Malaysia PM Najib Razak ‘has to go’, says ex-leader Mahathir

David Pilling in Kuala Lumpur

Financial Times

August 26, 2015

Behind the political crisis engulfing Najib Razak, prime minister of Malaysia, lies nearly $700m that somehow made its way into his personal bank account. Behind that, according to leaked documents, lies a state development fund with $11bn in debts. Behind everything, however, sits a 90-year-old, for two decades the unassailable leader of this erstwhile Southeast Asian success story, who is doing all in his power to topple the present prime minister.

That at least is the claim of those around Mr Najib, who accuse Mahathir Mohamad, Malaysia’s forceful former prime minister, of mounting what they describe as a coup d’état. “He has abused his position and done everything he can to undermine his successors just because his list of personal demands is not being met,” says a person close to government.

Mr Najib strenuously denies any wrongdoing or accepting money for personal gain. The funds in his account, he says, came from an unnamed Middle Eastern benefactor — an explanation endorsed by the country’s anti-corruption commission.

Mr Mahathir is having none of it. “I don’t believe it is a donation. I don’t believe anybody would give [that much], whether an Arab, or anybody,” he says in his no-nonsense style. Straight-backed and wearing his familiar khaki suit, the sharp-as-knives nonagenarian is clearly enjoying his duel with the man he handpicked six years ago to run this Muslim country of 30m people.

“I think at some stage he has to go because today he has undermined the legal system,” he says, referring to Mr Najib’s dismissal of the attorney-general and his promotion of officials who had been co-ordinating an investigation into 1Malaysia Development Berhad, the fund at the centre of the controversy. Those moves, together with the sacking of his deputy prime minister, who had criticised Mr Najib, have in effect shut down the inquiry, Mr Mahathir says. “They should be allowed to investigate, but he’s dismantled the institutions.”

The bitter feud between Mr Mahathir and Mr Najib, a political blue-blood whose father was prime minister in the 1970s, has laid bare a crisis of legitimacy within the United Malays National Organisation, which has run Malaysia unbroken since independence in 1957. Umno, of which Mr Najib is president, squeaked back into power in the 2013 general election despite losing the popular vote.

Since then, Malaysia’s economy has taken a turn for the worse, buffeted by low prices for oil and gas, which make up nearly 30 per cent of government revenue, and by the slowdown — and now currency devaluation — in China. The Malaysian ringgit has fallen to 17-year lows and the stock market, down more than a quarter this year, has been the worst-performing in Asia over the past 12 months.

As if this were not enough, Mr Najib is fighting a firestorm of accusations around 1MDB, the acronym now familiar to almost every Malaysian. Established in 2009 under Mr Najib, who is chairman of 1MDB’s advisory board, the purported goal of the fund was to help catalyse Malaysia’s transition to a high-income economy.

Yet instead of funding new areas of economic activity, 1MDB mostly snapped up aged power stations in Malaysia, Egypt, Bangladesh and elsewhere as well as plots of government land in Kuala Lumpur at what Mr Mahathir says were knockdown prices. On the other hand, say critics, the fund overpaid significantly for its power stations. 1MDB denies that, saying Goldman Sachs carried out an independent valuation.

Sceptics also wonder why 1MDB had to borrow, particularly since it paid fat fees for several bond issues, three of which, totalling $6.5bn, were arranged by Goldman Sachs for fees and commissions approaching $600m.

“When you borrow the money, it’s not sovereign wealth, its sovereign debt,” scoffs Mr Mahathir in a well-rehearsed line. “I told the prime minister that we don’t need this and sure enough he got into trouble.”

Now the fund is struggling to service those debts and is engaged in a disposal of assets aimed, say insiders, at winding it down altogether. The people now running 1MDB, which has seen several senior executives depart in its short, turbulent history, deny accusations from opposition politicians that it has been used as a political slush fund. Instead, they say, it was an innovative financial vehicle that now faces a cash crunch because it was slow to monetise assets, particularly landholdings.

The Sarawak Report, a UK-based blog, and the Wall Street Journal last month published documents appearing to show that money in the prime minister’s account had been transferred there by agencies, banks and companies linked to 1MDB. Mr Najib vigorously denies any link between those funds and 1MDB, saying some of the documents are forged. The Financial Times has not been able to verify the claim independently.

Undeterred, Mr Mahathir says of the nearly $700m in Mr Najib’s account: “I think it has something to do with 1MDB despite the explanation that it was a donation.”

With the investigations dragging, attention has shifted to possible dissent within Umno, where rumours of plots against Mr Najib abound. However, Ibrahim Suffian, director of independent polling group the Merdeka Centre, says the prime minister’s moves against opponents have strengthened his hand. “I think he’s pretty stable within the party,” he says, adding that backing from Umno is more important than fast-evaporating public support.

Mr Najib’s position is bolstered by the fact the opposition coalition has fractured, largely because Anwar Ibrahim, its charismatic leader — and another protégé who fell foul of Mr Mahathir — is in jail for sodomy.

Although Mr Mahathir stepped down in 2003, he has remained a kingmaker — and king-breaker — since then. “He can’t accept he is no longer the prime minister, and thinks no one else is capable of governing Malaysia,” says one person close to the government.

I think at some stage he has to go because today he has undermined the legal system.

Critics say it is hypocritical of the former prime minister to accuse Mr Najib of concentrating power in his own hands, using patronage and eroding the independence of institutions. “Najib is just taking a page out of Mahathir’s playbook,” says Mr Suffian.

The affair has exposed brutal infighting inside Umno, one of the world’s longest-surviving ruling parties. Prominently displayed in Mr Mahathir’s office is a Fijian war club, once used by cannibals. “It’s for breaking your skull and then eating your brains,” Mr Mahathir says with a chuckle.

                This entry was posted on Friday, 28 August 2015, 4:50 am and is filed under
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Malaysia: Why 1MDB Scandal Won’t Topple Najib

By Shuli Ren

Barron’s Asia

August 26, 2015

Malaysia’s Prime Minister Najib Razak turned to the 1998 currency peg “old guards” to stabilize the sliding ringgit, while thousands are expected to turn up in a rally this coming weekend to protest against his role in the 1MDB scandal.

The Malaysian ringgit stabilized this morning after Bill Dudley, the New York Fed president, said overnight that a September rate hike was looking less likely. The ringgit has fallen from 3.60 in May to 4.23 recently.

Najib seems to be taking a page out of former premier Mahathir Mohamad‘s playbook. He appointed former Second Finance Minister Nor Mohamed Yakcop, who helped Mahathir design Malaysia’s now-abandoned capital controls and currency peg.

Meanwhile, large “Bersih 4.0″ rallies in Kuala Lumpur, Kinabalu and Kuching will likely hit global headlines this weekend.

But foreign analysts do not seem to believe Najib will go. One reason is that the opposition does not have a viable leader – the rebel icon Anwar Ibrahim is now in prison for sodomy. ” In the past three Bersih rallies, the public was drawn by the charisma of Anwar, a former UMNO leader who has been physically and politically abused after a fallout with party strongman Mahathir Mohammad in the 1990s,” wrote Eurasia Group‘s Achmad Sukarsono.

In the coming days, Najib will likely play the race card. The rally will be led by the urban middle class and dominated by the more prosperous Chinese and Indian ethnic minority. In an August 23 speech, Najib already said Malays and Muslims would be deprived if his UMNO party loses power.

“We continue to believe that Najib will survive the crisis he faces at 1MDB and his focus will be to consolidate power in the party and in government,” wrote Eurasia.

Now the wild card is former premier Mahathir Mohamad. He said in an interview with the Financial Times that Najib “has to go“. Will he be the king slayer again this time?

But even if Najib resigned, he would likely be replaced by another UMNO insider, which does not change the overall economic fundamentals in Malaysia, according to London-based Capital Economics. See my yesterday’s blog “Ringgit At 17-Year Low: 1MDB Scandal Holds Malaysia Back“.

The Malaysia KL Composite Index rose 0.75% this morning, hardly any gain considering the entire Asia was rallying. Indonesia’s Jakarta Composite Index jumped 2.6%, while the Philippines SEI Index rose 1.8%. The iShares MSCI Malaysia ETF (EWM) rose 3.7% overnight.

                This entry was posted on Friday, 28 August 2015, 5:00 am and is filed under
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Malaysia’s Economy Faces Severe Strain

by Joshua Kurlantzick

Council on Foreign Relations

August 26, 2015

Like any Southeast Asian economy whose trade with China is a major foundation of growth, Malaysia was bound to suffer as the Chinese economy staggered and Chinese stock markets plunged. Malaysia is China’s largest trading partner in Southeast Asia, and Malaysia-China two-way trade topped $100 billion in 2014.

But Malaysia now faces economic challenges far beyond the impact of the slowdown in the Chinese economy, as well as international investors’ apparent growing fear of emerging markets. Malaysia’s own stock market has plummeted this summer, and the Malaysian ringgit is reaching lows against the dollar not seen in nearly two decades—since the time of the Asian financial crisis. As John Berthelsen of Asia Sentinel noted earlier this week:

Malaysia’s central bank is clearly losing the battle to defend its national currency, the ringgit, which fell to RM4.2275:US$1 on Aug. 24 before recovering slightly on Bank Negara [central bank] buying…The Swiss bank UBS last Friday, Aug. 21, issued an alert saying the magnitude and speed of the currency’s decline ‘exceeded our bearish expectations,’ falling 24 percent against the US dollar over the past year.

Malaysia’s economy has suffered on several fronts. For one, although the Malaysian government joined negotiations for the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, the slow movement on that deal, and the slow pace of completing the ASEAN Economic Community, may have made some investors rethink their commitments to Malaysia. Since Malaysia’s workforce is no longer competitive, in terms of labor costs, with that of neighboring nations like Vietnam or Bangladesh, the completion of these trade deals is important for Kuala Lumpur to attract investment; foreign investment into Malaysia fell by nearly fifty percent year-on-year through the first half of 2015. The low global price of oil also has hurt Malaysia, a major exporter of oil and gas.

Most damaging, however, Malaysia’s months of political turmoil have unsettled both domestic and foreign investors, shaken confidence in the country’s leadership, and led to worries about the independence of Malaysia’s central bank. The continued public battle between Prime Minister Najib tun Razak and former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad has weakened Najib’s ability to lead, as have the swirling rumors and alleged investigations into state fund 1MDB and the supposed transfer of over $600 million into the personal offshore accounts of Najib. Najib has never fully denied the transfer of these funds, but his allies have stated that the money did not come from 1MDB and that Najib was just holding the funds for his party to use, not for him to use on himself. Meanwhile, last month Najib dismissed several top Cabinet members, including the attorney general, in what some Malaysian commentators have argued was an attempt to neuter any investigations into the funds transfer.

The government also has launched a crackdown on dissent, including jailing anti-government protesters last week and attempting to pursue criminal charges against media outlets that have reported stories about 1MDB and the government. Reform groups and opposition politicians have continued to call for street protests, adding to uncertainty over Malaysia’s future; some reports have suggested that the opposition and a group of politicians from the governing coalition might hold a no confidence vote in parliament. The crackdown on dissent seems to have further unsettled markets, and possibly sparked greater capital flight from Malaysia, a country already plagued by high levels of capital flight. Antigovernment protests are still planned for later this week.

Some Malaysian commentators fear that the government’s crackdown will extend to the respected head of the central bank, Zeti Akhtar Ahmad. Central bank investigators apparently have been in the lead of probes into 1MDB and the Najib government, and may have been the sources for the many recent news articles about 1MDB and alleged irregularities in the fund. Although the head of the central bank has vowed that she is not going anywhere, and is protected by law from direct removal by the prime minister, Malaysia’s politics have become so contentious and unpredictable that even the central bank head’s position is not fully secure.

                This entry was posted on Friday, 28 August 2015, 6:35 am and is filed under
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Malaysia’s Prime Minister Najib Razak dodging anti-corruption spotlight

Lindsay Murdoch

South-East Asia correspondent for Fairfax Media

Sydney Morning Herald

August 28, 2015

Bangkok: Embattled Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak has cancelled a speech at the world’s top anti-corruption conference as he refuses to explain $US700 million ($982 million) in his personal bank account.

Mr Najib was listed as a speaker to the up to 2000 delegates from more than 100 countries attending the International Anti-Corruption Conference in Kuala Lumpur next week.

But the Prime Minister’s photograph and biography have been removed from the website of the conference which the Malaysian government is hosting.

For days Malaysia’s social media had been swamped with posts ridiculing Mr Najib’s attendance at the conference that is held somewhere in the world every two years.

Mr Najib has made no public comment about his cancellation as tensions rise ahead of planned mass anti-Najib rallies in Kuala Lumpur and other Malaysian cities this weekend.

More than 100,000 protesters are expected to rally in Kuala Lumpur demanding Mr Najib’s resignation over Malaysia’s biggest scandal in decades, despite police declaring it illegal and threats to arrest rally leaders.

Pro-government groups are also planning counter rallies, raising the possibility of violent confrontations.

Malaysia’s government has become paralysed and deeply divided as the country has been transfixed for weeks on how $US700 million found its way into Mr Najib’s account in 2013 and where the money is now.

Allegations are also swirling around state investment fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad which Mr Najib founded and oversees through chairmanship of a government committee.

The fund has debts in excess of $US11 billion.

Mr Najib initially dismissed a Wall Street Journal report on July 2 detailing the money transfers into his account and threatened to sue the newspaper while strongly denying any wrongdoing.

But members of his cabinet and Malaysia’s anti-graft body have since acknowledged the transfers, calling them “political donations” from an unidentified Middle Eastern source.

Malaysian Deputy Prime minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi last week claimed he had meet the mysterious donor who told him the money was to ensure Mr Najib’s administration was returned at 2013 elections.

Malaysia’s opposition Justice Party has filed a suit against Mr Najib and the country’s Election Commission alleging the donations were illegal and as a result the 2013 election should be declared null and void.

Mr Najib’s coalition lost the popular vote at the election but held on to power because of a gerrymandered voting system.

Former Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad, who has been leading calls for Mr Najib to resign, fired another broadside in his latest blog, saying Mr Najib and his supporters should stop thinking Malaysians are “stupid”.

“Malaysians would not like to believe their candidate for the highest office in the country is a nominee of some person from another country,” Dr Mahathir wrote. ‘”Will he serve Malaysians or some foreign country?”

Fighting for his political life, Mr Najib, 62, has alleged a political conspiracy to topple him by unnamed opponents while sacking or reassigning officials who were investigating the scandal and purging cabinet ministers who called for answers.

But his efforts to contain the scandal were set back when Swiss authorities last week said they had opened criminal proceedings related to 1Malaysia Development Berhad.

Switzerland’s Attorney-General’s Office said its case involved “suspected corruption of public foreign officials, dishonest management of public interests and money laundering”.

Last month Singapore froze two bank accounts in connection with investigations into the fund and the Monetary Authority of Singapore said it would share information with Malaysian investigators.

Analysts say Mr Najib’s hold on power has become even more tenuous as foreign investors abandon the country and the ringgit currency falls to an 18-year low.

Malaysia’s economic growth has also taken a huge hit from faltering oil prices.

Mr Najib’s fall would be a blow to the Australian government’s regional diplomacy.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott has repeatedly praised Mr Najib as a model for the world’s Muslim leaders.

During his 22 years in power Dr Mahathir remained antagonistic towards Australia, often blocking Canberra’s efforts to integrate in south-east Asia.

                This entry was posted on Friday, 28 August 2015, 6:26 am and is filed under
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Marching for my beloved country Malaysia during Bersih 4.0 this weekend

By Lim K.H.

Yahoo! News

27th August 2015

The villagers lined the street on both sides patiently waiting, hands behind their back holding a stone in each. It would be a matter of time that the Federal Reserve Units (FRU) or ‘Ang Thou Peng’ would arrive. They did. The FRU contingent arrived in their red trucks, and started marching in formation fully geared. The situation was tense. They marched down the road along Kampong Pulau or ‘Tua Lor Au’, as our village is called in Penang, within arms length of the people. It was a show of strength. Everyone waited patiently until one decided to release his stone with a good aim. Then all hell broke loose.

Villagers scrambled in all directions chased by the well-equipped police, who beat down anyone they could catch.

It got more violent by the day, as they introduced tear gas and eventually curfews to keep the villagers in their houses. Through the riot several canisters of tear gas fell through our atap rooftops into our kitchen when they were randomly fired from the street towards the village houses, forcing our family to take shelter.

What wrong have we done to deserve that treatment? The market strike in 1967 was a result of the currency devaluation. The weeks following the strike were fearful. Racial riots followed but how were they related? It was always easy to put the blame on race to stir up emotions and forget the real reason behind the events, in this case currency devaluation. The riots led to 24-hour curfews with short breaks for the purchase of food but shop shelves were empty. As an 11-year-old then, I could not fully understand the event or the implications of it, but living through the experience brought many lessons.

So why am I going back 48 years in undocumented history? Three weeks ago, I was confronted by a close friend when I could not show my clear support for Bersih 4. I questioned the logic of another street protest. I remembered 1967 with clear images of the events and do not wish to see a repeat. I am hopeful that our country still has strong fundamentals of a civilised society, rule of law, tested parliamentary democracy and a leader I once believed could lead this country out of the doldrums and bring our people together as ONE MALAYSIA.

Yes, I know the current situation in Malaysia is worrying and I share the pain as the cost of living rises against stagnant incomes, despite the well-crafted economic plans. I fear that corrupt practices may become a way of life and institutions weakened by poor leadership. But I harboured hopes that things would turn around, wrong-doers would realise that there is a limit to their misdeeds and that our tested democratic system would magically work.

But recent events have proven me wrong. The same rhetoric and racial tones are still being used to divide and rule. It seemed like no amount of pressure from well-meaning individuals in Malaysia and around the world could bring the current leadership to rethink for the good of the country.

It’s sad to know that while the people are not divided among themselves, there are forces pushing that agenda. I was in Kuantan, Pahang, during Ramadan and had the best time at the stalls sharing the wide variety of food on offer by polite and friendly people. One of the students I sat next to in school was Mustafa. The difference between us was that he plays hockey while I played rugby in school. I was trained as a Master Mariner and eventually commanded a Malaysian flag ship. On board, officers and crew work, eat, and live together as one close community. Our Malaysian issue was not about race. It was about leadership, accountability, integrity and trust.

In the last three weeks one thing became clear: hope has to come with action. If I don’t take action and make my way to Kuala Lumpur on 29 August, I know there will only be regret. So yes, I will be marching on Saturday and Sunday, ‘berganding bahu’ (hand in hand) with fellow conscientious Malaysians for that ray of hope and a brighter future for all Malaysians.

Capt Lim K.H. is a Malaysian who has had the opportunity to live and work with people of various cultures and backgrounds. He has been residing in Singapore for 13 years, but still stood up to sing Negara Ku when Malaysia won gold at the recent SEA games. The views expressed here are his own.

                This entry was posted on Friday, 28 August 2015, 5:47 am and is filed under
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No more Mr Nice Guy

Economist

Aug 29th 2015 | KUALA LUMPUR

Beset by scandal, Malaysia’s prime minister cracks down on dissent

DOWN a quiet lane in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia’s capital, campaigners at trestle tables are doing a roaring trade in yellow T-shirts. The volunteers have already flogged more than 30,000 of the garments, which are becoming de rigueur for Malaysians planning to attend protests on August 29th-30th to demand the resignation of the country’s prime minister, Najib Razak. The protests are being organised by Bersih (meaning “clean” in Malay), a loose union of non-government groups calling for electoral reform. In 2012 police dispersed thousands of Bersih protesters with tear gas and water cannons and arrested about 500. This weekend’s rally in Kuala Lumpur, which authorities say is illegal, could yet go the same way. Maria Chin Abdullah of Bersih hopes that at least 200,000 Malaysians will protest in three cities. Malaysia’s political system, she says, “has really become quite rotten”.

The planned protests are the latest turn in a wild saga which has gathered pace since early July, when the Wall Street Journal reported that nearly $700m had found its way into bank accounts owned by Mr Najib shortly before a close-fought general election in 2013. Much has been made of the suggestion that the money is somehow linked to 1MDB, a state investment firm struggling to service debts of around $11 billion. Its dealings are now the subject of an investigation in Switzerland, through which some of its cash may have passed.

Mr Najib vigorously denies the suggestion and says he has never used public money for personal gain. Rather, senior members of his party, the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), assert that the prime minister received a legal political donation from a wealthy but as yet unnamed Arab family which approves of UMNO rule. On August 22nd local media reported one party chief as saying that UMNO had hoped the cash would help it reverse gains being made by a popular ethnic-Chinese opposition party, which he claimed was backed by clandestine Jews.

Digging in

The prime minister’s opponents say he is dodging a proper investigation. In July he sacked his deputy, who had begun to question his handling of the affair, and promoted to the cabinet several members of a committee which had been arranging hearings into alleged mismanagement at 1MDB. In short order the attorney-general was replaced (supposedly on health grounds), a pesky police chief was retired and several members of the country’s anti-corruption commission pushed aside.

The media is under the cosh too. A government agency has suspended the printing licences of two troublesome newspapers, while ministers say they are mulling new rules to curb speculation on social media. In August police issued an arrest warrant for Clare Rewcastle Brown, a British investigative journalist living in London (and sister-in-law of Gordon Brown, a former British prime minister); her blog, the Sarawak Report, has closely covered the affair. The charge against her, of participating in “activity detrimental to parliamentary democracy”, reflects the government’s contention that its critics are part of a sinister conspiracy.

The crackdown has underscored the weakness of Malaysia’s institutions and displayed a new ruthlessness in Mr Najib. An urbane, British-educated scion of a political family, he seems to have abandoned earlier efforts to paint himself as a reformer. But he is digging in. Meanwhile the state of the economy, which Mr Najib had claimed to be carefully tending, grows more parlous. The country is running down foreign-currency reserves to prop up the ringgit, down by more than 16% this year. A slowing China and falling prices for commodities triggered the currency slide, but the political drama has accelerated it.

Mr Najib’s resilience says much about the dominance of his party, which has led Malaysia’s ruling coalitions for six decades. UMNO is easily the most popular party among ethnic-Malay Muslims, who make up more than half of the population and who trust the party to defend racial laws that give them a leg up over their ethnic-Chinese and ethnic-Indian compatriots. Gerrymandered electoral districts, compliant courts and the use of colonial-era sedition laws have helped it to shore up its power—even when, as in the last election, the opposition won most of the votes but a minority of seats in parliament.

The main risk of being turfed from office comes from within the party. It is why UMNO bigwigs have long fostered deep lines of patronage that make them hard to budge. The party hierarchy has tended to reward loyalty over ability and to punish upstarts. Even a torrent of criticism from UMNO’s senior statesman, Mahathir Mohamad, who saw off several challengers himself while prime minister from 1981 to 2003, has failed to unbalance Mr Najib.

In private many MPs from his party express little enthusiasm for the prime minister. But nor do they spy challengers whom they would risk their careers to support. The recent sackings have been a bracing reminder of what happens to critics. Some in UMNO have grown guarded about what they write in e-mails or say on the phone. It is lost on no one that Mr Najib’s new deputy prime minister is also the country’s home minister, responsible for its police. The fate of Anwar Ibrahim—a former UMNO star who went across to the opposition and who is in jail, for the second time, on an iffy sodomy charge—is a reminder that demotion is not the worst punishment Malaysian politics can impose.

At some point Mr Najib’s plunging popularity may be perceived to imperil an UMNO victory at the next general election. At that point the cleanest way for party dissidents to defenestrate the prime minister would be at UMNO polls for the party leadership. Yet these have been postponed by 18 months, perhaps to see off just such a threat. A more imminent challenge is a vote of no confidence which opposition politicians plan to force through when Parliament reconvenes in October. The hope is that enough parliamentarians from the UMNO-led ruling coalition will back the idea of a technocratic government, drawn from both sides, which would hold power until the general election, due in 2018. One possible candidate for prime minister is Razaleigh Hamzah, an elder statesman popular among business leaders.

This scheme remains unlikely, but it could get a boost if many tens of thousands of Malaysians take to the streets on August 29th. Yet it is also possible that the protest could end up rallying ethnic-Malay support for Mr Najib. Recent rifts in the multi-ethnic opposition have led to worries that many ethnic-Malay supporters of the opposition and of previous Bersih rallies may not turn out this time. The risk is that a big rally dominated by ethnic Chinese and Indians would inflame the pernicious sore, scratched on UMNO’s fringes, that the country’s Islamic heritage is under threat from non-Malays. That is a fiendish trap.

                This entry was posted on Friday, 28 August 2015, 6:04 am and is filed under
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Remembering the Merdeka narrative

Netusha Naidu

The Malaysian Insider

27 August 2015

During a recent trip to Sri Lanka, I had the opportunity to observe the country’s general election. Local and international commentary suggested that this was their “most peaceful election” as it celebrated the notorious “warrior king’s” failed return to politics – a strong indication that the Ceylonese community had a solid stand against the anti-democratic culture of the Rajapaksa regime.

Intriguingly, one could clearly observe the nation’s drive to rebuild from the rubble of armed violence by the regime and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam (more popularly known as the Tamil Tigers).

Many citizens were aware of their political rights as voters as shops were closed – whether in the city of Colombo or the rural town of Dambulla, they had gone to the polling stations to cast their ideals for a better Sri Lanka. Best of all was to see the “tuk-tuk” drivers proudly showing their ink-stained fingers when I asked them how the voting had gone!

To a foreigner, the land’s political landscape appears on a track of optimistic progress as there is a strengthening civil society movement for institutional reforms that strives for greater check and balance, promoting the independence and integrity of democratic politics – such as the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption which I saw on the way to the ancient city of Sigiriya, where I could not help but lament at the state of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) due to the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) debacle.

The great element that I found admirable was the collective persistence to restore Sri Lanka’s democratic principles based on the commemoration of its past. In Jaffna, once the heart of the 30-year civil war – some of the bigger monuments of destruction have been left there and marked with signage stating boldly, “SAY NO TO DESTRUCTION. NEVER AGAIN!”, “THINK BEFORE YOU VOTE – A NATION FREE OF CORRUPTION” and “NO MORE VIOLENCE. KEEP THE DEMOCRACY ALIVE!” – there was a constant reinforcement to move beyond its dark days and restore the former glory of their renowned heritage of peace.

Similarly, with the situation in Malaysia, I sense a desperate need to recall our history as we battle to “topple” the unfamiliar culture of our politics today. It is most certain that this nation has deviated from the vision of progress, presented by our founding fathers – the Merdeka narrative has long disappeared.

The continuity of the Merdeka narrative lies in the appreciation of our historical literature that encapsulates the notions of liberal secularism as embedded in the Federal Constitution. It upholds the rule of law and individual liberty that acts as the foundation of promoting transparency, accountability, trust, tolerance and most crucially, unity in diversity.

Tunku Abdul Rahman even once said, “The last thing people in this country want to see is a Malaysia divided into political extremes, for a nation divided against itself can only invite trouble.”

As we see today, we have come to this point of disarray in Malaysia. It is in my belief that much of it stems from the erosion of our historical literacy due to faults in our education system. A lot of us have forgotten the core ideas underlying the spirit of Merdeka.

Over the years, we have seen some attention drawn towards the structure and syllabus of the history textbooks taught in schools and yet, many of these concerns on factual errors, imbalanced perspectives and propaganda-laced inaccuracies that promote the political interest of a specific group, have gone completely unheeded.

Until now, it seems that there is still not enough emphasis on reforming historical education in our schools, so much so that it has now completely disfigured the values and principles that are vital in civil society and governance.

Even as a student in secondary school, I could recall the entire “memorise and regurgitate” system that removed any sense of passion or interest in learning our own history, especially since it was already polluted with the prohibition of intellectual freedom in the classrooms. Inevitably, this has led to common disregard for the purpose of historical education in preserving this narrative.

This has indeed become the crux of the matter because in order to maintain the integrity of our institutions and national unity, there has to be a constant reminder of the liberal democratic culture with which the country was founded, in the hearts and minds of ourselves and our leaders.

With this notion in mind, I cannot help but the echo the words of Tunku ‘Abidin Muhriz in his book, “Roaming Beyond the Fence”:

“The parties today are trying to claim a genealogy to the history of this country in order to portray ideological purity and continuity, and as a result history is being debased… to just another marker of irreconcilable polarisation. The only way to fix this is for us to reclaim history for ourselves.”

For too long, most of us have left the ideas for a better nation to the historical narratives of our politicians, where it has been subject to the abuse and perversions that have caused confusion over what makes up the Malaysian identity. In order to save our country, this ought to change.

In the midst of restoring democracy in Malaysia, it is indeed true that we need to reclaim our historical understanding for the empowerment of our citizens to be equipped with the ideals of this nation.

We need to be able to freely contest and debate the decisions of our past leaders, and have recollections of championing of our freedoms so that we are reminded of the supremacy of our constitutional rights.

It is remembering the tenacity of people like our very own founding fathers and their vision of the future when they fought for Malaysia’s independence that becomes the light at the end of a long haul to revitalise the Merdeka narrative, even after 58 years. – August 27, 2015.

                This entry was posted on Friday, 28 August 2015, 4:41 am and is filed under
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What exactly are you waiting for?

 — Kenneth Cheng

The Malay Mail Online

August 27, 2015

AUG 27 — If there is anything still worth salvaging for the ever sinking Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak, It was undisputedly clear that all has been gone down the drain yesterday.

It seemed out of desperation and utter stupidity, he proclaims that Malays would be bastardised if UMNO is not ruling Malaysia anymore.

While the statement is not what the writer hopes to discuss, but he can’t help but feel amused because the Malays he has come to know in Singapore turned out just fine.

In fact the confident, faithful and gentle Malays that the author befriended in Singapore are everything that is antithesis to the term ‘bangsat’.

And every Malaysian should feel ashamed of the designation used by the unprimed-ministerial Prime Minister. Because neither any Malays nor any single human whom refuses to support his government are bastard. In fact the very word should only be confined in the realm of Game of Thrones, instead of being applied by politicians for his own political agenda.

Unfortunately, this is UMNO Barisan Nasional at his hideously prime, playing the same old tricks again, by instilling fear and sense of security among the Malays to perpetuate their ruling.

Also, the high handed abuse of power to paralyze the 1MDB task force, undermining the institution of MACC, and co-opting the members of Public Account of Committee into the cabinet has also done considerable damage to the country.

And you know the end is nigh when Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad himself started speaking of rule of law being turned upside-down, and spelling the end of democracy!

Consequently, some of you might wonder why Bersih 4.0 emerges, at this very juncture of history, when the country is as one can see at her lowest and most vulnerable state.

Is that a work of a group of opportune politicians? Is Tun Mahathir instigating it as a final straw to topple Najib? Or maybe it is just like what Tan Keng Liang has predicted all along, Bersih is here to bring chaos and disorder.

But above all realms of possibility, the author chose to believe a different kind of narrative. Bersih emerges out of hope for the future. Hope for the Malaysians, of the Malaysians and by the Malaysians. Bersih is also a voice, a voice unmatched by any mouthpiece, hoping to let all the leaders that have constantly failed the Malaysians to start listening.

Bersih is also about defending the rights of your fellow Malaysians, cautioning the government not to divide us anymore because there is not a single Malaysian that is more ‘malaysian’ than the others.

Bersih is also about believing what a Malaysia should be, a nation where respect and recognition were accorded internationally because of different ethnics and backgrounds in Malaysia are able to cohesively be bound together by a common cause – Malaysia. Bersih is also about zero tolerance towards injustice, Bersih would march again as long as the alleged corruptions and abuse of power is not rectified, and at the very least not properly explained.

Thus, Bersih demands a clean slate for this beloved country, a clean and fair election, a clean home where our next generations will suffer no fear nor discrimination, a clean spirit of Merdeka where being a fellow Malaysian finally means something and a clean economy build on the country’s rich resources, diversity and her cherished human capital. And most importantly,

Bersih is a statement to politicians from both divide that the people’s power is here to stay and WE ARE TAKING BACK OUR COUNTRY.

But, most of all, Bersih is also a number game, a kind of simple mathematics not burdened by any extricate formulas nor solutions, but boils down to a simple head count. A general will (if the number permits) should flood the city of KL and Dataran Merdeka might just found his very own raison d’etre again (If the police duly obliged). This may in turn translates to invincible pressure creeping up to Najib and his cabinet’s shoulder.

Moreover, there might be a remote possibility that the cabinet members will feel the same sort of pressure, likewise UMNO grassroots or even leader might even feel the pinch, judging by the massive turnout of BERSIH. They might seriously starting to contemplate wether a Najib-led Coalition achieved nothing more than a total loss for the coming next election.

This substantiated apprehension might in turn strengthen the dissident voice within and outside of UMNO and increase the bargaining chip on reopening an investigation on our scandal-ridden PM. Who knows, a motion of no-confidence vote might even be raised if Bersih is deemed successful.

However, a meagre number of attendance would signal the beginning of an end of something, injecting confidence to the ruling government that the general will has never deserted them, they are in fact a government that has the full public’s backing and confidence. Instead of reclaiming what is, at the first place, belongs to us, we are (again) acquiescing to the government.

For then, the days where government knows best are truly ahead of us, and paternalism is the rule of the day. Parliament is a merely talk-show, the spirit of check and balances will always be haunted by the abuse of power’s mechanism, and we will never know who is the generous donor of 2.6 billion.

Thus, one might realize Bersih is nothing more than a public referendum, deciding what is next for this beloved yet directionless country.

However, what is a referendum, but merely the wishes of the ordinary Malaysians, whom wanted nothing more than the betterment of his country. Wishes that Malaysians had always wanted, yet seemed so unattainable at times. Wishes that are no different to the Greeks who wanted an end to austerity. Wishes that ultimately predicates upon your courage to realize it.

Come this Saturday, there will be stubborn Malaysians walking the walk, so they may have a shot on the future they wished for. They are desperate for your presence. They wanted someone to tell them you will never walk alone. They yearned for more people who share their dreams. They hope to see everyone in this country that shared what they could only dreamt of previously. They will rejoiced, they will start talking to you, they will offer you kindness where no stranger you met for the first time will ever do. Ultimately, they wanted to build a country with you.

So to those who are still glancing down from your imaginary ivory tower.

What exactly are you waiting for?

                This entry was posted on Friday, 28 August 2015, 10:20 am and is filed under
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What Malaysians want  is for Najib  to  break his silence on the RM2.6 billion “donation” scandal which has hogged both national and international news

The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak has finally broken his silence over the Bersih 4 rally, criticizing organisers for timing the demonstration in  a way that it would clash with the Merdeka celebration.

Najib could have made the Bersih 4 rally an outstanding part of the Merdeka celebrations, especially if he is ready to make an appearance at the Bersih 4 rally and have a dialogue with the Bersih 4 organisers and principal supporters on the state of democracy, economy and nation-building 58 years after Merdeka in 1957.

But what all Malaysians want from the Prime Minister is for him to break his silence on the RM2.6 billion donation scandal in his personal bank accounts, which had hogged both national and international news.

In the past two months, Malaysia have repeatedly made international headlines – but for all the wrong reasons which are either most unedifying to the nation  or prejudicial to the good name and standing of Malaysia in international circles.

Najib must have set another world record  when he became the first head of government to pull out of  an international conference which had the country had lobbied  hard and long to host and which had earlier featured the Prime Minister as the main draw of the conference.

This is the 16th International Anti-Corruption Convention in Putrajaya from Sept 2 – 4, 2015.

It is a sad but eloquent commentary on the state of corruption and good governance  in Malaysia that the Prime Minister had to pull out of the IACC so as to avoid Malaysia becoming an international laughing stock and the Prime Minister spared the supreme embarrassment of declaring the IACC open and delivering a keynote address when the past two months had been Najib’s darkest days in his six-year premiership with regard to the issues of integrity, transparency and anti-corruption?

In fact, the headline of a Sydney Morning Herald report today blared “Malaysia’s Prime Minister Najib Razak dodging anti-corruption spotlight” read:

“Embattled Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak has cancelled a speech at the world’s top anti-corruption conference as he refuses to explain $US700 million ($982 million) in his personal bank account.

“Mr Najib was listed as a speaker to the up to 2000 delegates from more than 100 countries attending the International Anti-Corruption Conference in Kuala Lumpur next week.

“But the Prime Minister’s photograph and biography have been removed from the website of the conference which the Malaysian government is hosting.”

What a terrrible shame and disgrace to the nation, on the occasion of the 48th Merdeka anniversary.

The theme of the 16th IACC is “Ending Impunity: People, Integrity, Action”; and Malaysia through Najib today provides the worst example on the globe on  this theme!

In any event, the right place for Najib to come clean on the two scandals which are now  fully identified with and personalized by him – the RM50 billion 1MDB scandal (according to Muhyiddin Yassin in his final speech as Deputy Prime Minister to Cheras UMNO Division on 26th July 2015) and the RM2.6 billion “donation” scandal – is either through his dialogue at the Bersih 4 rally or his 58th Merdeka Day message over television.

It has not escaped notice that up to now, Najib has failed to respond to the query raised by his former Cabinet colleague who was Minister for International Trade and Industry for over two decades, Tan Sri Rafidah Aziz who questioned whether Najib’s acceptance of RM2.6 billion, said to be from a Middle Eastern donor, has opened Umno to being manipulated by foreigners.

She said: “Umno is the backbone of the BN government. Influencing Umno would mean influencing the government.”

Rafidah said that the RM2.6 billion incident had taken money politics plaguing Umno to new heights, and that other Umno leaders were also in some way responsible for the fiasco.

The RM2.6 billion “donation” has raised very serious questions about our national sovereignty and the independence of the Najib government.

None of the previous Prime Ministers, whether Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tun Razak, Tun Hussein, Tun Mahathir or Tun Abdullah had received a single sen of foreign money to influence the outcome of our general elections from 1959 to 2008.

Najib should fully explain why he has received RM2.6 billion funding from an allegedly Arab source to  influence the outcome of the 13th General Elections in 2013, which seriously compromised the independence of the Malaysian government and the sovereignty of Malaysia.

In the Proclamation of Independence on August 31, 1957 read out by the first premier Tunku Abdul Rahman, this nation was dedicated to be “for ever a sovereign democratic and independent State”, which allows no room for a RM2.6 billion donation from a foreign country to influence the outcome of our general elections, as it compromises our national independence and sovereignty.

There is no better occasion to address this issue than in the Prime Minister’s Merdeka Day Message.

                This entry was posted on Friday, 28 August 2015, 2:46 pm and is filed under
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All about the issues, not yellow, words or numbers

COMMENTARY BY JAHABAR SADIQ, EDITOR

The Malaysian Insider

29 August 2015

Before 6pm yesterday, one of the best jokes in Malaysia was in the form of a riddle. It went like this: why did the chicken cross the road?

Because Tun was on this side.

But after 6pm yesterday, the better joke was that wearing anything yellow with “Bersih 4” was now illegal.

One specific colour, one specific word and one specific number.

Of course, this isn’t the first time such a ban has been gazetted. It happened for Bersih 2 way back in 2011. People ignored it then, people will ignore it now.

Because it isn’t a colour, a word or a number that is uppermost on the minds of those gathering in Kuala Lumpur, Kuching and Kota Kinabalu, or the other cities across the world today.

There are five issues or demands on the table, and those issues are the ones that the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) government must address, rather than decreeing that any yellow clothing with the word Bersih and number 4 is outlawed.

But they appear rather like ostriches and are burying their heads in the sand, hoping the ban and roadblocks will throttle the turnout in Kuala Lumpur today.

Perhaps it will, but the past three Bersih rallies have shown that people from all walks of life, from pensioners to teenagers, politicians to panhandlers, poor to rich, will be trying to converge around Dataran Merdeka – where Malaya’s flag was first raised in August 1957.

Particularly this weekend, as Malaysia celebrates National Day, the name that has come back as a concession to our fellow Malaysians in Sabah and Sarawak.

National Day, however, is also appropriate because Merdeka means freedom and independence.

That, Malaysians are not – neither free nor independent nor trusted by the government to gather at Dataran Merdeka in any combination of yellow, Bersih and 4, to press for five demands.

Instead, the square has been locked down, ahead of the National Day parade to protect the chairs, stage and flags all set up for the August 31 celebrations.

Yet the Malaysian spirit is strong. It triumphed against the British way back in 1957 to gain independence for Malaya. It triumphed against regional powers to form Malaysia in 1963.

So what can a ban on the combination of one colour, one word and one number do? At worst, evoke a snort of derision, and at best, get more people to turn up and thumb their noses at the powers-that-be.

And celebrate Merdeka as they should, together as Malaysians. – August 29, 2015.

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 29 August 2015, 11:14 am and is filed under
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Bangkit lawan penzalim adalah wira, kata Mufti Perlis

The Malaysian Insider

29 August 2015

Menjelang perhimpunan Bersih 4 hari ini, Mufti Perlis Datuk Dr Mohamad Asri Zainul Abidin berkata, sesiapa yang bangkit menentang si zalim yang kuat ataupun pengkhianat yang berkuasa, maka dia pastinya seorang wira.

Baginya, jika hanya wanita yang ramai dalam perhimpunan ini, ia memalukan, katanya yang dipercayai merujuk kepada pengerusi Bersih 2.0, penganjur Bersih 4, yang merupakan seorang wanita iaitu Maria Chin Abdullah.

“Memalukan bagi sesebuah masyarakat ataupun pihak jika tiada wira lelaki yang muncul, sebaliknya hanya wanita yang berani tampil bersuara dan bertindak,” kata beliau yang lebih dikenali sebagai Dr Maza.

Dalam pada itu, beliau juga memberikan ingatan, sesiapa yang ingin memperjuangkan hak rakyat tetapi merosakkan harta awam dan menyakiti mereka yang tidak terbabit, maka dia bukanlah pejuang rakyat tetapi pejuang nafsunya sendiri.

“Pastikan harta awam terpelihara dan mereka yang tidak bersalah selamat,” tulisnya di laman Facebook beliau yang dipercayai ditujukan kepada perhimpunan Bersih 4 yang akan bermula tengahari ini sehingga esok.

Bersih 4 bermula serentak di tiga tempat hari ini, iaitu di ibu negara Kuala Lumpur, Kucing, Sarawak dan Kota Kinabalu, Sabah di samping puluhan bandaraya seluruh dunia yang menunjukkan sokongan.

Semalam, Asri menulis di laman sosial itu, golongan agamawan disarankan tidak hanya menghadkan kajian mereka dan mempelajari hanya sejarah pejuang beragama Islam semata-mata.

Katanya, mereka patut meluaskan ilmu mereka dengan melihat kepada sejarah para pejuang dari pelbagai latar.

Antara contoh pejuang ‘sosialism’ yang dinamakan beliau ialah Che Guevara yang dilabelkannya sebagai pejuang handal dengan nilai positif.

“Mengiktiraf keperwiraan seseorang pejuang bukan semestinya kita menyokong ataupun bersetuju dengan semua pegangannya.

“Kita mungkin tidak setuju dengan ‘sosialism’ Che Guevara namun kita perlu akur dia pejuang yang handal dan ada nilai positif yang patut dipuji pada dirinya,” katanya seperti dipetik dari laman Facebooknya.

Katanya, tidak salah sekiranya agamawan mengiktiraf kebaikan perjuangan dan mempelajari strategi yang mereka lalui.

“Tidaklah salah untuk kita mengiktiraf kebaikan perjuangan dan menyertainya jika ternyata ianya satu kebaikan,” katanya sambil memetik kisah dari hadis Nabi menyokong hujah beliau.

Kata Asri, Nabi Muhammad juga mengiktiraf dan menyokong perjanjian yang dibuat pihak Quraisy semasa era jahiliah yang membela golongan ditindas.

Asri mengakui apabila membaca mengenai perjuangan Che Guevara, beliau begitu kagum dengan pergorbanan dan kesungguhan pejuang tersebut.

“Dalam sejarah, kita melihat orang seperti Che Guevara yang berjuang dengan senjata dan gerila. Saya terpesona dengan kesanggupan dan pengorbanan beliau,” katanya.

Selain Che Guevara, beliau menyenaraikan beberapa nama pejuang lain yang patut dipelajari sejarahnya seperti William Willborce yang berjuang melalui politik dan parlimennya.

“Nelson Mandela juga hebat sebagai seorang pejuang. Long Walk To Freedom menjadikan kita terpukau dengan kesanggupan menanggung derita yang begitu berat untuk sebuah perjuangan yang diyakini benar.

“Gandhi juga pejuang hebat yang menggunakan sentimen rakyat untuk mencapai kepentingan perjuangan yang baik,” katanya. – 29 Ogos, 2015.

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 29 August 2015, 12:49 pm and is filed under
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Final hours for Najib to decide whether he is  warring against his own people, when Malaysians come in peace to the Federal capital, Kuching and Kota Kinabalu  to reaffirm the Malaysian dream of freedom,  justice, solidarity and national unity in  Merdeka Proclamation 1957 and Malaysia Proclamation 1963

Sad and pathetic that the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak, should be struck by xanthophobia, the irrational fear of the colour yellow,  second time in five years.

The first time was during Bersih 2 of  709 (July 9, 2011) and the second time the last-minute ban by the new Deputy Prime Minister-cum-Home Minister, Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, of the use of yellow with the words Bersih 4 in whatever form.

This  does not reflect a self-confident people-oriented democratic government but a government in deep panic wobbling on the last legs of popularity, credibility and legitimacy.

No wonder the nation’s history of almost six decades has never seen a government more fractured, an UMNO more fractured and a country more divided!

Najib should be mindful of the saying that “Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it” as he does not seem to have learnt anything from Bersih 2,how ordinary Malaysians acted in an extraordinary manner on 709 in 2011, how they overcame their uncertainty, helplessness and fear in the face of threats of violence, riots and even another May 13, mass arrests, indiscriminate police firing of teargas and water cannons, to discover a common bond as Malaysians transcending race, religion, region, age or gender united in loyalty and patriotism to the King and country to save the country from rot and corruption for the people and future generations.

It is time for Malaysia to become a normal democratic country, where the people have the right and freedom to peacefully assemble in the tens or hundreds of thousands for freedom, justice and unity, and not have to worry about smelling salts and other paraphernalia to fob off possible tear gas and other repressive police actions.

Najib and his Cabinet have chosen to be on the wrong side of history, refusing to embrace the extraordinary stories  of ordinary Malaysians on Bersih 2 and Bersih 3, and in the process abandoning Najib’s 1Malaysia signature policy initiative, leading to the punishment of the 13th General Election results where Najib became the first minority Prime Minister winning only 47% of the popular vote.

Is the history of Bersih 2 and 3 as well as the 13th General Election to repeat themselves?

These are the final hours for Najib to decide whether he is  warring against his own people, when Malaysians come in peace to the Federal capital, Kuching and Kota Kinabalu  to reaffirm the Malaysian dream of freedom,  justice, solidarity and national unity in  Merdeka Proclamation 1957 and Malaysia Proclamation 1963.

The people of Malaysia, regardless of race, religion, age, gender or even political party, streaming and converging into Kuala Lumpur, Kuching and Kota Kinabalu are not warring against  Najib and his Cabinet.

They come in peace to reclaim the Malaysian Dream of freedom, justice, solidarity and national unity promised to the people in the 1957 Merdeka Proclamation of Independence and the 1963 Malaysia Proclamation.

I call on Najb, Zahid and the Inspector-General of Police not to war against the people of Malaysia, because the Malaysian people are not at war with them but only want to peacefully, democratically and constitutionally reclaim their national heritage of freedom, justice, solidarity and national  unity.

Najib, Zahid and the IGP should in fact protect and cherish the safety and security of the people of Malaysia, particularly in the 34 hours of the Berish 4 overnight rally.

In this connection, the police must be reminded that they should not be  the pawns of the ruling coalition to help keep the present regime in power but instead, should be completely non-partisan and be mindful  that their  topmost  priority must be the  three core functions to keep crime low, eradicate corruption in the police force and uphold human rights (as recommended by the Dzaiddin Royal Commission of Inquiry 2005).

The world is  now watching Malaysia.

Let the 34-hour overnight rally of Bersih 4 go down in history as the classic moment when  the country came of age as a democracy and passed the global test of human rights, democracy and good governance  as well as  a turning point to rally Malaysians in a united mission to Save Malaysia from the directions and policies to a rogue and failed state.

Najib and the Cabinet must ensure  that Malaysia will not be condemned as an instant rogue and failed state if agent provocateurs and anti-national elements are allowed to sabotage the peaceful holding of  Bersih 4 rally by creating chaos and mayhem.

Let them  ensure the peace and safety of the tens and hundreds of thousands of Malaysians in support of Bersih 4.

History is on the make today and tomorrow – ordinary Malaysians walking in peace with history as well as Najib, the Cabinet and the police!

(Pre-Bersih 4 Media Statement in Kuala Lumpur on Saturday, August 29, 2015)

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 29 August 2015, 8:11 am and is filed under
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Interview: Malaysia’s Politics Amid the 1MDB Scandal

The Diplomat talks with Bridget Welsh about Malaysia’s corruption scandal and its implications for the country.

By Prashanth Parameswaran for The Diplomat

August 28, 2015

 Bridget Welsh is a Senior Research Associate of the Center for East Asia Democracy of National Taiwan University, an Associate Fellow of The Habibie Center and a University Fellow of Charles Darwin University. She has written extensively on Malaysian politics among other issues in Southeast Asia.

She recently spoke with The Diplomat’s associate editor Prashanth Parameswaran about a high-profile corruption scandal – known as the 1MDB scandal – which implicates Malaysia’s current prime minister Najib Razak and could have profound implications not only for the country’s embattled premier, but its politics and economics more generally. An edited version of that interview follows.

Let’s start by talking about the scandal itself. There have been allegations that Najib had mismanaged funds linked to the debt-ridden state investment fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB). Some have called the 1MDB scandal the biggest financial scandal Malaysia has experienced in its history. What is your view on how we should understand its significance?

The 1MBD scandal is the most serious scandal to affect Malaysia’s leadership directly, as it involves inadequately explained and accounted for funds deposited into Najib’s personal bank account alleged used for a deeply flawed general election in 2013. While charges of corruption, embezzlement and abuse of power have occurred before – particularly in the scandal-ridden administration of Najib – and have been tied to efforts to maintain political power and secure wealth by those in power, this scandal raises broader concerns about the integrity of Malaysia’s political institutions and the leadership’s economic governance.

In the past, scandals such as the 1988 judiciary crisis or the imprisonment of deputy prime minister turned opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim in 1999 and 2015 have involved challenges to political authority, divisions in Najib’s party, the United Malays Nationalist Organization (UMNO) and the judiciary. They have been primarily resolved at elite levels. This time round, not only is UMNO being split and the police and judiciary brought in, but the anti-corruption body, the Central Bank, government-linked companies and the Attorney General’s office have become part of the collateral damage. The failure of UMNO to remove Najib quickly has caused more harm to the system and deepened the crisis, leading to calls for a mass public demonstration.

1MDB is not just about the credibility of Najib, it has become a scandal that affects the credibility and political stability of the entire country. Particularly hurt has been an already slowing economy, with the ringgit reaching record lows largely the result of the protracted nature of the political contestation around the scandal-induced crisis. 1MDB has thus become the focal point for the heated contestation about reform, greater democracy and governance in Malaysia that has been ongoing since the late 1990s and involves at its heart the political legitimacy of Najib and his party.

There has been talk over the past few weeks about dislodging Najib from power soon in the wake of the allegations, even though it seems that this would be much harder to do in practice. How do you assess his political future?

My own view is that Najib will no longer be the premier for Malaysia’s next General Elections. It is a matter of time before he has to leave office. The longer Najib stays in power, the longer the crisis will continue with negative spillovers into the economy and in society. This position is based on the argument that UMNO cannot win electorally and assure political stability and its position with a deeply unpopular and non-credible leader at the helm. Even if an emergency is declared, the situation with a Najib-led government will be untenable over the longer term.

The issues ahead involve the timing, the mechanism and the costs involved in Najib’s departure. To date, in too deep, Najib has fought to stay in office. He has harnessed the levers of his office as the executive and resources to stay in power, using patronage for key UMNO stakeholders; persuasion and framing his leadership as a shared dynamic; and effective divide and rule of the opposition as well as crackdowns on civil society. The splits and differences inside UMNO have not diminished, however. In fact, they have hardened, with the deepening of the crisis into different political institutions. The opposition, while largely ineffective and deeply splintered, has maintained dialogue and is reconfiguring, while civil society has increased its mobilization and has become the vehicle for expressing concern about Malaysia’s future.

The timing of Najib’s departure will depend on the responses of these three groups and developments in the economy. In this ongoing process of decline for Najib, the mechanisms for his departure are increasingly leading to a harder landing for Najib, and, unfortunately, for Malaysia as a whole. Usually, deals regarding transition are made at the leadership level in UMNO. But what has happened to date is deals to maintain power rather than give up office. This means that the options available for a leadership transition are increasingly raising the stakes for Malaysia’s political stability. The arena for the leadership transition is moving from UMNO to the public at large. The costs have also risen, with greater attention on Malaysia’s political conditions and economy, with international perceptions and among investors increasingly concerned about developments within Malaysia.

Najib’s own immediate political survival aside, there are some signs that the scandal could serve as a catalyst for wider opposition against the government – such as a peaceful mass rally planned later this week ahead of the country’s independence day celebrations. If this continues, you see this turning into a broader political crisis for the ruling coalition further down the line?

The opposition – namely the political parties who challenged the incumbent coalition in the last general election in 2013 – is weak. It lacks effective leadership and is divided over whom and which party should lead the opposition, even within individual parties. The opposition does not have a clear common platform of its own, and its own credibility to govern has been challenged post-2013 in areas such as corruption and economic management. The opposition political parties face real challenges to work together and to win the support of the electorate. However, the opposition benefits from a scandal-beleaguered premier and from the fact that they are the only electoral alternative. One of the developments in Malaysia has been a weakening of the positions of political parties across the political spectrum.

What distinguishes the opposition coalition from the incumbent coalition is that it is more inclusive and has a greater reform orientation. It still has yet to earn confidence among some quarters of the investment community and among UMNO’s political base that is concerned about displacement and potential exclusion. The alliances in the opposition are reconfiguring, with younger leaders coming to the fore. The more extreme elements in the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS) – one of the parties in the opposition – have become less politically viable, with the challenge for the opposition as a whole to win over the Malay majority community. This reconfiguring process will not be an easy and smooth, but is ongoing.

Turning to economics, anxieties have grown over the past few weeks after some worrying numbers. Some have suggested that with the government so focused on the 1MDB scandal and its own political survival, it may not be able to take the necessary measures or react quickly enough to avert or stem a potential crisis. Is this a legitimate concern in your view?

Malaysia’s political crisis has already had negative economic spillovers. These are likely to continue due to concerns with stability and leadership credibility. Among the general public, there is the sense that the economy is slowing down, with inflation, partly caused by the Goods and Services Tax (GST) being implemented by the government, hurting large shares of Malaysians. Perceptions are important, and the negative ones have taken root even while some of Malaysia’s economic fundamentals are strong.

In particular, three areas of concern have emerged: the viability of the Central Bank to protect the ringgit – connected to Najib’s monetary policy; capital flight connected to investor caution; and reform reversal. This is in a climate of negative dynamics in commodity prices, a China slowdown, and pressures from the U.S. dollar that have affected the region as a whole. Conditions in Malaysia point to reversals in the reforms in the economy, such as subsidies tied to political survival. As with the evident dynamic where Najib has abandoned all political liberalization, the same trajectory appears to be emerging over the economy.

Malaysia’s next general election, which must be held by May 2018, is still quite far off. But what kinds of signs do you think we should look for to see if the ruling coalition’s legitimacy and popularity is being further eroded relative to the opposition as we move closer to polls?

Short term, the Bersih 4 rally over the next few days will be important, as will the Sarawak state elections next year and the UMNO General Assembly later this year. These are political arenas. Economically, the ringgit and other indicators such as inflation, capital flight and household debt are markers to watch.

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Malaysia braces for major protests against PM Najib Razak

BBC News

Thousands of Malaysians are set to protest in the capital Kuala Lumpur and elsewhere, calling for Prime Minister Najib Razak to step down over a financial scandal.

He has faced public anger over a $700m (£455m) payment made to his bank account from unnamed foreign donors.

It was discovered last month during a probe into alleged mismanagement at the debt-laden state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).

Mr Najib has denied any wrongdoing.

Why Malaysians are disillusioned with Najib Razak

Saturday’s rally is expected to continue into Sunday and the pro-democracy group Bersih has also called for protests in the cities of Kota Kinabalu and Kuching on the Malaysian side of Borneo.

Kuala Lumpur authorities have rejected the group’s application for a permit to protest.

Security is tight and eyes will be focused on any possible army intervention.

At the last big rally in 2012, police used water cannon and tear gas to disperse protesters.

Rehearsals will take place this weekend for the former British colony’s 58th anniversary of self-rule.

Mr Najib said in a statement on his blog he did not want a “provocation” to be triggered.

He said: “Whatever the disagreements or misunderstandings between us, national day should not be a stage of political disputes.”

Significant support

The main accusation against Mr Najib is that he took $700m from the indebted 1MDB, which he established in 2009 to try to turn Kuala Lumpur into a financial hub.

Cabinet ministers have said the money transfers were “political donations” from unidentified Middle Eastern sources, and that there was nothing improper. No further details have been given.

1MDB has said it has never given money to the prime minister and called the accusations “unsubstantiated”.

But among the prime minister’s critics, former leader Mahathir Mohamad said this week he did not believe the money was a donation and called again for Mr Najib to resign.

The prime minister retains significant support from the long-ruling Barisan Nasional coalition and from within his party, the United Malays National Organisation.

At the start of the month there were protests after authorities suspended two newspapers and blocked access to a website that had reported on the 1MDB controversy.

What is 1MDB?

• The 1Malaysia Development Berhad state investment fund was established under Prime Minister Najib Razak in 2009 to transform Malaysia into a high-income economy.

• Critics say the fund overpaid for many of its investments and spent millions on fees to investment bank Goldman Sachs

• It began attracting attention at the end of 2014 when it started missing payments to creditors. It later emerged that the fund was mired in $11bn (£7bn) of debt.

• Mr Najib has been accused of taking $700m from the fund – a charge which he has denied.

• Malaysia anti-corruption commission said it had verified that the money was a donation from unnamed foreign donors.

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 29 August 2015, 10:36 am and is filed under
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Malaysia Braces for Protests Against Prime Minister Najib

By JAMES HOOKWAY

Wall Street Journal

Aug. 28, 2015

Malaysian police were bracing Friday for what is expected to be a massive weekend protest in Kuala Lumpur against Prime Minister Najib Razak’s management of the economy and the growing debt problems at a state investment fund.

Authorities said the planned protest is illegal while the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission, a government agency, said in a statement it would block websites promoting or encouraging the demonstration, which is set to begin near Merdeka, or Independence, Square in the center of Kuala Lumpur on Saturday. The government also announced that it was against the law to wear yellow T-shirts in support of the rally.

The moves reflect Mr. Najib’s growing resolve to stay in power after it emerged that nearly $700 million was deposited into his bank accounts shortly before 2013’s national elections. Last month he sacked then-Deputy Premier Muhyiddin Yassin after Mr. Muhyiddin called on Mr. Najib to explain the worsening situation at the investment fund, 1Malaysia Development Berhad, or 1MDB. Mr. Najib also promoted four members of a parliamentary committee investigating 1MDB to the cabinet, meaning they could no longer stay on the panel. The following day, he replaced the country’s attorney-general, who was also involved in an investigation into 1MDB, ahead of his scheduled retirement date in October.

On the financial front, Mr. Najib also this week created a new policy team to help stabilize the country’s economy.

Political analysts say that Mr. Najib will likely succeed in keeping control of this resource-rich nation–as long as the British-educated leader can retain the support of the ruling United Malays National Organization and prevent a steeper slide in the value of Malaysia’s fragile ringgit currency, which has lost around 16% of its value against the dollar so far this year.

The planned protest, due to run through the weekend, follows a report in The Wall Street Journal last month that Malaysian investigators had traced nearly $700 million of deposits into what they believed were Mr. Najib’s personal bank accounts after the movement of cash among agencies, banks and companies linked to 1MDB. Mr. Najib is head of 1MDB’s advisory board.

The Journal reported that the original source of the money was unclear and that the government investigation hadn’t detailed what happened to the money that allegedly went into Mr. Najib’s personal accounts. Mr. Najib has denied any wrongdoing or taking money for personal gain. The country’s antigraft agency said the money in Mr. Najib’s account was a donor contribution that originated from the Middle East. The donor wasn’t specified.

The issue has created a political firestorm in Malaysia, however, re-energizing the country’s opposition movement. It also provided fresh momentum to former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad’s campaign for 62-year-old Mr. Najib to resign as head of both Malaysia’s ruling party and its government.

Economists say the furor has further depressed business sentiment in the country, making the ringgit one of Asia’s worst-performing currencies this year.

The latest protest, organized by the Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections, or Bersih, as it is known in Malay, also draws on growing dissatisfaction with some of Mr. Najib’s economic policies. Supporters say they have already sold more than 30,000 yellow, Bersih-themed T-shirts in an early indication that the turnout could be substantial. Prominent opposition politicians are expected to join the protest, too, fired up with a litany of complaints ranging from the alleged gerrymandering of electoral districts to the conviction of opposition talisman Anwar Ibrahim for sodomy earlier this year.

Yet analysts say that despite what is likely to be a strong show of dissent on the streets, Mr. Najib’s position is likely to be secure as long as he can keep the support of UMNO, which has governed Malaysia since independence from Britain in 1957.

“That’s his immediate concern: To ensure the stability of the support for himself in UMNO,” said Ibrahim Suffian, director at Kuala Lumpur-based polling firm, Merdeka Centre.

“The Bersih protest itself isn’t going to change anything,” agreed James Chin, a Malaysian academic who heads the Asia Institute at the University of Tasmania in Australia. “Unless there is a full-scale riot, he is still in a strong position. The only thing that can really kill Mr. Najib’s career is if the ringgit slides,” Mr. Chin said. “Then we might see the country’s big business tycoons withdrawn their support from UMNO and push him to go.”

Given that Mr. Anwar, who is by far the most influential opposition figure, is serving a six-year prison term, Mr. Najib’s biggest obstacle to survival might well be one of his predecessors, former leader Dr. Mahathir, who served as the country’s prime minister for 23 years before stepping down in 2003.

In recent months Dr. Mahathir, now 90, has actively campaigned for Mr. Najib’s resignation, accusing him of mismanaging 1MDB, the state investment fund that has amassed some $11 billion in debts. Mr. Najib has denied any wrongdoing.

Dr. Mahathir still commands considerable support within some sectors in UMNO and on August 20 called for a non-confidence debate in parliament to determine Mr. Najib’s future. So far parliament hasn’t acted on the former leader’s call.

Mr. Najib’s supporters privately say he has the numbers within UMNO to fend off Dr. Mahathir.

His fight to stay in government is far from over, however. Swiss authorities last week said they have opened a criminal probe into the relationship between what they called “suspicious transactions” in Switzerland’s banking sector and 1MDB. The investment fund said in a statement that it is ready to assist in any investigation.

—Celine Fernandez in Kuala Lumpur contributed to this article.

Write to James Hookway at
[email protected]

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Malaysia political crisis poised for street showdown

Michael Peel in Bangkok and David Pilling in Hong Kong

Financial Times

August 28, 2015

Malaysia’s growing political crisis is on the brink of a showdown as tens of thousands of protesters prepare to pour on to the capital’s streets in an effort to topple Najib Razak, the scandal-hit prime minister.

The mass demonstration this weekend known as Bersih — or “clean” — is aimed at forcing the premier’s resignation, after it emerged that unexplained payments of almost $700m were made into bank accounts in his name.

The country’s anti-corruption commission has said the money was from unspecified Middle Eastern donors, rather than Malaysian state coffers. But critics claim the transactions are linked to huge debts run up by a state investment fund, whose troubles some see as emblematic of the misrule of the premier’s long-dominant United Malays National Organisation.

“There has to be some investigation and the result must be made public,” Maria Chin Abdullah, Bersih’s chairwoman, said of the payments. “[And] even if you got rid of Najib, this political system of corruption, draconian laws, using racial politics to divide us will continue.”

Police have already sealed off areas of Kuala Lumpur ahead of a gathering the authorities have declared illegal. The organisers of Bersih 4.0 — three previous demonstrations have been held during political flashpoints of the past 10 years — are also organising protests in other cities across Southeast Asia’s third-largest economy.

Ooi Kee Beng, deputy director of the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore, said: “This will probably be the biggest demonstration in Malaysian history. The sense of exasperation and helplessness is high in Malaysia right now, so the timing will encourage a huge turnout.”

The demonstration is the biggest popular challenge yet to Mr Najib’s rule of more than six years, which has extended the hegemony enjoyed by Umno since Malaysia won independence from Britain 58 years ago on Monday. Security forces used tear gas and water cannon on protesters at a previous Bersih in 2012, the year before contentious elections in which the opposition won the popular vote but the Umno-led coalition retained a parliamentary majority.

Mr Najib’s position has become more precarious as questions have arisen over how the 1Malaysia Development Berhad investment fund, whose advisory board he chairs, ran up debts of more than $11bn. Mahathir Mohamad, Malaysia’s still influential ex-premier, has called for Mr Najib to stand down.

Mr Najib insists he has done nothing wrong, but he has declined to offer a full explanation for the near-$700m money transfer. He was due to make a much-anticipated appearance at an international anti-corruption conference in Malaysia next week. The organisers’ website does not list him on the conference agenda, although a government spokesperson insisted the premier still intended to speak as originally planned.

John Malott, a former US ambassador to Malaysia, attacked the prime minister in a strongly worded column published on the Malaysiakini website this week, declaring that it was “game over for Najib Razak internationally”.

Mr Najib has attracted western leaders by casting Muslim-majority Malaysia as a moderate country committed to the fight against terrorism. He played golf with US President Barack Obama late last year and hosted a visit last month from David Cameron, UK prime minister, after evidence of the bank account payments surfaced.

Mr Malott said Mr Najib’s darker side had become increasingly apparent, as he had stifled opposition and become embroiled in questionable transactions. “There was always a gap between the real Najib . . . and the image people had of him,” Mr Malott said.

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 29 August 2015, 10:49 am and is filed under
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Najib Razak, patrician premier mired in scandal

David Pilling

Financial Times

28th August 2015

Accusations swirling around the prime minister have transfixed Malaysia, writes David Pilling

This weekend tens of thousands of Malaysians will pour on to the streets of Kuala Lumpur to shout the name of their prime minister, Najib Razak. They will be coming not to praise him, but

to bury him. Among the most popular chants is likely to be “Tangkap Najib”, or “Arrest Najib”.

Now 61, with receding grey hair, neatly trimmed moustache and bespoke suits, Dato’ Sri Mohammad Najib bin Tun Haji Abdul Razak, to give him his full title, can seem a dapper liberal with progressive views on economics and racial harmony. “Najib is the best hope for moderation and reform,” says Sholto Byrnes, senior fellow at the Institute of Strategic and International Studies.

Yet there is another side to Mr Najib, who has been prime minister since 2009, says John Malott, a former US ambassador to Malaysia. The real man, who at 23 became the youngest parliamentarian in his nation’s history, is, he says, neck-deep in the racially divisive, money-soaked politics of the United Malays National Organisation, which has governed

continuously for nearly six decades. The “fake, Najib”, he says, is the product of millions of dollars spent on slick public relations.

These days, Mr Najib’s PR is not so good. He is caught in a financial scandal that has transfixed Malaysia, an ethnically and religiously diverse South-east Asian nation of 30m people. He recently admitted receiving nearly $700m in his private bank account. The money, he said, in a version corroborated by Malaysia’s anti-corruption commission, came from an unnamed Middle Eastern donor. He had broken no laws, he said.

Another version of events, however, links the money to 1Malaysia Development Berhad, or 1MDB. Set up in 2009 by Mr Najib, who chairs its advisory board, 1MDB ostensibly aimed to foster new

domestic industries. Instead, it has piled up $11bn in debts, buying land and ageing power stations at home and abroad. According to an account in the Sarawak Report, a UK-based blog, and the Wall Street Journal, money from companies and banks linked to 1MDB was allegedly transferred into the prime minister’s account. Mr Najib has denied any link between the $700m and 1MDB.

Until recently, his days as prime minister seemed numbered. There were four investigations into 1MDB and rumours of imminent criminal charges. But Mr Najib, sometimes criticised for being

ineffectual, has fought back. He replaced the attorney-general on the grounds of ill health and fired the deputy prime minister for disloyalty. He promoted four officials from a committee co-ordinating the investigation, temporarily halting its work. Critics accuse him of dismantling Malaysia’s institutions to save his skin.

“When Najib came in as prime minister he set in place a number of good reforms,” says Maria Chin Abdullah, head of Bersih, the coalition of activists organising this weekend’s protests. “But he’s turned into a person who doesn’t care for the country, who doesn’t bother with accountability. All he cares about is staying in power.”

The grubby political scandal is a long way from Mr Najib’s patrician roots as the son of Malaysia’s second prime minister, Abdul Razak Hussein, and the nephew of its third, Hussein Onn. Educated in Britain, first at Malvern College in Worcestershire, then at Nottingham University, where he studied industrial economics, Mr Najib appears “very polished, very debonair”, says Mr Malott.

Many western leaders have been charmed by Mr Najib’s performance. The swirling 1MDB scandal notwithstanding, David Cameron, UK prime minister, visited him in Kuala Lumpur just last month,

and Barack Obama, US president, found time to host him for a round of golf in Hawaii last December.

But his “doublespeak” has confounded Malaysians, says Eddin Khoo, a Malaysian writer, especially since he came into office brandishing a liberal message of political tolerance and racial harmony.

Instead, he failed to repeal the hated sedition act and courted hardline Islamists seeking to impose a form of sharia law. The leader of the opposition, Anwar Ibrahim, has been jailed on charges of sodomy. Mr Najib’s government floundered when Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 disappeared last year. Now the economy is reeling, with the ringgit sliding to 17-year lows and the stock market tanking.

This is not the first time Mr Najib has faced controversy. On his seemingly effortless path to the premiership, there were alleged links to corruption over a French submarine contract, though he denied any wrongdoing. More recently, two of his former bodyguards were convicted of murdering a model. Mr Najib said he had never even met the victim.

Many say Mr Najib changed after he married his second wife, Rosmah Mansor, in the late-1980s. Rosmah has been relentlessly mocked on social media for alleged high-spending and vulgar taste,

with images showing her clutching one of multiple Birkin handbags, which retail at between $9,000 and $150,000 each. Even Mr Najib’s brother, Nazir, a prominent banker, has contrasted the prime minister’s allegedly extravagant lifestyle with that of their late father, a leader known for his simple integrity.

Street protests, rumours of plots within his cabinet and continuing investigations into 1MDB make these uncomfortable times for Mr Najib. Still, he is soldiering on. “Let no one doubt: I will continue to serve and lead this nation,” he told an audience at the Institute of Management in Kuala Lumpur last week. At least no one there shouted “Arrest Najib”.

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