Malaysians should not be surprised that the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Paul Low yesterday expressed sympathy with US President Donald Trump with regard to the proliferation of “fake news” on the social media in the US, giving another example to the saying “Birds of the same feather flock together”.

This is because the maker of the biggest fake news in Malaysia is none other than the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak, himself – in his pretence in the last two years that the international multi-billion dollar 1MDB scandal does not exist and a sheer figment of the imagination.

The former Cabinet Minister and current UMNO Information Chief, Tan Sri Annuar Musa, want Malaysians to believe that the Bank Negara’s forex loses a quarter of a century ago were real while 1MDB losses are only on paper.

I am still waiting for Annuar’s response whether 1MDB’s payment of some US$350 million to IPIC a day before the August 31 deadline was “just only on paper” and another one of the fake transactions by 1MDB.
Read the rest of this entry »

OPEN LETTER by DAP Parliamentary Leader and MP for Gelang Patah Lim Kit Siang to all Cabinet Ministers from DAP Parliamentary Office on Monday, 28th August 2017:

Dear Cabinet Ministers,
28th August 2017.

Dear Ministers,

I am issuing this Open Letter to all you Cabinet Ministers to urge the Cabinet to take a patriotic stand at your meeting on Wednesday, the Eve of 60th National Day, to veto Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak from visiting White House to meet US President Trump on Sept. 12 as the US Government had virtually branded the Malaysian Prime Minister as kleptocrat by being “MO1”.

UMNO/BN strategists and propagandists may think that the Prime Minister’s forthcoming visit to the White House and meeting with President Trump on Sept. 12 is a great “coup” for Najib before the 14th General Election.

This is not the case. In fact, it is the very opposite. Read the rest of this entry »

The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) Chief Commissioner, Datuk Dzulkifli Ahmad has been in the eye of the storm in the last three days since issuing a very public ultimatum to the Penang Chief Minister, Lim Guan Eng, that he will face civil or criminal action if he refuses to make an open apology within 48 hours for his comments on the detention of Penang State Exco member Phee Boon Poh.

This is the first time in the 60-year Malaysian history where the head of a national agency had issued a public ultimatum to a Chief Minister, Mentri Besar or a Cabinet Minister that he should apologise within 48 or face civil or criminal action.

Clearly, Dzulkifli wants to act as prosecutor, jury and judge all at the same time.

If Dzulkifili’s unprecedented action is to mark the MACC’s coming-of-age to become an anti-corruption agency without fear or favour, like its counterpart in Hong Kong and Singapore operating in an environment where even Presidents and Prime Ministers can be impeached, prosecuted or toppled for corruption like in South Korea or Pakistan, it would be a welcome development.

But apparently, it is not so.

In actual fact, Dzulkifli’s public ultimatum to Guan Eng casts doubt on the independence, impartiality and professionalism of the MACC, as it raises the question whether the MACC is hand-in-glove with the Prime Minister or the top government leadership to persecute or discriminate against the Pakatan Harapan opposition while trying to give the impression of independence of action to fight corruption so long as it does not touch the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak, the international multi-billion dollar 1MDB money-laundering scandal or Malaysia’s new-found infamy and ignominy of being regarded worldwide as a global kleptocracy.

I advise Dzukifli to learn from Rahim Noor’s lesson and not to fall victim to hubris or “Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely” complex. Read the rest of this entry »

UMNO/BN strategists and propagandists think that the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s forthcoming visit to the White House and meeting with President Trump on Sept. 12 is a great “coup” for Najib before the 14th General Election.

I do not agree.

Najib’s scheduled visit to the White House and meeting with US President Trump has already given rise to questions such as “MO1 vs US01”, “Will Najib triumph over Trump” and “Will Trump trumph Najib?’

I think it is a great national shame for Najib to go to the White House to meet President Trump when he has not cleared himself of the American Government “indictment “ as a kleptocrat and “MO1” in the US Department of Justice (DOJ)’s largest kleptocratic forfeiture suit of over US$1.7 billion of 1MDB-linked assets

Najib’s visit to the White House and meeting with Trump will deepen and aggravate Malaysia’s international infamy and ignominy by showing that the Malaysian government and leadership have ceased to know the meaning of “shame”, as honest and rational Malaysians – or anyone in the world – will regard it as a great national shame and dishonour for Najib to go to the White House to meet President Trump when Najib has not cleared himself of the US Government’s civil suit “indictment” of a kleptocrat and “MO1” in the US DOJ’s largest kleptocratic forfeiture suit of US$1.7 billion of 1MDB-linked assets.

Najib should only visit the White House with honour, pride and rectitude as Prime Minister of Malaysia when he had cleared or cleansed himself of the infamy and ignominy of a “kleptocrat” and “MO1”. Read the rest of this entry »

UMNO/BN strategists and propagandists think that the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak forthcoming visit to the White House and meeting with President Trump next month is a great “coup” for Najib before the 14th General Election.

I do not agree. I think it will deepen and aggravate Malaysia’s international infamy and ignominy by showing that Malaysia’s government and leadership have ceased to know the meaning of “shame”, as honest and rational Malaysians – or anyone in the world – will regard it as a great national shame and dishonour for Najib to go to the White House as Malaysian Prime Minister to meet President Trump when he has not cleared himself of the indictment of a kleptocrat and “MO1” in the US Department of Justice (DOJ)’s largest kleptocratic forfeiture suit of US$1.7 billion of 1MDB-linked assets.

Najib should only visit the White House with honour, pride and rectitude as Prime Minister of Malaysia when he had cleared or cleansed himself of the infamy and ignominy of a “kleptocrat” and “MO1”.

I shudder to think of the shame and dishonour of a Malaysian Prime Minister visiting the White House with the indictment of a kleptocrat and “MO1” hanging over his head, which placed Najib in the inferior and dishonourable position as a supplicant.

Is President Trump going to apologise to Najib for the US DOJ kleptocratic suit to forfeit US$1.7 billion 1MDB-linked assets and indicting him as a kleptocrat and “MO1”, or even going to the extent of informing Najib that the US DOJ was withdrawing the kleptocratic suit and all criminal investigations into the international multi-billion dollar 1MDB money-laundering scandal? Read the rest of this entry »

Is the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department and Director of Barisan Nasional Strategic Communications, Datuk Seri Abdul Rahman Dahlan regretting having admitted at the BBC interview last September that “MO1” is Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak and that only an idiot does not know that “MO1” is Najib?

I am sure all the other Cabinet Ministers, who have virtually been condemned as “idiots” by Abdul Rahman, are gleefully condemning the BN Strategic Communications Director as a real idiot for having made such an admission, now that the US Department of Justice (DOJ) has asked the Los Angeles court to put on hold civil forfeiture lawsuits against 1MDB-linked assets to allow criminal investigations into the 1MDB scandal to proceed without any hampering.

In the DOJ‘s court filings to stay its civil forfeiture suits on 1MDB-linked assets, there is no mention of Malaysian Official 1 (MO1), his spouse, or any transfers or gifts made to them.

The BN Strategic Communications Media team under Abdul Rahman immediately pounced on this yesterday and was the first to come out with a response, virtually claiming that the DOJ’s action to stay its civil forfeiture lawsuits to permit criminal investigations to continue unhampered was virtually a victory for the Malaysian government on the baseless ground that the DOJ’s latest action was tantamount to admission that its earlier 250-page civil forfeiture suits were baseless and groundless.

I do not know how the BN Strategic Communication team under Abdul Rahman could come to such a ridiculous conclusion, as the DOJ’s announcement has in fact brought DOJ investigations into the 1MDB scandal to a more serious level, requiring the putting on hold of the DOJ’s civil forfeiture actions so as not to hamper the DOJ’s criminal investigations. Read the rest of this entry »

Various global developments of the 1MDB scandal, which made Malaysian overnight into a global kleptocracy, are coming to a head and it may not be possible for the Najib government to continue with the national and international charade pretending that the 1MDB scandal does not exist.

Firstly, there is the news report from Los Angeles that the billions of US dollars of stolen 1MDB funds are now the focus of United States criminal investigation and that the US Justice Department has asked a judge in Los Angeles to put on hold civil forfeiture lawsuits against assets acquired by Malaysian financier Jho Low and others involved with 1MDB to prevent any hampering with the criminal investigation.

The US investigation is part of a global effort to track how much of the US$6 billion that 1MDB raised for development projects were stolen, embezzled or involved in money-laundering and used to pay for luxury real estate in New York, London and Beverly Hills, film productions, private jets, yachts and more – all for personal aggrandizement.

What is now the stand of the Attorney-General, Tan Sri Mohd Apandi Ali as it was only in June after the third kleptocratic suits by US DOJ to forfeit 1MDB-linked assets money-laundered through American banks that Apandi reiterated that “there has been no evidence from any investigation conducted by any law enforcement agency in various jurisdictions that show that money has been misappropriated from 1MDB; and that there have been no criminal charges against any individual for misappropriation of funds from 1MDB”?

No ostrich has dug it head so deep in the sand, despite Apandi’s exoneration of Najib of any wrongdoing or crime in the 1MDB scandal in January 2016 which had become increasingly ridiculous and unbelievable with the deluge of information and data on the 1MDB international money-laundering scandal, especially from the US Department of Justice kleptocratic suits. Read the rest of this entry »

By Edvard Pettersson
Bloomberg
August 11, 2017

The U.S. is moving forward with a criminal investigation into money stolen from a Malaysian state investment fund that allegedly was used to acquire about $1.7 billion in real estate, art, jewelry and other assets.

Court filings by the Justice Department Thursday show the U.S. is escalating its probe in a worldwide effort to track how much of the money that was raised by 1Malaysia Development Bhd. was used to pay for luxury real estate in New York, London and Beverly Hills, film productions, private jets, yachts and more.

Justice Department officials asked a judge in Los Angeles to put on hold civil forfeiture lawsuits against assets acquired by Malaysian financier Low Taek Jho, also known as Jho Low, and others involved with 1MDB because pursuing these cases may hamper the criminal investigation.

The U.S. investigation is part of a global effort to track how much of the $6 billion that 1MDB raised for development projects was allegedly embezzled or involved in money laundering. Switzerland, Singapore and Luxembourg are among the countries also investigating the roles played by banks and individuals. Read the rest of this entry »