IF YOU'RE INNOCENT, NAJIB - go on national TV & tell us about 1MDB, Jho Low

It’s interesting that the politics of distraction and disruption has struck again even right in the heart of the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) scandal.

Generally, the politics of distraction and disruption strikes to take away public attention from the pressing issues of the day or to camouflage those in public office busy filling their pockets at the expense of the people. That’s where the NGOs in the lunatic fringe come in to do what they are being paid to do and the cybertroopers run amok.

In this particular case, we are told that the Federal Cabinet has directed the Auditor-General to verify the 1MDB accounts – no time-frame set for its report – for the bi-partisan parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) to follow-up, whatever that means.

Meanwhile, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), in a pre-emptive strike last Wednesday, issued a statement claiming that the Federal Cabinet, after listening to 1MDB officials and its accountants, decided that all was well with the company and gave it a clean bill of health. The meeting of 153 of the 191 Umno divisional chiefs last Sunday accepted Najib’s explanation on 1MDB. The fact that his deputy Muhyiddin Yassin didn’t turn up at all for the meeting has been explained as “he had prior commitments to attend to”.

An Umno vice-president from Sabah, Shafie Apdal, skipped the meet with divisions from the state and Johore. Kedah Menteri Besar Mukhriz Mahathir, son of former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, also skipped it. The police, prosecutors, and the Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission (MACC) have all been falling over themselves setting up their separate task forces on 1MDB.

All of them have pledged that no one, including Prime Minister and Finance Minister Najib Abdul Razak, will be spared scrutiny. Najib himself has vowed that wrongdoers at 1MDB will not be spared. Obviously, he was not including himself as one of the wrongdoers. In Najib’s case, the defence obviously would be that he had never met Jho Low, the controversial Penangite caught up in allegations of criminal breach of trust (CBT), money laundering and cheating.

PM Najib

At least USD700 million from 1MDB passed through Petrosaudi International (PSI) to a vehicle he helmed, it has been alleged. Thereafter the trail gets cold. We don’t know who the final recipient of the funds was. If Najib is caught with his pants down on 1MDB, he will claim that “some people” – not him – had obviously made some bad investment calls. So, he would be in favour of putting this all down to experience and moving on “because there are more important things to do”.

After all, there are his various transformation programmes to worry about. These, we are told, would propel Malaysia into the ranks of the high-income nations by 2020. The fact that prices are rising, wages have been stagnant for decades and that people are poorer than ever are, of course, besides the point. There’s a police report on 1MDB lodged by Pandan MP and PKR Secretary-General Rafizi Ramli.

Where are we heading with all this? Najib has oversight on 1MDB. There’s no need to go here and there. He should go on national TV and tell all. So far he has said very little, which is nothing. He knows more than what he has not been telling. - FMT