A Scandal In Malaysia Spurs Credibility Crisis
Posted by Kit in Financial Scandals, Malaysian Dream, Najib Razak on Thursday, 23 July 2015, 5:52 am
By Giulia Zino
Forbes
7/21/2015
SINGAPORE – Malaysia has generated a considerable volume of negative press coverage over the past year, but none as eye-catching as the recent scandals surrounding controversial debt-ridden sovereign investment company 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB). After brewing for months, the 1MDB saga took a startling turn on July 2 when the Wall Street Journal published details of leaked bank documents, apparently showing that nearly $700m had been channelled through the investment company and directly into the personal accounts of Prime Minister Najib Razak.
Najib established 1MDB in 2009 with the visionary aim of facilitating investment and trade with the Middle East, and of developing a new financial district in Kuala Lumpur. Najib chairs 1MDB’s board and also heads the Ministry of Finance, which fully owns the company. 1MDB has collected a portfolio of 16 power and desalination plants in Asia and the Middle East and launched two ambitious, high-profile real estate developments in downtown Kuala Lumpur, accumulating debts of MYR 42bn ($11bn) along the way. Critics have centred on the company’s auditing problems: particularly MYR 8.24bn ($2.17bn) allegedly hidden somewhere in the Cayman Islands, its bond issuance program, and allegations that it has overpaid for its Malaysian power assets, essentially bailing out politically connected independent power producers.
The July 2 report dealt a huge blow for the ruling party, the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), and brought to a head a long-brewing struggle within the party to oust the prime minister. Conservative circles surrounding former prime minister and UMNO kingmaker Mahathir Mohamad have relentlessly tried to eject Najib, whose weakness and unpopularity they view as extremely detrimental for the party’s survival. Najib appears far too compromised to see the end of his term in 2018, even if the multiple ongoing investigations do not directly implicate him in wrongdoings within 1MDB. Read the rest of this entry »
Tony Pua, Rafizi Ramli and Tong Kooi Ong looking at criminal charges which may sent them to jail for up to 20 years
Posted by Kit in Crime, Law & Order, Najib Razak, Parliament on Wednesday, 22 July 2015, 7:26 pm
The police have said that DAP MP for PJ Utara Tony Pua, PKR MP for Pandan Rafizi Ramli and Edge Media Group owner Tong Kooi Ong are being investigated under Section 124 of the Penal Code.
A senior police source has confirmed with Malaysiakini that the three are being probed for alleged activities detrimental to parliamentary democracy.
Pua, Rafizi and Tong are looking at criminal charges which may sent them to jail for up to 20 years.
The offences of “activities detrimental to parliamentary democracy” are new-fangled offences in Sections 124B to 124N introduced by the Penal Code (Amendment) Act 2012 which was passed by Parliament in 2012, given the Royal Assent on 18th June 2012 and gazetted on 22nd June 2012. Read the rest of this entry »
Seeking a meeting with Najib on establishment of Royal Commission of Truth and Reconciliation on the Low Yat Race Riot to ensure that there will be no recurrence of race riots because of petty crimes
Posted by Kit in Crime, Malaysian Dream, nation building on Wednesday, 22 July 2015, 2:07 pm
I have written to the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak seeking a meeting on the establishment of a Royal Commission of Truth and Reconciliation on Low Yat Race Riot to ensure that there will be no recurrence of race riots because of petty crime.
In my email to the Prime Minister, I also suggested that the terms of reference of the Royal Commission of Truth and Reconciliation on the Low Yat Race Riot should include the following seven items:
• How Malaysia can be a world model of a successful, united, peaceful and harmonious multi-racial, multi-lingual, multi-religious and multi-cultural nation;
• Whether the police could have acted pre-emptively to prevent the petty crime of mobile phone theft from being transformed into a race riot involving a few hundred people;
• The attack on journalists;• The role of social media with Ministers blaming it as a main culprit of the Low Yat Mob Incident;
• Whether one major cause of the Low Yat riot was the incessant incitement of hatred as a result of irresponsible politics of race and religion in recent years.
• Whether the Low Yat Incident is proof of the failure of nation-building policies, particularly the Prime Minister’s 1Malaysia signature policy and decades of Biro Tata Negara’s “racist” courses.
• A blueprint to ensure that there will be recurrence of race riots from petty crimes, which is particularly important for a plural society like Malaysia.
RENUNG SIASAH (3)
Pak Samad
11 Julai 2015
Dewannya lusuh yang mega
hadirin rerata muda;
berbuka senikmat rasa
Kit dan aku antaranya.
Di atas pentas nan syahdu
Dyana, Rara bersyarah;
apa dilalu, dirindu
dibayangkan secanggihnya: Read the rest of this entry »
Puisi panjang harapan baru
Posted by Kit in Malaysian Dream, Political Islam on Wednesday, 22 July 2015, 7:14 am
A Shukur Harun
The Malaysian Insider
21 July 2015
Teman-temanku yang dikasihi
Petang itu aku berdiri di anjung masjid
Menyaksikan senja merah beransur hilang
Membawa pulang Ramadhan Kareem
Kutulis puisi ini dalam dakapan
Aidilfitri yang harum semerbak
Menebarkan kasih sayang sesama umat
Teman-temanku yang dikasihi
Detik yang lalu jangan ditangisi
Kerana ia bukan lagi bersama kita
“If you cry because the sun has gone out of your life”,
Your tears will prevent you
from seeing the stars,”
kata penyair dunia Rabindranath Tagore Read the rest of this entry »
RENUNG SIASAH (2)
Pak Samad
7 Julai 2015
Dewan Rakyat seeloknya
didakap haruman luhur;
pagi ini tengek baunya
sebab dihalang berjujur.
Atas lantai tepi Dewan
pembangkang tabah berlawan
disuluhnya sarang tipuan
dipetiknya kebenaran. Read the rest of this entry »
The new coalition of Malaysian progressives – whether Pakatan Rakyat 2.0, New Pakatan Rakyat or Harapan Rakyat – will be sequel to 13GE battle in 14GE to rekindle hopes and aspirations of Malaysians for political change in Putrajaya
Five days ago, I posed the question whether PAS could lose Kelantan in the next 14th General Election.
I said that based on the 13th General Election performance, if there is a 4% swing of voters against PAS in Kelantan in the next poll, PAS will lose power in the state it had governed for 25 years since 1990.
Is a 4% swing in a state an unlikely happening?
In the 13th General Election in Kedah, PAS and Pakatan Rakyat lost the Kedah State Government because there was a 3.8% swing of the voters against PAS.
The voter swing against PAS was even greater and more overwhelming during the 2004 General Election in Terengganu, where there was a 15% swing of voters against PAS, sweeping out the Terengganu PAS State Government after only one term of Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi as the Terengganu Mentri Besar.
There is no doubt that Pakatan Rakyat (PR) would have been wiped out in the next general election if Pakatan Rakyat had contested the next polls in total disregard of the violation of the PR Common Policy Framework by one of the component parties, with hudud as a controversial issue in the election campaign. Read the rest of this entry »
RENUNG SIASAH (1)
Pak Samad
6 Julai 2015
Melayu dalam Dieypi
dituduh hanya Pak Pacak;
belum pun dimulai diari
dakwat sudah pun merebak.
Jerit ampu dari saku,
rindu diri jadi insan;
bisik khidmat dari qalbu:
tak pula yang lain setan. Read the rest of this entry »
Is it really new hope?
Posted by Kit in PAS, Political Islam on Wednesday, 22 July 2015, 4:43 am
– Wan Saiful Wan Jan
The Malaysian Insider
21 July 2015
This Raya week marks the beginning of a more concerted effort by some towering figures in PAS to set up a new political party.
Calling themselves Gerakan Harapan Baru (GHB) or New Hope Movement, they have started a nationwide tour to speak to the public in all states across Malaysia.
The events in Kelantan and Perlis on Sunday received a very warm reception. Turnout was very good and people that I spoke too who attended the events were clearly excited.
PAS’s response to GHB is expected. They see it as a threat and they are painting GHB with bad light. This is sheer hypocrisy.
Various individuals in PAS, including their president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang, have gone overboard to insult their former colleagues who lost in the party elections in June.
Hadi was even quoted to use words such as “barua” and “tolol” when referring to the GHB leaders, albeit without mentioning them directly. Read the rest of this entry »
What Europe should learn from Malaysia and other Asian crises
Posted by Kit in Finance, Najib Razak on Wednesday, 22 July 2015, 4:38 am
— William Pesek
Malay Mail Online
Tuesday July 21, 2015
JULY 21 — Asian leaders could be excused a degree of exasperation over the ongoing Greek mess. China’s slowdown and stock-market chaos are worry enough; the last thing the export-dependent region needs is a Europe in chaos. Worse, European leaders seem intent on misreading or ignoring lessons from Asia’s own brush with collapse.
Greece’s financial odyssey
Of course, the circumstances in 1997 were quite different. Where Greece is insolvent, Asia then was illiquid. As capital fled, Thailand, Indonesia and South Korea suddenly couldn’t pay foreign-currency debts, much of it short-term. Still, there are at least three lessons officials in Athens and Brussels can learn from Asia’s post-crisis repairs.
One: The debate over austerity is a distraction. Pundits quarrelling over Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’s motivations, or whether German Chancellor Angela Merkel has a heart, are missing the real issue: structural reform. Read the rest of this entry »
Tribute to Ho Kay Tat and shame to Liow Tiong Lai
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Good Governance, Media, Najib Razak on Tuesday, 21 July 2015, 6:42 pm
The publisher and Group CEO of The Edge Media Group, Ho Kay Tat put it very bluntly that when faced with evidence that what was supposed to be a joint venture that will bring economic benefits to the country turned out to be nothing more than a scheme to scam billions of ringgit from Malaysia by a small group of Malaysians and their foreign partners, the Edge Media Group had two choices:
1) Drop the matter like a hot potato and walk away, or
2) Get hold of everything so that the truth can be uncovered.
To their eternal credit as well as the gratitude of all decent and honest Malaysians who want to be able to hold their heads high in a country where ethical, moral and religious values are not just meant for the pulpits but are the compass of everyday living, the Edge decided to pursue the truth. Read the rest of this entry »
We could not walk away on finding out about the scheme to cheat Malaysia of billions of ringgit
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Financial Scandals, Media, Najib Razak on Tuesday, 21 July 2015, 5:22 pm
The Malaysian Insider
21 July 2015
The Edge had reported extensively on 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) in 2013 and 2014 as it emerged that the government-owned entity had run into financial difficulties.
Information was, however, scarce and limited because its annual audited financial reports were consistently late.
Our journalists have met various contacts and pored through whatever available information they could get hold of in search of the truth.
Early this year, we were told someone was willing to share information that will shed light on 1MDB’s joint-venture with PetroSaudi International. We were not told who he was before we met him.
This person, whom we shall not name, showed us thousands and thousands of emails and document attachments. Read the rest of this entry »
“Aye” to Rahman’s new appointment as BN strategic communications director as he has made more than half-dozen strategic errors in six days – at least one a day!
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Financial Scandals, Najib Razak on Tuesday, 21 July 2015, 12:28 pm
I say “aye” to Urban Wellbeing, Housing and Local Government Minister, Datuk Seri Abdul Rahman Dahlan’s new appointment as Barisan Nasional strategic communications director as he has made more than half-dozen strategic errors in six days – a most admirable rate of one strategic mistake a day.
It will not be easy to find such a bull in a China shop on both sides of the political divide, and it’s a real boon that he has becoming BN strategic communications director.
Just to enumerate half-dozen strategic errors chalked up by the newly-minted BN strategic communications director in his six days in office:
1. To regard former Sarawak journalist Lester Melanyi as a “god-send” not only to end Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s intractable woes from the long-standing 1MBD scandal but an excellent occasion for him to “debut” as Najib’s new right-hand man replacing Jarjis Jamaluddin and Lim Kok Wing. Rahman broke the first rule in failing to check on Lester’s antecedents. Within 48 hours, he acknowledged Lester’s dubious character, which was why he could pen the infamous description “it takes a scum to know another scum”, defaming in the process not only Sarawak Report’s Clare Brown but also the Sarawak leaders of Barisan Nasional and even the Prime Minister himself. Read the rest of this entry »
Will Cabinet tomorrow discuss the violation of Malaysia’s Bill of Guarantee to the world of “No Internet censorship” in blocking access to Sarawak Report or no Minister would dare to express disagreement?
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Financial Scandals, Najib Razak on Tuesday, 21 July 2015, 10:10 am
Will the Cabinet tomorrow discuss the violation of Malaysia’s 17-year Bill of Guarantee to the world of “No Internet censorship” in blocking access to Sarawak Report website or no Minister would dare to express disagreement?
In fact, it is not only the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak who is under a “cloud” with regard to his commitment to the principles of accountability, transparency, integrity and good governance (which are supposed to be the foundation principles of his highly-hyped National Transformation Programme), the integrity of the entire Cabinet is also under question.
This will be the first time in Malaysian history that the integrity of the entire Cabinet has come under a cloud.
Yesterday, I asked the newly-minted Barisan Nasional strategic communication director and Minister for Urban Wellbeing, Housing and Local Government, Datuk Abdul Rahman Dahlan whether he could “declare publicly that he and UMNO Sabah had not received a single sen from Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s personal accounts in AmBank for the 13th General Election campaign”, referring in particular to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) report of July 2 that Malaysian government investigators have found US$700 million (RM2.6 billion) deposited into the Prime Minister’s personal bank accounts in March 2013 just before the dissolution of Parliament and the holding of the 13th General Election.
It is no surprise that there is thunderous silence from Abdul Rahman on this question.
In fact, this question should also be directed to all Ministers in the Cabinet.
Can every Cabinet Ministers declare whether or not he or she had received any funding from Najib through the Prime Minister’s personal accounts in AmBank for the 13th General Election campaigning, and if so, to state the amount and whether the Cabinet Ministers concerned would not participate in any Cabinet discussion or decision relating to the WSJ report on July 2 and 1MDB scandal, in view of their conflict-of-interest position? Read the rest of this entry »
Keris waving: A decade later
Posted by Kit in Hishammuddin, Malaysian Dream, UMNO on Tuesday, 21 July 2015, 7:03 am
— Liew Chin Tong
The Malay Mail Online
July 20, 2015
JULY 20 — A decade ago on 20th July 2005, the then Umno Youth chief Hishammudin Hussein gave his infamous keris-wielding speech during the Umno Youth General Assembly, in a gesture that has come to symbolise Umno’s turn to right-wing politics since then.
His act of Keris waving is arguably the image that defined the last decade of Malaysian politics. Coupled together with Umno’s right turn, it paved the way for Umno’s dramatic decline.
The Keris waving act was part of the push to the right by certain groups within Umno during the 2005 Umno General Assembly.
The resolution of the said General Assembly was the introduction of a “Malay Agenda” and the reintroduction of the New Economic Policy, which had been downplayed in the early 1990s .
The keris waving act and Umno’s right turn did not gain Umno much new Malay support as the Malay middle ground dislikes harsh and extreme acts. Read the rest of this entry »
GHB is not PAS 2.0
Posted by Kit in PAS, Political Islam on Tuesday, 21 July 2015, 7:00 am
— L.S. Yap
The Malay Mail Online
July 20, 2015
JULY 20 — The fear that the new Islamic-leaning party Gabungan Harapan Baru (GHB) will be another religious party advocating theocracy is unfounded. There is a tendency amongst secularists to resort to fear mongering to skew the direction of national politics. The story is a familiar one: the participation of the religious political parties will pave the way for the degeneration of our democracy into a religious theocracy.
However, these fears are built on the assumption that the GHB and PAS can be simplistically banded together as Islamic parties for Malays. This is an unhelpful generalisation, with the dangerous potential to obfuscate rather than elucidate.
While PAS can be said to be principally a religious movement with its participation in democracy an instrument to achieving its objectives, GHB is a political party with religion to provide it with legitimacy. Politics is employed by PAS to give greater force to its religious movement, whereas religion is carefully used to legitimise the political mission of GHB.
In other words, religion is the raison de’etre of PAS, while the democratic wishes of its members, not religion, is the primary concern of GHB. Nowhere is this more clear from the top down and bottom up party structure of PAS and GHB respectively. Read the rest of this entry »
Menjawab mereka yang skeptikal isu parti baru
Posted by Kit in Pakatan Rakyat, PAS, Political Islam on Tuesday, 21 July 2015, 6:06 am
Khalid Samad
Malaysiakini
20 Jul 2015
Kebelakangan ini saya banyak ‘terbaca’ tulisan seorang yang bernama Fathi Aris Omar. Tulisannya telah ‘diwhatsappkan’ kepada saya oleh seorang kenalan yang meminta saya memberi komen balas.
Jarang saya berminat untuk respon tulisan orang yang tidak saya kenali, tetapi setelah membaca beberapa tulisannya, saya merasakan ada keperluan untuk saya respon bukan sahaja kepada beliau tetapi kepada mereka yang turut berfikiran skeptikal seperti beliau. Read the rest of this entry »
Art Harun: Sarawak Report ban is laughable and tragic
Posted by Kit in Corruption, IT, Najib Razak on Monday, 20 July 2015, 4:58 pm
Lawyer takes aim at Najib and says the PM prefers to shoot the messenger rather than probe the wrongdoings he has been accused of
PETALING JAYA: The decision by the Malaysian Communication and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) to block access to the Sarawak Report (SR) website on the grounds of national security and public order is both laughable and tragic, said lawyer and human rights activist Art Harun.
In a blog posting where he goes at the prime minister and the government with guns blazing, Art accused Najib Razak of preferring to “shoot the messenger” and asked, “Has that (the ban) got to do with the immediate witch-hunting by our authorities against those who dare publish ‘facts’ rather than investigating the wrong-doings that are so apparent from those facts?”
He was referring to the expose by the Sarawak Report and The Wall Street Journal that USD700 million of 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) funds had found its way into the private bank accounts of Najib. Read the rest of this entry »
I never realise that we may have a Cabinet Minister who is a “world beater” in having the world’s lowest IQ for Ministers
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Financial Scandals, IT, Najib Razak on Monday, 20 July 2015, 12:49 pm
I never realise that we may have a Cabinet Minister who is a “world-beater” in having the lowest IQ for Ministers in the world.
This thought struck me when I was told about the New Straits Times report today entitled “’Can DAP deny Pua’s alleged links to Justo?’”
The NST report reads:
“Lim Kit Siang and the DAP leadership have been challenged to deny Tony Pua’s involvement with former PetroSaudi International Ltd former executive Xavier Andre Justo.
“’Can Lim Kit Siang and DAP leadership deny that Tony Pua (DAP Petaling Jaya Utara member of parliament) has nothing to do with Justo and not involved in any way?
“”Yes or no?’ Barisan Nasional strategic communication director Datuk Abdul Rahman Dahlan posted on Twitter yesterday.”
I am completely befuddled.
I thought Pua could not be clearer when he answered Rahman who asked the first time early this month whether the DAP MP for PJ Utara had met Justo. Read the rest of this entry »
For his best self-interest, Najib should immediately direct MCMC to stop blocking access to Sarawak Report or he is transforming 1MDB scandal from a local into an international scandal of first magnitude
Posted by Kit in Corruption, IT, Mahathir, Najib Razak on Monday, 20 July 2015, 8:37 am
What a Hari Raya “gift” from the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak – blocking access to the Sarawak Report website and overnight undergoing three transformations for Malaysia’s “Father of Transformation”, viz:
• Transforming the RM42 billion 1MDB scandal and the posts on the Sarawak Report website from a local scandal into an international scandal of the first magnitude;
• Transforming Najib from a Nothing2Hide to Everything2Hide Prime Minister, all in a matter of 45 days from June 5, 2015 – the date of Najib‘s ill-fated and aborted 1MDB “Nothing2Hide” forum at Putra World Trade Centre, Kuala Lumpur.
• Transforming Najib from the most Internet-savvy Prime Minister of Malaysia into Malaysia’s most frightened-of-Internet Prime Minister, even violating Tun Mahathir and the Malaysian Government’s 17-year-old Bill of Guarantee of “No Censorship of Internet”.to the world.
