Archive for category Corruption
Malaysia’s international standing and reputation have suffered such a slump that we are the butt of jokes of Africans in international conferences for corruption and kleptocracy
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Election, Pakatan Harapan on Friday, 17 November 2017
The forthcoming 14th General Election which would be held in the next few months is a golden opportunity for patriotic Malaysia to cleanse our international image and standing and to regain the respect and admiration of the world for our democracy, economic prowess, integrity and good governance.
A few days ago, I experienced a very humiliating experience when I saw a video of an African leader at an international conference making a joke about corruption in Malaysia.
This is a sign of the slump of Malaysia’s international standing and reputation that instead of Malaysians making Africa the butt of jokes about corruption, Malaysia has become the butt of jokes of Africans in international conferences about corruption and kleptocracy. Read the rest of this entry »
Report: Bank’s board briefed on deposits into Najib’s account
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Financial Scandals, Najib Razak on Thursday, 16 November 2017
Free Malaysia Today
November 13, 2017
PETALING JAYA: Members of AmBank’s board were in the know about large quantities of money deposited into the accounts of Prime Minister Najib Razak in 2013, according to Australian broadcasting agency SBS.
It said the full 12-man board had been briefed about the matter on multiple occasions between September and November 2014, but was not aware then of the source of the funds.
Following the briefing, then-CEO Ashok Ramamurthy, who had been seconded by the Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ) to head AmBank, was directed to report the transactions to Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM), it added. Read the rest of this entry »
The Saudi Purge Isn’t Just a Power Grab
Posted by Kit in Corruption, International, Islam on Thursday, 9 November 2017
By Peter Waldman and Glen Carey
Bloomberg
November 9, 2017
It’s a go-for-broke upheaval. The question now, for hopeful investors, is whether the crown prince follows his corruption crackdown by opening up an economy dominated by plutocrats and royal cronies.
It makes sense to be cynical about Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s ostensible crackdown on corruption in Saudi Arabia.
Among the 11 princes, 4 ministers, and dozens of well-known businessmen arrested were some of the 32-year-old’s last potential rivals to the Saudi throne.
The move also smacks of an asset snatch. Police nabbed 3 of the Arab world’s 10 richest men, including investor Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, the billionaire best known for rescuing Citicorp in 1991 and making big bets on Apple Inc. and 21st Century Fox Inc.
But was it only a Machiavellian power play? Or is this the start of a dramatic, go-for-broke attempt to transform a country that’s resisted change for decades? Read the rest of this entry »
Attention: Saudi Prince in a Hurry
Posted by Kit in Corruption, International on Wednesday, 8 November 2017
Thomas L. Friedman
New York Times
NOV. 7, 2017
To understand the upheaval that is taking place in Saudi Arabia today, you have to start with the most important political fact about that country: The dominant shaping political force there for the past four decades has not been Islamism, fundamentalism, liberalism, capitalism or ISISism.
It has been Alzheimer’s.
The country’s current king is 81 years old. He replaced a king who died at 90, who replaced a king who died at 84. It’s not that none of them introduced reforms. It’s that at a time when the world has been experiencing so much high-speed change in technology, education and globalization, these successive Saudi monarchs thought that reforming their country at 10 miles an hour was fast enough — and high oil prices covered for that slow pace. Read the rest of this entry »
Saudi mass arrests jolt markets but many see overdue swoop on corruption
Posted by Kit in Corruption, International on Wednesday, 8 November 2017
Katie Paul, Stephen Kalin
Reuters
8th November 2017
RIYADH (Reuters) – All major Gulf stock markets slid on Tuesday on jitters about Saudi Arabia’s sweeping anti-graft purge, a campaign seen by critics as a populist power grab but by ordinary Saudis as an overdue attack on the sleaze of a moneyed ultra-elite.
U.S. President Donald Trump endorsed the crackdown, saying some of those arrested have been “milking” Saudi Arabia for years, but some Western officials expressed unease about the possible reaction in Riyadh’s opaque tribal and royal politics.
Authorities detained dozens of top Saudis including billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal in a move widely seen as an attempt by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to neuter any opposition to his lightening ascent to the pinnacle of power.
Admirers see it as an assault on the endemic theft of public funds in the world’s top oil exporter, an absolute monarchy where the state and the ruling family are intertwined. Read the rest of this entry »
Singapore Police Examine Goldman’s Role in 1MDB Deals
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Financial Scandals on Tuesday, 7 November 2017
By Andrea Tan
Bloomberg
November 3, 2017
Singaporean prosecutors and police are examining Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s relationship with the Malaysian state investment fund at the center of global money laundering probes, people with knowledge of the matter said.
The Commercial Affairs Department, the police’s economic crime unit, and city prosecutors have interviewed current and former Goldman Sachs executives who worked on bond offerings from 1Malaysia Development Bhd., said the people, who asked not to be named because the queries are confidential. Investigators are also looking into the firm’s links with Malaysian financier Low Taek Jho, who the U.S. has alleged controlled a plot to siphon billions of dollars from the bond proceeds, the people said.
Investigators’ meetings with current and former Goldman Sachs employees are part of a criminal probe into fund flows related to 1MDB, the people said. The bank itself isn’t the focus of the investigation, they said. Neither Goldman Sachs nor its current or former employees have been publicly accused of criminal offenses or charged in relation to the fund, whose dealings have sparked probes in Singapore, Switzerland and the U.S. Read the rest of this entry »
1MDB-linked Prince Turki among those nabbed for corruption in Saudi Arabia
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Financial Scandals on Tuesday, 7 November 2017
The Edge Markets
November 06, 2017
(Nov 6): Prince Turki bin Abdullah, co-founder of Petrosaudi, the company that is embroiled in the 1Malaysia Development Bhd scandal, was among the 11 princes arrested in anti-corruption raids in Saudi Arabia on Saturday.
Reuters had named Prince Turki bin Abdullah, the former governor of Riyadh province, as among those arrested.
“A Saudi official said former Riyadh Governor Prince Turki bin Abdullah was detained on accusations of corruption in the Riyadh Metro project and taking advantage of his influence to award contracts to his own companies,” Reuters reported. Read the rest of this entry »
Was “the power of 1MDB scandal” at play when in Parliament yesterday former Second Finance Minister Husni transformed from a Najib critic on 1MDB to a Najib sycophant, talking about Najib’s legacy of “zero corruption” when everybody knows it is “global kleptocracy”?
Posted by Kit in Budget Debate, Corruption, Financial Scandals, Najib Razak, Parliament on Thursday, 2 November 2017
Was the “Power of the 1MDB scandal” at play in Parliament yesterday when former Second Finance Minister, Datuk Seri Ahmad Husni Hanadzlah transformed from a Najib critic on 1MDB to a Najib sycophant, talking about Najib’s legacy of “zero corruption” when everybody knows it is “global kleptocracy”?
Before further commentary on Husni’s speech in Parliament yesterday, Husni should clarify what he said a year ago, whether they were the truth and still relevant, for instance:
• That handling 1MDB had made him ill, that he was under heavy stress for months while trying to resolve the controversy and suffered high blood pressure; that a question from a senior official of Bank Negara that “Everyone knows that you are not involved in 1MDB. Why are you feeling stressed over the 1MDB issue?” finally prompted his decision to resign from the Cabinet; and that after his resignation, he felt relieved as “1MDB no longer disturbs my mind and heart”. Read the rest of this entry »
Najib cannot take the moral high ground to claim his 2018 Budget is the best budget in the nation’s 60 history as the “mother of all budgets” when it dared not address the most basic moral question in governance, the 1MDB scandal and Malaysia’s infamy as a global kleptocracy during Najib’s premiership
Posted by Kit in Budget Debate, Corruption, Najib Razak on Saturday, 28 October 2017
The Prime Minister-cum-Finance Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak, cannot take the moral high ground to claim that his 2018 Budget which he presented to Parliament yesterday is the best in the nation‘s 60-year history as the “mother of all budgets” when it dared not address the most basic moral question in governance, the international multi-billion dollar 1MDB money-laundering scandal and Malaysia’s infamy and ignominy as a global kleptocracy during Najib’s premiership.
For five years, Najib had studiously avoided the issue of the 1MDB scandal and Malaysia’s infamy and ignominy as a global kleptocracy in his annual budget speech in Parliament, but three days before his 2018 Budget presentation in Parliament yesterday, he came out with a 81-paragraph statement ringing praise for his financial and economic stewardship of the country. Read the rest of this entry »
Najib cannot be more wrong in boasting that the 2018 is the “mother of all budgets” – it is the “mother of all hypocritical budgets” when he dared not even address the 1MDB “mother of all scandals” which transformed Malaysia overnight into a global kleptocrcacy
Posted by Kit in Budget Debate, Corruption, Financial Scandals, Najib Razak, Parliament on Friday, 27 October 2017
I am very disappointed.
Throughout the nearly three-hour budget presentation by the Prime Minister and Finance Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak, I did not hear the single reference to the interntional multi-billion dollar 1MDB money-laundering scandal which had overnight transformed Malaysia into a global kleptocracy.
How can Najib boast that the 2018 Budget which he had presented is the “Mother of All Budgets” – that no other budget “during the last 22 years or the past 60 years of our own nation” had never been crafted so well – when he dare not even mention address the 1MDB “mother of all scandals” which transformed Malaysia overnight into a global kleptocracy!
I am shocked that Najib should claim that he is even better than his father, Tun Razak who had presented a budget as Finance Minister.
Read the rest of this entry »
30th Anniversary of Ops Lalang mass arrests – call on Malaysians to unite to save democracy, the rule of law, human rights and to eradicate corruption and kleptocracy
Posted by Kit in Corruption, democracy, Human Rights on Friday, 27 October 2017
Today marks the 30th anniversary of Operation Lalang which brought about the darkest days for democracy and human rights.
There was not only the arrest of 106 Malaysians, including opposition leaders – 16 of whom were from the DAP, including MPs and State Assemblymen – trade unionists, social activists, environmentalists, Chinese educationists and religious workers, there was also the wholesale attacks on press freedom with the closure of three newspapers, the assault on the independence of the judiciary and the rule of law and the series of undemocratic legislation which caused a tectonic shift in the Malaysian political landscape, subordinating the legislative and judicial branches to the Executive.
Operation Lalang in 1987 brought the fragile plant of Malaysian democracy to the brink of ruin and disaster.
But Malaysian resilience, the spirit and love for freedom, justice and the nation, did not wilt or capitulate but sprang back not only to recover lost ground and to achieve new democratic breakthroughs as in the 13th General Election when 52% of popular vote sought the first change of national government but the people were denied the fruits of democratic victory because of undemocratic gerrymandering of parliamentary constituencies. Read the rest of this entry »
Call on Najib to start his belated defence of international multi-billion dollar 1MDB scandal which transformed Malaysia overnight into a global kleptocracy in his 2018 Budget speech
Posted by Kit in Budget Debate, Corruption, Financial Scandals, Najib Razak on Friday, 27 October 2017
Three days before his 2018 Budget speech, the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak suddenly issued a 81-paragraph blog on “My Economic Vision for Malaysia” which is remarkable for its attempt for the first time to white-wash the international multi-billion dollar 1MDB money-laundering scandal by explaining away the colossal theft and misappropriation of tens of billions of ringgit of public funds as a mere 1MDB “share of problems” which “we long ago revamped the management to correct the mistakes and bring it back to financial health”.
This is not a worthy or acceptable response to the international strictures that Malaysia has become a “global kleptocracy” as a result of the 1MDB scandal, which is the core of the kleptocratic litigation instituted by the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) to forfeit US$1.7 billion 1MDB-linked assets in the United States, United Kingdom and Switzerland, and which are now suspended pending criminal investigations by the United States authorities, as well as for the various financial and criminal actions and investigations by over half a dozen countries, including Singapore, Switzerland, Hong Kong, Abu Dhabi, the United Kingdom and Australia in connection with the 1MDB scandal.
Lest it be forgotten, the Malay Rulers’ on October 6, 2015 issued a rare joint statement and called on the Government to complete the investigation related to 1MDB as soon as possible and take “the appropriate stern action” against all found to be implicated. Read the rest of this entry »
If 1MDB is a “national savior”, including saving Malaysia RM200 billion over the next 20 years on power agreements, then stop the clampdown and allow a full debate on 1MDB in Parliament!
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Financial Scandals, Najib Razak on Wednesday, 25 October 2017
Friday Oct. 27, 2017 is a watershed day for the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak, as he will be tabling the 2018 Budget as his “ultra weapon” for winning the 14th General Election.
Today, as a prelude to his 2018 Budget on Friday, Najib released his “My Economic Vision for Malaysia”, where he boasted about his accomplishments and achievements in his more than seven years as Prime Minister.
What will history and future generations remember about Najib’s premiership? Read the rest of this entry »
Lesson from first day of Parliament – no way the 1MDB scandal can be swept under the carpet as it will continue to haunt and hound Malaysia until there is full accountability releasing the country from the infamy of a global kleptocracy
Posted by Kit in Budget Debate, Corruption, Financial Scandals, Najib Razak, Parliament on Tuesday, 24 October 2017
The lesson from the first day of the 25-day Budget 2018 parliamentary meeting is that there is no way the international multi-billion dollar 1MDB scandal can be swept under the carpet as it will continue to haunt and hound Malaysia until there is full accountability releasing the country from the infamy of a global kleptocracy.
Parliament can pretend that the 1MDB scandal has ceased to exist, rejecting questions from Members of Parliament relating to the 1MDB scandal and Malaysia as a global kleptocracy and stopping MPs from demanding accountability for the 1MDB scandal from the Prime Minister and the Cabinet Ministers, with Ministers having to undergo political acrobatics and contortions like the one performed by the Deputy Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Zahid Hamidi yesterday both during and after Question Time on the 1MDB scandal, particularly with reference to the whereabouts of major 1MDB scandal mastermind, Jho Low, but the monstrous 1MDB scandal will not go away. Read the rest of this entry »
If not Dzulkifli, who ordered the MACC to arrest Shafie Apdal and 10 other Warisan leaders?
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Najib Razak, Sabah, UMNO on Saturday, 21 October 2017
I had not expected my retort to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) Chief Commissioner, Tan Sri Dzulkifli Ahmad, to take effect so fast.
On 28th September, I had replied to Dzulkifli who said a day earlier that people were watching me to judge my commitment and seriousness towards fighting corruption and abuse of power.
I observed that I had been watched by the people for the 52 years I had been involved in politics, and reminded Dzulkifli that the people were watching him whether he will be the head of the world’s first “kleptocratic” anti-corruption agency.
I never expected that the people’s “watch” on the MACC Chief Commissioner would within a month become a supreme test, which caused Dzulkifli to disappear from the public limelight in past 12 days except for a highly problematic statement four days ago, although he was dominating the public limelight almost on a daily basis previously.
Let us focus on the four-day remand of the Parti Warisan Sabah president, Datuk Seri Shafie Apdal on his 60th birthday, in connection with MACC investigations into alleged misappropriation of at least RM1.5 billion in rural development funds intended for Sabah and the MACC arrest of Shafie’s two younger brothers and a number of other Warisan leaders. Read the rest of this entry »
Anifah should explain why Malaysia’s international reputation and human rights standing plunged so precipitately under Najib’s premiership as to lose 50 votes as compared to 2010 resulting in defeat for election to UN Human Rights Council
Posted by Kit in Corruption, International on Friday, 20 October 2017
The so-called “rebuttal” of the Foreign Minister, Datuk Seri Anifah Aman to the statement by the DAP MP for Kluang, Liew Chin Tong, asking for an explanation why Malaysia lost its bid for a seat on the United Nations Human Rights Council could be dismissed just as all “bluff and bluster signifying nothing”, as it completely failed to address Chin Tong’s question which is asked by all thinking Malaysians.
It is in fact another sad example of the atrocious English of Malaysia’s Cabinet Ministers.
Anifah should explain why Malaysia’s international reputation and human rights standing plunged so precipitately under Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s premiership as to lose 50 votes when compared to Malaysia’s second attempt to be elected to the UN Human Rights Council in 2010, when Malaysia secured 179 votes as compared to the measly 129 votes this time. Read the rest of this entry »
Have the “kleptocratic chickens coming home to roost” caused Malaysia’s defeat for election to UN Human Rights Council?
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Human Rights on Thursday, 19 October 2017
Malaysia suffers ignominy in the latest defeat for election to the United Nations Human Rights Council, being the only country to lose out as there were 16 countries vying for the 15 seats, and even more pertinent, the only country to lose out among the five countries which competed for the four Human Rights Council seats allocated to Asia-Pacific region.
It is a terrible setback for Malaysia’s human rights record that the country should lose out to countries which are regarded as definitely greater human rights offenders than Malaysia, like Pakistan, Qatar and Afghanistan in the region or countries like Congo and Angola in the world.
This is Malaysia’s third bid for a seat on the council after two stints, from 2006 to 2009 and from 2010 to 2013. Read the rest of this entry »
Is Annuar Musa accusing the first three Prime Ministers of Malaysia, Tunku Abdul Rahman, Razak and Hussein Onn as anti-Islam because they upheld secularism as the bedrock principles of Malaysian Constitution and nation-building?
Posted by Kit in Corruption, UMNO on Monday, 16 October 2017
Is the UMNO Information Chief, Tan Sri Annuar Musa accusing the first three Prime Ministers of Malaysia, Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tun Razak and Tun Hussein Onn as anti-Islam because they upheld secularism as the bedrock principles of the Malaysian Constitution and Malaysian nation-building?
In his misnomer campaign of “Dialogue for All” in Kota Bahru on Saturday, Annuar launched a ferocious attack on the DAP, accusing DAP of being anti-Islam because the DAP constitution “clearly stated” that DAP was fighting for secularism, and secondly, alleging that the DAP feared an UMNO-PAS pact because the party did not want to see Malays and Muslims united.
I said Annuar’s national roadshow “Dialogue for All” is a misnomer as it would be more properly named as “Fake News for All”!
For Annuar’s edification, the DAP Constitution referred to the Merdeka Constitution 1957 as “a secular document, instilled with the principles of democracy, freedom, rule of law and respect of human rights; and imbibed with the ideals of accountability, equality, justice and human dignity” – a stand which had been taken by the nation’s first three Prime Ministers.
In accusing the DAP as being anti-Islam for taking such a stand, let Annuar declare whether he is also launching an attack on the first three Prime Ministers who were also UMNO Presidents for three decades from 1951 to 1981?
Or could Annuar differentiate the stand of the first three Prime Ministers from that of the DAP with regard to the Merdeka and Malaysian Constitution as a “secular document” laying down the bedrock principles of the Constitution and nation-building in Malaysia? Read the rest of this entry »
Before Annuar continues with his tirades and lies about the DAP being anti-Islam, he should ask himself whether he is worthy to be a “warrior of Islam” when he is a walking example of the “curse of kleptocracy” in Malaysia?
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Islam on Sunday, 15 October 2017
Before the UMNO Information Chief Tan Sri Annuar Musa continues with his tirades and lies about the DAP being anti-Islam, he should ask himself whether he is worthy to be a “warrior of Islam” when he is a walking example of the “curse of kleptocracy” in Malaysia?
In recent years, Malaysia has suffered from the curse of the “kleptocratic culture” which has resulted in Malaysia becoming the object of world-wide scorn and ridicule as a “global kleptocracy”.
The most egregious example of this curse of kleptocratic culture is undoubtedly the international multi-billion dollar 1MDB money-laundering scandal.
Although not as egregious as the 1MDB scandal, the MARA and Felda/FGV scandals rank high on the list of corruption scandals constituting the “curse of kleptocratic culture” in the country which will be the subject of root-and-branch investigations by a Pakatan Harapan Federal Government if Pakatan Harapan can topple UMNO/BN in the 14th General Election. Read the rest of this entry »
DAP and Pakatan Harapan government will make Malaysia a model for the world of how people of diverse races, religions, cultures and languages can unite and create a harmonious, democratic, progressive and prosperous nation and not to allow a Taliban state as advocated by a few
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Pakatan Harapan on Sunday, 15 October 2017
The UMNO Information Chief, Tan Sri Annuar Musa said in an UMNO “Dialogue Perjuangan For All” in Kota Bharu on Friday night that Pakatan Harapan will not be able to uphold and defend Islam in the country because the opposition coalition has been dominated by DAP.
Annuar cannot be more wrong.
DAP will uphold and defend the real values and true teachings of Islam and those of other great religions whether Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism or Sikkhism which are to promote peace, honesty, justice, freedom and solidarity.
A DAP and Pakatan Harapan Federal Government will make Malaysia a model for the world of how people of diverse races, religions, cultures and languages can unite and create a peaceful, harmonious, democratic, progressive and prosperous nation and not to allow a Taliban state as advocated by a few.
It is an indictment of the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s nation-building policies that moderation and inclusiveness are suffering attacks and setbacks with the rise of extremism, bigotry and intolerance, to the extent that the Sultan of Johore had to declare publicly that Johore is not a Taliban state. Read the rest of this entry »
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