How low the mighty have fallen in a matter of four months.
In his nine years as the sixth Prime Minister of Malaysia, Datuk Seri Najib Razak has achieved what the previous five Malaysian Prime Ministers as well as Prime Ministers in other countries had never done – loss of his credibility to near zero level!
In fact, Najib’s credibility has now reached such a low level that Utusan Malaysia, which had depended on Najib for keeping it alive for nine years, have blacked out the story of Najib’s production of documents to try to prove the truth of his claim about the former King of Saudi Arabia’s RM2.6 billion donation in Najib’s personal bank account.
The front-page stories of Utusan Malaysia today are “SERAH WANG 1MDB – Mahkamah Singapura arah pulangkan RM45 juta” and “Muktamar bakal cipta sejarah PAS-UMNO” while there is no news report about Najib’s documentary self-defence at all.
Even the Star, the newspaper of MCA, a loyal component of Barisan Nasional when Najib was the Prime Minister and whose top leadership whether in Cabinet, Parliament or government had aided and abetted Najib in the 1MDB corruption scandal bringing infamy to Malaysia as a global kleptocracy today blacked out Najib’s attempt at self-exoneration and self-exculpation.
Only the newspaper, New Straits Times, still loyally published Najib’s statement with a half-page report under the heading: “SAUDI RECORDS REVEALED”, although this is relegated to Page 5 instead of a being a front-page news (which would be the case before May 9, 2018). Instead, the front-page headlines in NST today are: “SINGAPORE TO RETURN RM46M”!
As veteran journalist, R. Nadeswaran rightly pointed out in his Opinion piece, “Najib and his ‘evidence;”;
“It’s better to be late than never. But sometimes, procrastination on issues and taking time to put matters right would convey the wrong message.
“After months of silence when one source after another insinuates on impropriety, the inability to rebut instantaneously can only be read that that subsequent and delayed responses become indefensible.”
Najib must explain why he allowed himself to be called a “pencuri, perompak, penyagak, penyamun” worldwide for the past three years, demeaning not only the office of Prime Minister of Malaysia, but the good name and reputation of Malaysia in the world.
The truth of Najib’s integrity, whether the documentary self-defence presented by Najib deserves belief and credibility, lies in his prepardness and alacrity to defend his reputation and character.
Najib should explain why he failed to sue the Wall Street Journal which published the report in July 2015 that the RM2.6 billion in his personal bank account belonged to 1MDB, which was followed by the major newspapers in the world.
It is not too late for Najib to sue Wall Street Journal as civil defamation suits have a six year statutory limitation. Will Najib now sue Wall Street Journal?
The United States Department of Justice (DoJ) largest kleptocratic litigation suit to forfeit US$1.7 billion out of US$4.5 billion 1MDD-linked assets money-laundered through the United States financial and banking system contained 10 “killer” paragraphs, i.e. Paragraphs 339 – 348 under the section “$681 MILLION WAS TRANSFERRED FROM THE TANORE ACCOUNT TO AN ACCOUNT BELONGING TO MALAYSIAN OFFICIAL 1” which directly linked Najib’s RM2.6 billion donation to 1MDB.
If this was untrue and defamatory, why Najib failed to take action to defend the country’s honour and integrity, if he does not think much of his own honour and integrity?
It is too late now for Najib to unveil documents of unknown authenticity to disprove that the 1MDB money-laundering was one of the world’s worst cases of kleptocracy, but for Malaysians to be cleansed of the infamy, ignominy and iniquity of being regarded worldwide as a global kleptocracy because of the 1MDB money-laundering scandal and a kleptocratic Prime Minister.
(Media Statement by DAP MP for Iskandar Puteri Lim Kit Siang in Gelang Patah on Tuesday, 11th September 2018)
