1MBD Scandal: Seeking the truth is a crime, only in Najib’s Malaysia

WATCH and LISTEN to this Youtube –PKR’s Wong Chen

COMMENT: Well done, Joe for your article. I am at loss for adjectives, phrases, words, and labels to describe what is happening in Malaysia. Our government and public officials are not trying to resolve the 1MDB financial scandal with the facts so that we can begin to solve the sovereign fund’s massive debt problem (Rm42 billion is not peanuts by any measure).

We have read statements from the Prime Minister, his ministers and public officials, the Public Accounts Committee Chairman and opposition politicians but they all add to nothing on the IMDB’s situation. Confusion reigns when facts and fiction are one and the same thing.

As far as the government is concerned, its priority is to ensure that the Prime Minister Najib’s political career is protected since his defenders have a vested interest  in ensuring that he remains in power. A lot of goodies is available for their picking. As a nation, we are not going Greece’s way any time soon, only heading in that direction.

Ascertaining and verifying facts takes a back seat. Cover-ups, yes. Those who seeks facts are made to look like criminals. So any attempt to get to the bottom of the scandal is a crime.  Are we as  a nation  a bunch of perverts? I am beginning to realise that we indeed are. We can no longer  distinguish between right and wrong. Those who we put in positions of high responsibility and trust have failed us by sucking up to Najib.

Those of us who speak up and offer constructive non-partisan views are damned. The Inspector-General of Police, for example, is interested in arresting those who seek to expose 1MDB’s mismanagement of borrowed funds. We are branded prophets of doom because we cannot acknowledge that our economy is “fundamentally sound” and we will be a developed nation by 2020 under Najib. We imagine that our leaders are corrupt and self- serving when they are paragons of virtue and symbols of probity. My MCA friend, for example, labeled us unpatriotic  and ungrateful (tak bersyukur) for not appreciating Najib as a transformational leader.–Din Merican

Seeking the truth is a crime, only in Najib’s Malaysia

 by Joe Fernandez@www.freemalaysiatoday.com

Those who allege tampering of documents would have to prove it in Court through subject matter experts taking the witness stand

His mission: Protect his political master, that is Patriotism

It appears that apologists for the Najib administration are trying to imply in the mainstream media in particular that opposition leaders, an UMNO leader and The Sarawak Report Editor Clare Rewcastle-Brown met with ex-Petro Saudi International director Xavier Andre Justo, 49, apparently in Singapore.

If so, it would seem to indicate that something positive, on their part, did take place in search of the truth on the scandal-ridden 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB). Such meetings by themselves are not a crime. There must be a law before there can be a crime.No law, no crime. Nullum crimen, nulla poena sine praevia lege poenali (there exists no crime and no punishment without a pre-existing law.)

The apologists would like the people to believe that the meeting or meetings with Justo was actually part of a conspiracy, based on tampered documents, to bring down Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak. In law, those who allege tampering would have to prove it through subject matter experts taking the witness stand in Court, not in the media.

The theories of the apologists, to digress a little, don’t explain the Wall Street Journal Report of Friday 3 July which alleged that nearly USD700 million entered Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak’s personal banking accounts at AmBank Islamic private banking services.

Najib himself has never denied the allegations.

Instead, his lawyers have merely sent a letter to the WSJ demanding to know whether the American paper stood by its story. The letter was in fact sent after the WSJ had issued a statement confirming that it stood by its story and that it would vigorously defend any law suit launched against it over the said allegations.

He is corrupt to help UMNO

Najib meanwhile keeps saying that he would never steal (for himself) the people’s money, that he had never used any monies (meaning AmBank) for personal purposes, that he would not be so stupid as to steal government money and keep it in the country in his personal accounts, and that he would never betray the people i.e. steal their money and use it for personal purposes.

The jury is not out on the WSJ report.

Away from that little digression, the Thai Police have confirmed in a media statement that Justo did confess that he tried to “blackmail” his former employers and that he handed over company documents in his possession to certain parties. These documents were not tampered. The Thais are holding him on the basis of a Police report lodged in Thailand by PetroSaudi, alleging that Justo was trying to blackmail it and extort RM10 million using company documents he had in his possession.

Justo, in a statement after his arrest, claimed that he wanted to claim the balance of RM15 million in compensation promised to him by the company before his departure under somewhat unhappy circumstances.

If Justo did sign a non-disclosure agreement with the company, the onus is on it to take him to Court. The state would not take action on behalf of any party, in civil suits.

The company did indicate in an earlier media statement, in conjunction with Justo’s arrest and detention, that it paid him RM15 million in compensation after they had to dismiss him on the grounds of “misbehaviour”. Misbehaviour would merit summary dismissal, not compensation.

Interestingly, the Thai Police have confirmed that they would not hand over any material on the Justo case in Thailand to Malaysian authorities.

Also, they are keeping him in detention for another 60 days — perhaps in protective custody — pending final resolution on the case.