion or region, showed that they were more intelligent and mature than the government or mainstream analysts and pollsters and created a political earthquake which sent tremors worldwide by effecting a peaceful and democratic transition of power at the federal level.
On 9th May, Malaysians fulfilled Bapa Malaysia, Tunku Abdul Rahman’s Malaysian Dream to became a “beacon of light in a difficult and distracted world”, renewing the hopes not only of Malaysians but of the world, for worldwide we are seeing a decline of democracy and the rise of authoritarian and undemocratic regimes. Read the rest of this entry »
The press must play creative and important role in building of New Malaysia to be a “beacon of light to a difficult and disturbed world”
Re-visiting Tamil Malar with the DAP National Vice Chairman and the Minister for Human Resources, M. Kulasegaran, DAP Deputy Secretary-General and MP for Batu Gajah V. Sivakumar and the Pahang DAP State Assemblywoman for Sabai, Kamache Doray Rajoo is like a home-coming for me.
Last September, I visited Tamil Malar to show support and solidarity to the Tamil Malar Chairman Oms Thiagarajam and legal advisor K. Sarawathy, two of the three victims of gangsterism, thuggism and assault instigated by powerful “political” personalities who were against Tamil Malar practising independent and professional journalism.
The Tamil Malar executive editor S. M. Periasamy explained to us the assault and the thuggish incident against Tamil Malar.
I also saw the 10-minute long video CCTV footage showing the brawl and assault against Sarawathy, Oms P Thiagarajam and another Tamil Malar staff at Tamil Malar, which tallied with the Sarawathy’s account of the assault.
Since then, Tamil Malar had been at the receving end of powerful “political” personalities as Tamil Malar refused to be cowed from continuing its independent and professional journalism.
In fact, Tamil Malar journalists were warned that immediately after the 14th General Election, the newspaper licence of Tamil Malar would be withdrawn on May 10, 2018.
Despite these threats, Tamil Malar journalists soldiered on unfazed and they should be an example to all Malaysian journalists who were often threatened or browbeaten to sacrifice their journalistic ethics and principles by powerful “politicians” in pre-14GE. Read the rest of this entry »
Has UMNO become an illegal political party?
How low and quick the mighty have fallen.
It was only six months ago that the 71st UMNO General Assembly was held in jubilation and hubris that UMNO was the only political party in the world that continued to rule and had never been defeated in elections since 1955, and was set to retain power not only in the imminent 14th General Election, but virtually to be the perpetual government of Malaysia!
But the nursery rhyme which my generation learnt in primary school in the fifties came to pass, viz:
Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All the king’s horses and all the king’s men
Couldn’t put Humpty together again.
The fall had been so decisive and categorical that no UMNO leader dare to contradict or countermand the pronouncements of a headless, faceless and soulless creature, the self-proclaimed UMNO strategic media unit.
Are current UMNO leaders so ashamed of UMNO that they have to depend on a faceless, headless and soulless UMNO Strategic Media Unit to speak for them?
The faceless, headless and soulless UMNO Strategic Media Unit said in a statement yesterday that neither former Prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak nor the former director of the Barisan Nasional Strategic Media Unit controlled it. Read the rest of this entry »
All MPs regardless of political party should show their commitment when Parliament meets from July 16 to transform Malaysia from a global kleptocracy into a leading nation of integrity in the world
Posted by Kit in Financial Scandals, Parliament, UMNO on Tuesday, 19 June 2018
Malaysia is now in the “eye” of the world to demonstrate how a global kleptocracy can be transformed into a leading nation of integrity.
In the past few years, the opinion leaders and makers of the world must have shaken their heads in sorrow as to how Malaysia – a nation with so much promise, and in the words of Bapa Malaysia Tunku Abdul Rahman, should become “a beacon of light in a distracted and disturbed world” – had failed the Malaysian Dream and taken the wrong turn in nation-building to become a global kleptocracy, where Malaysians in the Malaysian Diaspora worldwide are ashamed to acknowledge that they are Malaysians and the then Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak was spoken in the same league as notorious kleptocrats in the world – like Suharto of Indonesia and Marcos of Philippines.
It is to the eternal shame of Malaysia that a Wikipaedia search will find Najib Razak named as the latest new entry of a “kleptocrat”!
Is this why Merdeka was achieved in 1957 and Malaysia was formed in 1963?
In the historic watershed 14th General Election on 9th May, 2018 where Malaysian surprised the world with the first peaceful and democratic transition at a time when democracy throughout the world is suffering a decline, Malaysians have two world historic roles to perform.
Firstly, give confidence to the struggling peoples of the world not to give up hope in the battle for democracy; secondly, to show the world how a global kleptocracy can transform itself into a leading nation in integrity in the world.
Members of Parliament elected on 9th May 2018 have received notification from Parliament that the first meeting of Parliament will be for 20 sittings from 16th July to August 16; that the 30-day 2019 Budget meeting of Parliament will be from Oct.15 to Dec. 11, 2018 with the Finance Minister, Lim Guan Eng, presenting the 2019 Budget in Parliament on Friday, 2nd November 2018.
Before the budget debate, nine days have been set aside for debate on the Mid-Term Review of the 11th Malaysia Plan.
All MPs regardless of political party should show their commitment when Parliament meets from July 16 to transform Malaysia from a global kleptocracy into a leading nation of integrity in the world.
Will all the MPs from UMNO/BN and PAS support a motion so that all the 222 MPs in Parliament can act in unity and unanimity giving support to the Pakatan Harapan Government’s agenda to transform Malaysia from a global kleptocracy into a leading nation of integrity in the world?
Will all those contesting for posts in the UMNO General Assembly this month, whether for President, Deputy President, Vice President; Youth, Wanita or Puteri leader; or for UMNO Supreme Council or executive council positions in the various UMNO wings, make a public commitment to support Pakatan Harapan Government’s national programme to transform Malaysia from a global kleptocracy into a leading nation of integrity in the world?
(Media Statement in Penang on Tuesday, 19th June 2018)
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