Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s unprecedented pre-recorded message in anticipation of his arrest and charges for corruption and money-laundering was meant to be a Public Relations (PR) masterstroke. But it turned out to be a PR dud.

The pre-recorded message was meant to touch the hearts of millions of Malaysians to feel sorry for Najib, which it dismally failed to do, as all its invoked was the overpowering sense of catharsis among Malaysians that a sorry chapter in the history of the nation was finally coming to an end.

Najib’s apology was no apology, for he never apologised for the international 1MDB money-laundering scandal or for turning Malaysia into a global kleptocracy under his stewardship.

Najib is still not prepared to come clean on his worst legacies for the country – the 1MDB scandal and the tarring and staining of Malaysia’s reputation in becoming a global kleptocracy.

Najib had many chances to clear himself but he flunked them – whether in the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) investigations into the 1MDB scandal or in the US Department of Justice (DoJ)’s largest kleptocratic litigation for forfeiture of over US$1 billion 1MDB-linked assets.

With the mountain of information and evidence in the public domain revealed by the US DoJ litigation, Najib should have set up a Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) into the 1MDB scandal to prove his innocence – but he failed to do so, simply because this was an impossible task.

Instead, the 13th Parliament aided and abetted in his kleptocracy with the Speaker, Tan Sri Pandikar Amin Mulia banning any question or discussion of 1MDB scandal in Parliament!

Now the chickens have come home to roost.

(Media Statement in Gelang Patah Lim Kit Siang on Wednesday, 4th July 2018)