The Amman Message and intra-Muslim peace

 — Syed Farid Alatas

Malay Mail Online

February 1, 2016

FEBRUARY 1 — Hostility between Sunnis and Shiites has become a dominant feature of intra-Muslim relations today. Indeed, the first decades of the 21st century will be known as a period of protracted conflict between these two major denominations of Islam.

Twelver Shiites, who form up to 29 per cent of the global Muslim population, are in the majority in Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Iran and Iraq. They also constitute important minorities in countries such as Lebanon, Kuwait, Turkey, Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia.

The history of Islam is characterised by numerous instances of violence and hostility between Sunnis and Shiites. The confrontations were often initiated by Sunni rulers and, sometimes, by the religious elite who were co-opted by the state.

For example, Alevi Shiites suffered from persecution in the form of expulsion, imprisonment, force labour and execution under Ottoman rule. In 1802 a Saudi-Wahhabi alliance attacked, sacked and looted the Shiite shrine at Karbala, Iraq. It was reported that about 2,000 people were killed during the raid, including the elderly, women and children.

For the last two decades, Malaysian Shiites had come under increasing scrutiny by the religious authorities and live under constant fear as a result of some members of the community being persecuted by the authorities.

The situation is worse in other countries where Shiites had been subjected to physical violence, such as in Bahrain, Pakistan, Indonesia, and Egypt. On the other hand, Sunnis in Iraq had been the targets of Shiite militias. In the so-called Islamic State, both Sunnis and Shiites have been victims of violence where barbaric acts of violence were also perpetrated against Christians and other religious minorities.

Despite such a shameful history, it would be wrong to suggest that Sunnis and Shiites have been in a perpetual state of conflict throughout the ages. While there had been relations of conflict between the two groups, for most of Islamic history Sunnis and Shiites lived under conditions of mutual tolerance and harmony rather than animosity and hostility.

This is not to say that there are no theological and ideological differences between Sunnis and Shiites. However, it would be wrong to suggest that the sectarian conflicts that we witness now across the Muslim world spring from these doctrinal differences.

In fact, the conflicts have less to do with religion and more to do with the manipulation of sentiments by various groups for the sake of political interests.

The Amman Message, therefore, was a brilliant initiative that, if taken seriously by those who endorsed it, can play a crucial role in mobilising Muslims leaders and communities against the growing bigotry in certain Muslim circles today.

The Amman Message calls for tolerance and unity among the Muslims of the world. First issued on November 9, 2004 (27th of Ramadan 1425 AH) by King Abdullah Al-Hussein of Jordan, the Amman Message deals with three fundamental issues.

These had come to be known as the “Three Points of the Amman Message.”  In its early stages the Amman Message took the form of a statement by King Abdullah that declared what Islam is and is not, and what actions represent Islam and did not.

To give the statement religious authority, King Abdullah asked three questions from 24 senior ulama from around the world, who represented the main schools and branches of Islam. The questions were: (1) Who is a Muslim? (2) Is it permissible to declare someone an apostate (takfir)? (3) Who has the right to undertake issuing fatwas (legal rulings)?

These authorities included the Shaykh Al-Azhar, Shaykh Qaradawi and the prominent Shiite cleric, Ayatollah Sistani. The fatwas provided by the scholars formed the basis for an international conference of 200 leading scholars of the Muslim world, convened in July 2005 by King Abdullah in Amman. There the scholars unanimously issued a ruling on the three fundamental issues, known as the “Three Points of the Amman Message.”

The first fundamental issue concerns the validity of all eight madhhabs or legal schools of Sunni, Shiite and Ibadhi Islam; of the Ash’arite school of theology; of Sufism, and of true Salafi thought. In this way, a precise definition of who a Muslim is was arrived at.

The second fundamental issue concerns the prohibition of takfir or the declaration of apostasy between Muslims.

The third fundamental issue concerns the preconditions for the issuing of fatwas. The objective here was to expose ignorant and illegitimate opinions and rulings in the name of Islam.

The Three Points were subsequently presented to the political leadership of the Muslim world and unanimously adopted by them at the Organisation of the Islamic Conference summit in Mecca in December 2005.

Also, over a period of a year from July 2005 to July 2006, the Three Points were unanimously adopted by another six international Muslim scholarly assemblies. This culminated in the International Islamic Fiqh Academy of Jeddah in July 2006. In total, more than 500 leading Muslim scholars from 84 countries endorsed the Amman Message.  It states:

Whosoever is an adherent to one of the four Sunni schools (Mathahib) of Islamic jurisprudence (Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi`i and Hanbali), the two Shi’i schools of Islamic jurisprudence (Ja`fari and Zaydi), the Ibadi school of Islamic jurisprudence and the Thahiri school of Islamic jurisprudence, is a Muslim. Declaring that person an apostate is impossible and impermissible. Verily his (or her) blood, honour, and property are inviolable. Moreover, in accordance with the Shaykh Al-Azhar’s fatwa, it is neither possible nor permissible to declare whosoever subscribes to the Ash`ari creed or whoever practices real Tasawwuf (Sufism) an apostate. Likewise, it is neither possible nor permissible to declare whosoever subscribes to true Salafi thought an apostate.

Equally, it is neither possible nor permissible to declare as apostates any other group of Muslims who believes in God, Glorified and Exalted be He, and His Messenger (may peace and blessings be upon him), the pillars of faith (Iman), and the five pillars of Islam, and does not deny any necessarily self-evident tenet of religion.

In his foreword to the Amman Message, King Abdullah of Jordan had stressed that the consensus that created it “does not represent the opinion of one man, one ethnic group, one country, or even a group of countries. It does not represent one school of Islamic Jurisprudence or one school of thought in Islam. It represents a unanimous agreement by all Muslims everywhere as represented by their acknowledged most senior religious authorities and political leaders.”

The question then arises as to why sectarianism among Muslims, particularly that concerning Sunni-Shiite relations, had deteriorated during the last few years.

Indeed, the Amman Message had not been taken seriously by many of the countries that endorsed it. Among the signatories were the then Prime Minister of Malaysia, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and King Abdullah bin Abdel Aziz Al Saud, the late Saudi King.

The geopolitical context of today calls for a great deal of political will to put into practice the values that inform the Amman Message. A shining example to follow is that of the Sultanate of Oman. Oman is a country which implemented the ideals contained in the Amman Message long before it was drafted.

Although the Ibadhis of Oman, neither Sunnis nor Shi’ites, make up about 75 per cent of the population, Oman is probably the one country that allows for the greatest harmony between Sunnis and Shiites that make up the rest of the population.

The Omani basic law prohibits discrimination based on religion and protects the rights of different religious communities to practice their religions on the condition that there is no disruption of the public order.

Many Muslim countries miserably failed to live up to the ideals expressed in the Amman Message. Indeed, some blatantly violated its spirit by encouraging the demonisation of Shiism and the persecution of Shiites. In the case of Iraq, violence against Sunnis was encouraged.

The Amman Message is an expression of the spirit of religious pluralism that defines the understanding and practice of Islam that is now in danger of erosion due to the narrow-mindedness of the religious establishment and the willingness of politicians to sacrifice religion for material interests.

Governments need to be more responsible and strive to lessen bigotry and avoid sectarian politics. Failing to do so only puts the Muslim societies and the rest of the world in danger.

The Amman Message, issued more than 10 years ago, is an historic statement expressing and reflecting the desire of Muslims around the world to be united and to live lives free of sectarian conflict and strife.

It is a formal statement by Muslims of a pluralistic mutual recognition and respect. The question is whether Muslim leaders have the morality and courage to live up to the promise they made when they endorsed it more than a decade ago.

* Dr Syed Farid Alatas is Associate Professor, Department of Sociology, Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences, NUS.

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 2 February 2016, 8:52 pm and is filed under
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The Observer view on corruption in Malaysia

Observer editorial

Sunday 31 January 2016

There is, rightly, widespread concern over Najib and a democratic deficit

Dato’ Sri Mohamed Najib bin Tun Abdul Razak was born to rule. Son of Malaysia’s second post-independence prime minister and nephew of its third, he entered parliament at the age of 23, inheriting his father’s seat and was handed several senior portfolios before being appointed prime minister himself in 2009.

Najib heads the powerful United Malays National Organisation (Umno), the pre-eminent political force. His national and personal dominance symbolises the bumiputera (ethnic Malay) ascendancy in a country with large, constitutionally disadvantaged ethnic Indian and Chinese minorities.

But as the intense firestorm sparked by last week’s arbitrary dismissal of potentially career-ending corruption allegations against him suggests, Najib is also seen by growing numbers of fellow citizens as unfit to rule the country whose leadership he inherited as if by right. His time in government, especially since the 2013 general election, has brought an expansion of repressive laws, multiplying human rights abuses and curbs on media freedoms more reminiscent of Russia than of a supposedly functional, pro-western democracy closely allied to Britain and the US.

Human Rights Watch summed up Malaysia’s crisis of governance in its 2016 World Report and country-file: “The ruling Umno-led coalition has remained in power since 1957 through electoral manipulation, censorship, intimidation and use of criminal statutes to punish political opponents. After losing the popular vote in the 2013 elections – but maintaining a legislative majority through gerrymandering – the government renewed its crackdown on freedom of expression and peaceful assembly and passed new laws permitting preventive detention without charge… Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim remains imprisoned on trumped-up sodomy charges after a politically motivated, unjust trial.”

The latest furore besmirching Najib’s shaky reputation concerns a 2013 payment of $681m into his personal bank account, a transfer that only came to light thanks to a Wall Street Journal report last July. After months of closed-door investigations and Najib’s repeated denials of wrongdoing, Mohamed Apandi Ali, Malaysia’s attorney general, declared last week that the money was a private gift from the Saudi royal family and there was no evidence of improper or corrupt activity. Nor was there any connection with graft allegations swirling around the debt-laden state fund, 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), which Najib oversaw, he said.

This has been met with widespread scepticism. Why was the gift made to Najib and what was it for? Why was most of the money apparently later returned to the Saudis, and what happened to the $61m that was not? Why was the transfer routed circuitously through the British Virgin Islands and Hong Kong? And why, particularly if, as Najib claims, the money was a political donation to boost Umno election campaign funds, was it deposited in his personal bank accounts?

Those taken by surprise by Apandi’s act of absolution include the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (Macc), which investigated the affair. An anonymous source there subsequently told the Reuters news agency that the commission recommended last month that Najib be charged with criminal misappropriation. Apandi rejected the advice. The Macc is now seeking a review of the attorney general’s decision, while those in Najib’s camp want an inquiry into the leak.

Saudis also found the decision surprising. The royal family would “never” place political funds in a private individual’s account, officials told the Malaysia Chronicle. This may or may not be true. A “well-placed Saudi source” told the BBC’s Frank Gardner that the money was paid direct to Najib, on the orders of the late King Abdullah, to help him defeat Islamist hardliners in the 2013 election.

Najib says he has been vindicated and Malaysia must move on. This is fantasy. The scandal will live on in the minds of voters who have more reason than ever to distrust those who presume to lead them on the basis of privilege, wealth and inequality. It lives on in the minds of the FBI and investigators in Switzerland and Hong Kong still probing 1MDB. And it shines a spotlight on Malaysia’s worsening democratic deficit, whether defined in terms of shady campaign finances, electoral manipulation and foreign interference, human rights abuses, weak and unreliable governance – or downright venality.

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 2 February 2016, 9:40 am and is filed under
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Twists and turns of Najib’s RM2.6 billion

BY
ANISAH SHUKRY

Published: 31 January 2016 7:00 AM

The Malaysian Insider

When Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said the RM2.6 billion donation controversy has been “comprehensively put to rest”, the Internet promptly responded with memes ridiculing the attorney-general’s (A-G) decision to close the case.

From comedians to artists, local blogs to international news wires, many found it hard to believe that it was okay for a leader of a democratic country to accept billions of ringgit from an unidentified foreign funder.

Najib urged Malaysians to “move on” from the issue but questions still abound despite the A-G’s findings that there was insufficient evidence to implicate Najib.

The Malaysian Insider revisits what is known so far about the billions in his account, since July 2 last year when The Wall Street Journal first broke the news that RM2.6 billion was channelled into Najib’s private bank accounts.

Money trail A: US$681 million between March 21 and 25, 2013

WSJ said it had obtained information from Malaysian investigators. It showed a flow chart with British Virgin Islands company called Tanore Finance transferring US$681 million into Najib’s accounts in two tranches, through Falcon Private Bank in Singapore.

According to WSJ, Falcon Private Bank is a Swiss bank owned by the Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund International Petroleum Investment Co (IPIC), which in May last year injected US$1 billion into 1MDB to settle a syndicated loan from a consortium of banks.

In 2012, IPIC also issued guarantees for Najib’s brainchild, state-owned investment firm 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) for the payment of interest and principal on bonds issued by the state investment firm.

Money trail B: RM42 million between December 2014, February 2015

A second chart showed that former 1MDB subsidiary, SRC International, transferred RM50 million to its subsidiary, Gandingan Mentari. SRC International is now wholly owned by the Finance Ministry, which Najib also heads.

Gandingan Mentari then transferred the RM50 million to Ihsan Perdana, which undertakes corporate social responsibility (CSR) programmes for 1MDB’s charitable foundations.

From Ihsan Perdana, RM42 million was transferred into Najib’s accounts at AmBank in three deposits of RM27 million, RM5 million and RM10 million.

A-G’s take on the US$681 million

A-G Tan Sri Mohamed Apandi Ali said on Tuesday the US$681 million deposited into the prime minister’s accounts between March 22, 2013 and April 10, 2013, came from the Saudi royal family.

He did not confirm whether the money came from Tanore Finance through Falcon Private Bank in Singapore.

The A-G also said the prime minister returned US$620 million (RM2.03 billion) to the Saudi royal family in August 2013 because the money was not utilised.

Another trail from SRC International?

But Apandi also inadvertently revealed a third money trail, starting again, from SRC International, and which flowed through three companies and finally to three private AmBank accounts.

The companies were Putra Perdana Development Sdn Bhd and its subsidiaries, Putra Perdana Construction Sdn Bhd and Permai Binaraya Sdn Bhd.

From the initial RM35 million that SRC International transferred through these three companies, RM27 million finally ended up in one of the private AmBank accounts, with account number ending “880”. From here, RM20 million was transferred to the two other private accounts.

The “880” private account also received RM10 million and RM27 million in December 2014 and February 2015, respectively, via Gandingan Mentari and Ihsan Perdana.

Apandi, however, said Najib did not have any knowledge that SRC International had transferred money into his personal accounts nor did he instruct any such transaction.

Najib’s response

After the news of the fund transfer broke in July last year, Najib said he had not taken any money for personal gain, and accused his arch critic, former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad of colluding with the foreign media to attack him.

It was a line he repeated many times although his critics noted he did not deny that the money was deposited into his accounts.

Speculation over whether or not Najib received the funds was finally put to rest when the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) confirmed the money came from Middle Eastern donors.

Since MACC’s confirmation, Najib spoke little of the issue, only reiterating that he was innocent of wrongdoing and the money was a “donation” rather than from 1MDB.

Even his highly anticipated explanation to the Dewan Rakyat fizzled out, as Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi spoke on his behalf instead.

Reasons for donation

On August 11, Tourism Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz said the donation was from a “brotherly nation” which wanted to see certain parties win the 13th general election because they were friendly to them.

Four days later, Umno Kuantan division chief Datuk Seri Wan Adnan Wan Mamat said the RM2.6 billion was from Saudi Arabia as a form of appreciation of Malaysia “championing Islam” and fighting militant group Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (Isis).

But on August 22, Deputy Transport Minister Datuk Abdul Aziz Kaprawi said the donation came from their “Muslim friends in the Middle East” to help Umno fight DAP in the 14th general election, as the party was funded by Jews.

Later that same day, Zahid said he met the donors’ representatives who informed him that the funds was in appreciation for the government’s efforts in countering terrorism, and to help Barisan Nasional (BN) maintain Malaysia’s status as a Sunni country.

After the A-G’s no-further-action decision on Najib, however, the BBC on Wednesday reported an unnamed Saudi source as saying that the money was donated to help the prime minister win GE13 and counter potential Muslim Brotherhood influence in Malaysia.

The Saudis consider the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organisation, and Malaysia’s opposition alliance at that time included PAS, “whose founders were inspired by the Brotherhood”.

Case closed

After months of investigations, speculation and criticism, Apandi said on Tuesday there was “insufficient evidence” to implicate the prime minister and he would not pursue charges in court over the RM2.6 billion and SRC International.

But questions remain unanswered, such as what happened to the shortfall that Najib did not return to the Saudi donors. And even if Najib said he had no knowledge of the money transfers from SRC International to his accounts, who would transfer such large sums of cash to him, and why?

Given the call by the MACC’s oversight panels to anti-graft investigators to “engage” the A-G on the no-further action, and with sources saying charges were originally recommended against Najib, it could be that the case of the RM2.6 billion is not over yet. – January 31, 2016.

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 2 February 2016, 10:17 pm and is filed under
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Cabinet today must  take cognisance and act on  the government failure to resolve Najib’s twin mega scandals by end of last year and  the national and international firestorm over  Apandi’s decision to exonerate Najib

The Cabinet at its meeting today must take cognisance and act on the government’s failure to resolve Najib’s twin world-class mega scandals by the end of last year and the national and international firestorm over Attorney-General Tan Sri Mohamad Apandi Ali’s decision to exonerate Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak of any wrongdoing or crime and that no charges would be brought against him in both the RM2.6 billion donation and RM42 million SRC International scandals.

Far from Najib’s upbeat forecast in his 2016 New Year Message that his twin world-class mega scandals had been resolved and no more issues in the country, the very opposite occurred as his RM2.6 billion “donation” and RM55 billion 1MDB twin mega scandals have in the month of January 2016  mushroomed to unprecedented levels.

As a result, both Najib and Malaysia’s credibility and image have never suffered such serious dent, both nationally and internationally.

Four months ago, in a historic statement on Oct. 6, the Malay Rulers directed Putrajaya to ensure that 1 Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) scandal was  thoroughly investigated and for those found guilty of wrongdoing to be punished.

The Malay Rulers  also said that investigations must be made public in order to show that nothing was being hidden in the probe on the state-owned investment firm.

The Malay Rulers joint statement said: “The findings of the investigation must be reported comprehensively and in a transparent manner so that the people will be convinced of the sincerity of the government which shall not at all conceal facts and the truth.”

But none of the Malay Rulers’ concerns has been addressed, and not a single person had been punished for the world-class twin mega scandals which have given Malaysia the ignominious third ranking in the world’s “worst corruption scandals in 2015” and caused Malaysia’s ranking in the Transparency International’s 2015 Corruption Perception Index to plunge four  places to No. 54  from No. 50 last year.

And nothing has been revealed to Malaysians about the investigations into the twin mega scandals “so that the people will be convinced of the sincerity of the government which shall not at all conceal facts and the truth”!

The   promise by the Deputy Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Zahid Hamidi,  who responded to the Malay Rulers’ Statement with the pledge that Putrajaya was taking proactive measures to address  concerns raised by the Malay Rulers over 1MDB, have come to nought.

Hence the national and international firestorm over Attorney-General Apandi’s decision.

Since New Year’s Day of 2016, the saying “It never rains but it pours” seems to best describe Najib’s world-class twin mega scandals and the serious multi-faceted Malaysian crisis today.

Yesterday alone, there were three major developments in the ever-mushrooming crisis over Najib’s twin mega scandals.

Firstly, there was the report to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) by former UMNO Batu Kawan vice chief Khairuddin Abu Hassan against Attorney-General Apandi for his move to exonerate Najib over the RM2.6 billion “donation” and RM42 million SRC International scandals.

Khairuddin had earlier lodged a police report against Apandi on Jan 27 urging cops to probe the attorney-general for what he claimed was “possible abuse of power, criminal negligence, twisting of facts and preventing public officers from performing their duty”.

Secondly, former de facto Law Minister Datuk Zaid Ibrahim sought a judicial review of Attorney-General Apandi’s decision not to prosecute the Prime Minister, asking for a mandamus order to compel a prosecution against Najib under the existing MACC Act and Penal Code.

In his affidavit, Zaid said it is highly improbable that Prime Minister Najib could be in the dark over the RM42 million from SRC International deposited into his private bank accounts.

Zaid is filing the application as a taxpayer who has a legitimate interest in the administration of justice.

Thirdly, the Bar Council President Steven Thiru has taken the position that Attorney-General Apandi’s move to clear Prime Minister Najib of any wrongdoing in both RM2.6 billion “donation” and RM42 million SRC International cases was “unsustainable in law”.

Thiru said: “The decision seems premature, lacking in facts, bereft of particulars, and founded on questionable or inadequate reasons.”

Thiru raised eight questions on Apandi’s revelation that Najib had returned US$620 million of the donation to the donor, viz:

1) Who specifically donated the US$681 million to Najib between March 22 and April 10, 2013?

2) What was the purpose of the “donation”?

3) If purpose is not identified, is it proper to conclude no criminal offence was committed?

4) Was Bank Negara or MACC notified of the repatriation of US$620 million?

5) What happened to the balance US$61 million?

6) If the manner in which the US$61 million was utilised by Najib has not been ascertained, how can corruption be ruled out?

7) What is the exact sum transferred from SRC International to Najib’s accounts as there were reports of RM41 million followed by another RM27 million.

8) Who gave the approval for the SRC International transfers into Najib’s bank accounts, what was the purpose and how was the account numbers obtained?

Thiru said the Malaysian Bar disagrees that the attorney-general has absolute authority under the constitution in refusing to prosecute any individuals.

He said: “The notion of absolute discretionary powers is contrary to the rule of law. All legal powers – even a constitutional power – have legal limits.

“Thus, the modern and prevailing view is that the attorney-general’s decision not to prosecute is open to challenge in a judicial review action, if the exercise of the prosecutorial discretion is tainted by bad faith, dishonesty or extraneous purposes.

“The attorney-general’s prosecutorial powers are therefore not unfettered.”

The Cabinet at its meeting today must take cognisance and act on these multiple developments over Najib’s twin mega scandals, including the removal of Apandi as  Attorney-General or asking him to withdraw from all decision-making involving Najib’s RM2.6 billion “donation” and RM55 billion 1MDB twin mega scandals.

As Najib is the party directly involved in both these twin mega scandals, Najib should withdraw from Cabinet discussion and decision-making relating to both scandals.

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 3 February 2016, 6:29 am and is filed under
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Chinese New Year medley (A Cappella)

Pleasantly surprised to receive a video by very passionate Malaysians and musicians who produced a Chinese New Year:  A Cappella Medley,  by Kong Xian Ming and  Colour of Voices (A Malay cappella group).

What a great and creative  way to usher in the celebration of  Chinese New Year the Malaysian way.

This is what makes Malaysia different.

We are a nation with a confluence of different races, languages, cultures and religions, where Malaysians celebrate the  diverse ethnic and religious festivities not in an exclusive but in an inclusive Malaysian manner.

Just as  Chinese in Malaysia celebrate the Chinese New Year together with Malays, Indians, Kadazans and Ibans; Muslims celebrate  Hari Raya Aidilfitri together with non-Muslims; Hindus celebrate Deepavali and Thaipusam with non-Hindus and Christians celebrate  Christmas with non-Christians – without fear of losing our respective ethnic or religious identities.

This make Malaysians unique and distinct from other peoples in the world!

Let us continue to celebrate Malaysia’s diversity, an  asset which could lead to Malaysia’s greater achievements as a people and a nation.

Kudos to Xian Ming and Colour of  Voices for blazing the way

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 3 February 2016, 1:47 pm and is filed under
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Malaysia’s 1MDB Scandal: You Couldn’t Make It Up

By WILLIAM PESEK

Barron’s Asia

February 3, 2016

While Swiss and Singapore officials turn up the heat, Prime Minister Najib Razak hides his head in the sand.

I don’t know who Najib Razak’s friends are in Saudi Arabia, but I sure want a few.

Who wouldn’t covet a pal or two willing to toss you $700 million as a “gift,” no strings attached? That’s at least the Malaysian prime minister’s story, and he’s sticking to it. Politicians overseas, meanwhile, would sure love to have Najib’s electorate. Since the Wall Street Journal broke news of his good fortune, Najib has displayed a fatalistic willingness to take an entire economy down so he can stay in office. And his party harbors little fear of losing power.

There’s the “Twilight Zone” and there’s the “Malaysia Zone,” and just try discerning the difference. Najib-gate grew even more surreal last week when Malaysia’s attorney general suddenly cleared him of criminal or corruption charges. In a hastily-arranged press conference, Mohamed Apandi Ali said Najib had returned all but $61 million of that “donation” from the Saudi royal family. Somehow, Apandi kept a straight face as he declared the matter closed.

But Swiss authorities couldn’t. On Monday, they detailed allegations that a state fund Najib controls may have misappropriated about $4 billion from state companies. Malaysia responded with outrage – outrage the Swiss dared bring transparency into the Malaysia Zone. “By making a public statement, in my opinion, it is not good because it not only strains ties between the two countries, but also creates bias in media reports,” Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamid said and, yes, with a straight face.

Respect, Switzerland. Respect. It’s never easy to be a whistleblower, but that’s especially so when your main industry is helping the rich camouflage wealth. Reputational risk couldn’t stop Bern from shaming a Malaysian government used to pulling the wool over the eyes of its 30 million people. Not all Malaysians, of course, but those keeping Najib’s United Malays National Organisation in business.

Yet Malaysia Inc. went too far in the camouflage department for Swiss officials. Ditto for the U.S. and Singapore. U.S. officials are probing Goldman Sachs’s role as an advisor; Singapore seized a series of accounts amid investigations into money laundering and other alleged offenses related to 1Malaysia Development Bhd., the fund Najib created in 2009. Ostensibly, 1MDB was set up to spur economic growth. Instead, it’s emblematic of why Malaysia is becoming a smaller blip on investors’ radar screens.

The $700 million scandal is merely a symptom, albeit a gargantuan one, of a more important number: 54. That’s Malaysia’s ranking in Transparency International’s 2015 corruption perceptions index, and it’s down four levels from a year earlier. In 2014, Saudi Arabia trailed Malaysia five places. By 2015, Najib’s supposed benefactor leapfrogged ahead of Malaysia, ranking in the 48th percentile. The perception corruption has worsened on Najib’s watch (a Swiss one, perhaps?) can be found in everything from stock and currency gyrations to foreign-direct-investment trends to divergent political dynamics in Asia.

Indonesia, for example, jumped 19 places on Transparency International’s tables since 2014, even besting the Philippines (another nation cleaning up its act). The difference between Jakarta and Putrajaya? Indonesian President Joko Widodo’s methodical focus on eradicating graft, putting more government functions and services online and recruiting credible deputies is paying off. As Jakarta reduces opacity, Putrajaya is increasingly shrouding itself from the global media, local activists and its people.

THE TIDBITS THAT DO ESCAPE NAJIB’S FIREWALL are of the you-couldn’t-make-this-stuff-up-if-you-tried variety. In December, we learned the Federal Bureau of Investigation is eyeing Najib family assets in connection with Leonardo DiCaprio’s “Wolf of Wall Street” film (a company set up by his stepson produced it). Don’t forget perpetual efforts to imprison opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim on sodomy charges from the late 1990s. Hence jokes that CBS’s next crime-scene investigation series should be “CSI: Malaysia.” Or about the irony of a government that can’t find a Boeing 777 having no trouble locating Anwar’s body fluids two decades later.

The controversy surrounding MH370, missing since March 2014, and 1MDB stem from the same problem: a political elite that cares about staying in power, not the people. That charge could be lobbed at the Liberal Democratic Party in Japan or America’s Republicans. But neither has held power continuously for six decades, as UMNO has. When the world looked Malaysia’s way amid the greatest aviation mystery since Amelia Earhart, the government was woefully unprepared for primetime. It should’ve learned then that circling the wagons and shutting the world out is a losing strategy.

Only, it didn’t. Najib’s team repeated similar mistakes with 1MDB. First, it dismissed the Journal’s July 2015 report following 1MDB money into Najib’s account personal accounts as some conspiracy to undermine Malaysia. Then, after Putrajaya could no longer ignore the storm, it effectively said “Oh yeah, that. It was a gift. Trust us.” Then, awkwardly, the attorney general whitewashed the crisis. The matter, Najib declared after the ruling, “has been comprehensively put to rest.”

Hardly, Swiss prosecutors retorted this week. Burying such a global scandal is no longer possible in a globalized world in which Malaysia competes for investment. The growing number of foreign probes -– and escalating ones at that –- risk denting Malaysia’s standing. They’re also as clear an explanation as any for why Malaysia is being left behind as Indonesia, the Philippines and other neighbors zoom ahead.

Thing is, Malaysia is an amazing and unique place and I urge anyone who hasn’t visited to check it out. Its breathtaking physical beauty is only rivaled by the energy of its multiethnic population, a thriving culinary scene second to few and enviable geographical placement as China, India and Southeast Asia blossom and change the world. Sadly, it’s run by a government that claims all’s well when the rest of the world knows something’s rotten in Najib’s Malaysia. And with a straight face.

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 3 February 2016, 2:03 pm and is filed under
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The world is closing in on Malaysia’s insular ruling elite

by Greg Earl

Australian Financial Review

Feb 3 2016

There was a time when a Malaysian leader only had to slug it out in the opaque but tough forum of the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) to remain in power.

And tough it certainly has been, with a leader or rising deputy ruthlessly shoved aside usually amid outbreaks of Malay chauvinism about once a decade during the almost 60 years UMNO has been in power.

Prime Minister Najib Razak produced a masterful performance at the party conference late last year drawing on Malay feudal notions of loyalty and more modernist Islamic principles to fend off a corruption scandal, a weak economy and criticism by his deputy.

Last week the Attorney-General Apandi Ali seemed to take his cue from the conference and declare that there was nothing more to investigate about one of the world’s most amazing political funding sagas in which the Saudi royal family put US$680 million in Najib’s private bank accounts in the run-up to the 2013 election. And after a budget adjustment to cope with the emerging market uncertainty, the attorney-general appeared to clear the way for the prime minister to celebrate his 40 years in politics.

But for a sophisticated, liberal sounding, world traveller with a dynastic claim on the top job, just consider how the political battleground has actually changed since his father and then uncle both served as PMs through the 1970s.

MONEY LAUNDERING INVESTIGATION

In the US the Federal Bureau of Investigation is reportedly investigating money laundering by a heavily-indebted sovereign wealth fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) which is chaired by Najib. His stepson Riza Aziz’s real estate dealings in the US are also under scrutiny.

Then last Friday Swiss investigators investigating 1MDB revealed that up to US$4 billion may have been misappropriated from Malaysian state companies with some of that money lodged in Swiss banks.

Then on Monday the international web of attention got closer to home when Singapore’s Monetary Authority and financial fraud unit said they had seized a large number of bank accounts as a result of investigations into 1MDB and were co-operating with agencies in Switzerland and the US.

This is now a classic clash between old ways of political management when emerging countries were still insulated from global financial market pressures and the new world where regulatory authorities are sharing financial information at a global level.

And it is even more classic because – whatever you think of Malaysia’s elections – Najib heads what is the world’s longest continually elected same-party government. And this is in a country which was also at the forefront of Asia’s economic renaissance from the beginning with a congenial pro-foreign investment business climate.

Even as this amazing web of international legal attention has functioned as a sort of parallel universe to the conduct of the government in Kuala Lumpur, Najib has been receiving quite positive reviews of his economic management from market economists and the International Monetary Fund.

This raises obvious questions about how long foreign investors will tolerate the continual revelations about poor management of state funds before they fear the rot may spread further.

The answer probably lies in the fact that the alternate forces in Malaysia from economic reformers to the ethnic minorities haven’t been able to assemble a coherent alternative government, notwithstanding some electoral unfairness. Until that happens, investors can probably assume the UMNO system remains intact and that surviving within it runs deep in Najib’s blood.

And that’s why the sudden emergence of his own brother on social media this week worrying about the country’s future and image may be a crucial turning point.

One can really only let Nazir Razak, head of the Malaysia’s second biggest bank, conclude this sorry tale. “I just can’t see how our institutions can recover, how our political atmosphere can become less toxic, how our international reputation can be repaired,” he reportedly said on Instagram.

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 3 February 2016, 2:30 pm and is filed under
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Unsolicited Advice to Young Malaysians

M. Bakri Musa

www.bakrimusa.com

 I enjoy giving talks to Malaysian students. It is invigorating to be with the young; their passion, enthusiasm and idealism do rub off on me.

     My hope is that when they become leaders they will hold as role models the likes of Hang Nadim and Hang Jebat, and emulate the giants in our history like Munshi Abdullah and Datuk Onn. I also hope that they will be as innovative as Ungku Aziz and Raja Petra, and like them, not be trapped by the conventional wisdom. Most of all I hope they will be as diligent and resourceful as Badri Muhammad.

     In my advice to students, I remind them that their future is in their own hands. No one, not their parents, advisors on campus and the embassy, or sponsors back home, knows what is best for them. I tell these students that those other people may be sincere when offering their advice but they have not traveled the same path you have taken or experienced the challenges you have faced.

     Most of all they will not be the ones to bear the consequences of your decision. By all means listen to their counsel, but in the end the decision is yours. About all the others could do after offering their advice would be to also offer you their prayers and best wishes. They should support, not veto your decision.

     I claim no originality to that piece of advice. This was what my late father passed on to me. I have found it useful, hence my sharing it. We all wish our young to have calm seas ahead and fair winds behind. However if they do encounter the inevitable squalls, they should be ready to trim their sails and batten their hatches. As for the swells, they should have their surfboards ready to ride the waves and take in the exhilaration!

     That is what a free mind does; turns adversities into opportunities. Suharto imprisoned Prameodya Ananta Toer, but only his body. His mind was free, free to craft his world-acclaimed Buru tetralogy. He created his own freedom. That is what we should all aspire to.

     Likewise when Hamka was imprisoned, also by that goon Suharto, he wrote his multivolume and authoritative Tafsir Al Azhar, a commentary, not a translation of the Holy Koran. In his later years Hamka would muse that had he not been imprisoned he would probably have not written that Tafseer as he would be too busy giving lectures and khutbas!

    As a coda I quote our great poet Usman Awang; he said it best in the last-but-one verse of his poem, Melayu (Malay), on the essence of a free mind.

                     Melayu

Jangan takut melanggar pantang

     Jika pantang menghalang kemajuan;

     Jangan segan menentang larangan

     Jika yakin kepada kebenaran;

     Jangan malu mengucapkan keyakinan

     Jika percaya kepada keadilan.

My translation:

                     Malay

Fearlessly breach the fortress

     If it blocks your progress!

     If needed, be brusque

     In pursuit of the truth.

     Be unashamed of your conviction

     Let justice be your declaration.

     There are so many larangans (obstacles) in the life of a Malaysian today. We must menentang (oppose) them if we yakin kepada kebenaran and percaya kepada keadilan (have faith in the truth and believe in justice).

     Kemajuan (progress), kebenaran (truth) and keadilan (justice); a free mind will hold those in high esteem and vigilantly guard against those who would erode or corrode those pristine values.

Adapted from the author’s book, Liberating The Malay Mind, published by ZI Publications. The revised second edition was released on January 30th, 2016.

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 3 February 2016, 5:12 pm and is filed under
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Bashah should produce his SPM certificate before the swearing-in ceremony to end once-and-for-all the rigmarole about whether he has SRP or SPM qualification

I am really baffled.

Is the Department of Special Affairs (Jasa) official, Lokman Noor Adam helping or hindering Datuk Seri Ahmad Bashah Md Hanipah, the Kedah Mentri Besar-designate, when raising the controversy whether the latter only has Sijil Rendah Pelajaran (SRP) or Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) qualification?

Bashah should produce his SPM certificate before the swearing-in ceremony today to end once-and-for-all the rather undignified rigmarole about whether he has SRP or SPM qualifications.

Unless Bashah could not produce any SPM certificate at all!

This is one of the chores Bashah should clear up before he takes his oath as Mentri Besar of Kedah. The other is for him to be honest, set a good example and openly apologise for sleeping as caught in a video during one of  Tuanku’s speeches.

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 4 February 2016, 6:30 am and is filed under
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Is Najib getting stronger and stronger with scandal after scandal?

The embattled Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib has won another victory with the toppling of Datuk Mukhriz Mahathir as Kedah Mentri Besar and his replacement by Datuk Seri Ahmad Bashah Md Hanipah.

With a State Assembly of 36 State Assembly representatives, 21 from Barisan Nasional and 15 from the Opposition comprising PAS 8, PKR 4, DAP 2 and Amanah 1, Mukhriz’s position as Kedah Mentri Besar would be untouchable if he could secure the support of at least four UMNO/BN  Assembly representatives (including himself).

This is because with 17 out of 36 State Assembly votes, the Bashah faction would not be able to muster the necessary majority to force a change of the Mentri Besar without convening a State Assembly meeting for a vote-of-confidence vote.

The UMNO/BN machination to get rid of Mukhriz as Kedah Mentri Besar must ensure that it collectively commands 18 votes, as in a 18-18 tie, the un-elected Speaker would be able to cast his vote on the side of the Bashah group to topple Mukhriz.

Any other scenario would be unthinkable, as it would mean that Mukhriz had been forced to step down as Mentri Besar by a minority of UMNO/BN Assembly representatives.

It is indeed a great paradox in Malaysian politics, that Najib seems to be getting stronger and stronger despite “scandal after scandal”.

Najib’s victory in forcing the resignation of Mukhriz as Kedah Mentri Besar probably amounts to “10 versus 0” score for Najib against his foes  in the past six months, as his other “victories” would include:

1.	Sacking of Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin and Senior Minister for Rural and Regional Development.

2.	Sacking of Tan Sri Gani Patail as Attorney-General.

3.	Scuttling of the Special Task Force on 1MDB.

4.	Arrest,  immediate transfer or intimidation of key officials in Attorney-General’s Chambers, Bank Negara, Police and Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission who want to pursue investigations into Najib’s twin mega scandals without fear or favour.

5.	Sabotage of the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee investigations into 1MDB.

6.	Sidestepping of the Malay Rulers’ Statement of Oct. 6, 2015 urging the government to complete the 1MDB investigations “as soon as possible” and to take  “appropriate stern action” against all found to be implicated.

7.	Failure of an UMNO move to topple Najib as Prime Minister by way of statutory declarations by Members of Parliament.

8.	Breach of the promise by the Prime Minister that his twin mega scandals would be resolved by the end of last year, when in fact, both these scandals have become even bigger and more international in 2016.

9.	The Attorney-General’s exoneration of Najib of any wrongdoing or crime and that no charges would be brought against him in both the RM2.6 billion donation and RM42 million SRC International scandals.

Is Najib getting stronger and stronger with scandal after scandal?

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 4 February 2016, 12:46 pm and is filed under
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Malaysia PM tightens grip on ruling party after critic toppled

Michael Peel in Bangkok

Financial Times

February 3, 2016

Najib Razak, Malaysia’s prime minister, tightened his grip on the country’s ruling party on Wednesday after the son of his predecessor, was toppled for what he claimed was criticism of the premier’s involvement in a financial scandal.

Mukhriz Mahathir, son of Mr Razak’s most high-profile critic Mahathir Mohamad, quit as chief minister of the northern state of Kedah after losing the support of his state assembly.

Analysts see Mr Mukhriz’s removal as another sign of Mr Najib’s political strength, despite the efforts of a clutch of senior figures and opposition parties to unseat him.

“It’s revenge for Mahathir Mohamad going against Najib,” said James Chin, director of the Asia institute at the University of Tasmania, who added that Mr Mukhriz was also seen as having performed badly during his three years in office. “Mukhriz had supported his father against the prime minister.”

Mr Mukhriz said in a statement that the “true reason” for the effort to unseat him was his criticism of the premier. The deposed chief minister said “scandal after scandal” in Malaysia was “traumatising all of us”.

Mr Najib’s office said Mr Mukhriz had been forced to resign because of “lack of confidence in his leadership” in the run-up to the next election, which must be held by 2018. “The prime minister believes that the party and government must be disciplined and work together as a united team to combat the economic and security challenges Malaysia currently faces,” the premier’s office said.

Mr Mahathir has led an effort by some political grandees in Mr Najib’s UMNO party to force the prime minister from office, principally over the payment of $680m into the premier’s personal bank account from an unnamed foreign source. The attorney-general last week backed the prime minister’s denial of wrongdoing in receiving the funds, adding that they came from the Saudi Arabian royal family.

Many observers say Mr Mahathir is a problematic leader of a campaign to clean up politics, since cronyism flourished alongside the economy during his 1981 to 2003 premiership. Mr Najib’s supporters say the effort to topple their boss is a political powerplay, rather than motivated by outrage over the $680m or allegations of misappropriation of funds from the 1MDB state investment fund.

Mr Najib’s government has secured his position over the past six months by detaining critics or banning them from travel, removing people involved in the corruption claim investigations from their posts, and shoring up support from the UMNO’s powerful regional chiefs. But the premier’s efforts to contain the scandal have been undermined by announcements from international investigators, including a Swiss statement last week that its probe had found “serious indications” of the misappropriation of $4bn from Malaysian state companies. The Swiss authorities say Mr Najib is not a target of their investigation.

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 4 February 2016, 4:05 pm and is filed under
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Najib, Malaysia’s Teflon PM

– James Chin

The Malaysian Insider

3 February 2016

For the past three years, every political pundit in Malaysia has been asked a simple question: when will Datuk Seri Najib Razak be replaced?

A year ago, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, the fourth and longest-serving prime minister, in power from 1981 to 2003, was gung-ho about his ability to get rid of Najib.

After all, it is on the public record that Dr Mahathir was largely responsible for the political demise of the first and fifth prime ministers, Tunku Abdul Rahman and Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. There was no reason to think that he could not secure the trifecta, so to speak.

Yet today, the general consensus in the ruling Umno is that Najib is quite secure despite the scandal surrounding the US$700 million “political donation” from Saudi Arabia and other shenanigans related to 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB), a company with quasi-status as a sovereign wealth fund and that is under investigation by Singapore, US and Swiss authorities.

Dr Mahathir and his gang are lying low, and Dr Mahathir’s son, the (former) Kedah menteri besar, is under siege from Najib.

According to The Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times, The Economist and the like, Najib is “disastrous” for Malaysia.

The Western media cannot comprehend how Najib can stay in power when it is “clear” that “corruption” has taken place, with huge and unexplained sums of money ending up in Najib’s personal bank accounts.

The story is even more compelling when you take into account the dramatic sacking of the deputy prime minister, another senior minister from Sabah, and the attorney-general.

The first two were known to be critics of Najib’s role in 1MDB. The attorney-general was replaced when he tried to charge Najib with corruption.

The first thing the new deputy prime minister did was to pledge his loyalty to Najib and the new attorney-general has cleared Najib of any legal wrong doing in the “political donation” case.

It appears it is not illegal in Malaysia to receive millions of dollars in political donations from a foreign power.

Najib has said he did not benefit personally, but used some of the money from the royal family in Saudi Arabia to campaign in the 2013 general election and returned the rest.

What many foreigners and analysts fail to appreciate is the enormous power concentrated in the hands of the prime minister.

In theory, the PM rules through a coalition government. In practice, he exercises his powers like a feudal king.

He holds what are, arguably, the three most powerful offices in Malaysia. In addition to prime minister he is also finance minister and chairman of the National Security Council (NSC).

He controls tenders and contracts worth billions of dollars and, through the NSC, can shut the country down by declaring an emergency.

On top of government contracts, he can appoint anyone he likes to thousands of board positions in government-linked companies (GLCs).

It is generally accepted these GLCs occupy the commanding heights of the economy. Many of these board positions come with generous perks and allowances paid for very little work, other than attending board meetings.

The truth is the only people who can get rid of Najib are the Umno “warlords”, the Umno divisional chiefs, members of Umno Supreme Council and elected representatives.

There are fewer than 200 people in this group and most of them back Najib. They are aware of Najib’s shenanigans but there is nothing Najib has done that Dr Mahathir, his predecessor had not done.

In fact, an authoritative study of Dr Mahathir’s financial misadventures suggests that he lost more than US$40 billion during his time in office. So what if the Swiss investigating 1MDB say US$4 billion has been misappropriated? That’s merely 10% of what Dr Mahathir lost!

Many of the warlords support Najib for practical reasons. They are on the Najib gravy train of contracts and well-paid positions on GLCs. There are, however, three scenarios that could cause the warlords to rock the boat. These would be if:

*It seems likely Najib will lose the next general election (due in 2018).

*The economy dives.

*There is an arrest warrant issued for Najib.

From my vantage point in Kuala Lumpur, the second of these is the most probable.

Najib is unlikely to lose the next general election as long as he can keep Sabah and Sarawak on his side.

Sarawak is due to hold elections in April and I predict a massive victory for Najib’s Barisan Nasional coalition. Without Sabah and Sarawak, the BN government would have lost power in the 2008 general election.

In the 2013 vote, it was again the Sabahans and Sarawakians who delivered the winning majority to BN. At present there are no indications that Sabah and Sarawak will abandon Najib or BN, not yet anyway.

The third scenario is unlikely given international investigations are highly complex and subject to multiple jurisdictions with multiple interpretations of what is and isn’t a crime.

As long as he is PM, Malaysia will refuse to cooperate with any investigations implicating Najib, thus delaying the entire process, at least until the next general election in 2018.

There is a 50/50 chance a slumping economy will end Najib’s reign. A good indicator of a country’s economy is its exchange rate.

Since the middle of last year, the ringgit has fallen by about 24% against the US dollar that dominates international trade.

Malaysian businessmen are having a hard time trying to import goods and services. The drop in the price of oil has forced Najib to revise his budget and Petronas, the biggest single contributor to the Malaysian treasury, has announced it will slash US$11.41 billion in capital and operating expenses over the next four years.

If the ringgit hits RM5 to US$1, or seems well on the way there, I predict a palace coup against Najib. Not only would the Umno warlords politically knife Najib, Malaysian business tycoons, always an influential bloc, would join in.

Foreigners, international media and those Malaysians waiting for “good governance issues” to get Najib out are living in fairy land.

Like most states in the region, ultimately in Malaysia you can’t beat bread and butter politics; most Malaysians are focused on the economy and the cost of living. They don’t spend too much time worrying about corruption. – www.lowyinterpreter.org, February 3, 2016.

* Professor James Chin is the inaugural director of the Asia Institute, University of Tasmania. He is an expert on the governance issues in Southeast Asia, especially Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore.

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 4 February 2016, 10:24 am and is filed under
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PM left red nosed by censorship protest

BBC Trending

Blog by : Tse Yin Lee , BBC Monitoring

A portrait that probably won’t grace the walls of the prime minister’s office

When Malaysian police warned activist and graphic designer Fahmi Reza that his Twitter account was under surveillance after he posted an image of the prime minister, Najib Razak, as a clown, they probably hoped such behaviour would stop.

But then members of an art collective, Grupa posted even more clownish images of the premier to express their solidarity with him and to champion the ideal of free speech.

The pictures have spread across social media with the hashtag #KitaSemuaPenghasut which translates as “we are all seditious”.

Fahmi’s mockery of the prime minister was part of a wider reaction to news last week, when the country’s attorney-general cleared Mr Najib of any corruption relating to a long-running financial scandal.

Grupa has been quick to express solidarity

Grupa and Fahmi both have a history of protest against the current prime minister, though Fahmi stresses his work is anti-corruption rather than anti-Najib and says he has lampooned politicians from all sides in his work.

Grupa says it is an independent group of designers and illustrators that formed just days before street protests in August that called on Mr Najib to resign. It says it designed many of the placards used in the protest.

Fahmi, a long-time activist, is unrepentant. He responded to the police warning with another tweet mocking it: “Warning! This Twitter account is under police watch. Use it with prudence.”

On Facebook he has also made a tongue-in-cheek appeal to the authorities not to act rashly, saying his arrest would only give the issue more publicity.

In July last year, $681 million dollars was found in Mr Najib’s personal bank account. In the furore that followed, the prime minister removed the attorney-general investigating the issue and sacked the deputy prime minister who was vocally and actively criticising the way the matter was handled.

There was widespread scepticism about the explanation that the new attorney-general gave about the source of the funds – that they were a personal donation from the Saudi royal family to Mr Najib – and the story trended for days on social media.

Mr Najib has consistently denied any wrongdoing.

The Malaysian police’s attempts to use social media to monitor comments about the government has also sparked debate. The Police Cyber Investigation Response Centre account that cautioned Fahmi, has also cautioned a handful of other social media users for expressing racist or libellous sentiment since it was created in January.

While some say it is required to make people more aware of the legal limits of what they can say online, others point out it has been created in an era where the government has increasingly used pre-colonial sedition laws to stifle free speech.

The government has also tried to eradicate visible signs of protest by attempting to ban the yellow T-shirts worn by protesters campaigning against Mr Najib.

Blog by : Tse Yin Lee , BBC Monitoring

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 4 February 2016, 1:29 pm and is filed under
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The World Derides The Chosen One!

By Martin Jalleh

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 4 February 2016, 11:33 am and is filed under
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Do we have to wait until 1MDB scandal become the norm in Malaysia which will see the country competing with Somali, North Korea, Afghanistan and Sudan for the last four spots on the TI CPI?

Those who still believe in the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak and suffer from the illusion spread by Najib in his 2016 New Year Message that the Prime Minister’s twin world-class RM2.6 “political donation” and the RM55 billion 1MDB mega scandals have been resolved and are no more issues need only to refer today’s news portals, both locally and internationally, to realise how wrong they are.

It is supreme irony that  Najib’s very own  Ministers are among those in the forefront debunking the Prime Minister’s delusion that his twin mega scandals are no more issues as they had been resolved.

The Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Seri Abdul Wahid Omar said that 1MDB was the exception in the anti-graft movement among Malaysian companies, claiming that most other Malaysian companies have made good progress in improving transparency.

Goodness me, do we have to wait until 1MDB scandal become the norm for all GLCs  in Malaysia which will see the country competing with Somali, North Korea, Afghanistan and Sudan for the last four spots on Transparency International’s annual Corruption Perception Index?

The second Minister to debunk Najib’s delusion that the Prime Minister’s twin mega scandals are no more issues in the country is none other than the Second Minister for International Trade and Industry and MCA Secretary-General, Datuk Seri Ong Ka Chuan, who grudgingly admitted that the Attorney-General Tan Sri Mohamad Apandi Ali’s exoneration of Najib of any crime in both the RM2.6 billion donation and RM42 million SRC International scandals, was a “boost to the nation’s trade this year”.

However, he disarmingly conceded that the Attorney-General’s move “will help to a certain extent, but I hope this thing should improve further” to bring back confidence in the country.

What other evidence are needed that Najib’s twin mega scandals are profoundly affecting  Malaysia’s political and  economic health as compared to  last year  when even his Cabinet Ministers responsible for portfolios about Malaysia’s economy and international trade have either ceased to defend the 1MDB scandal by admitting that it is “an exception” or tacitly admitted their impotence in promoting Malaysia’s international trade and industry when the twin mega scandals continue to hound and haunt Malaysia’s economic future?

Can Najib continue to pretend that he can just wish his twin mega scandals away with the wave of his hand, when reports are coming in from different parts of the world about ongoing probes, whether in Switzerland, Singapore, Hong Kong, United Kingdom and United States, into the 1MDB scandal, with foreign analysis predicting the continued erosion of investor confidence in Malaysia.

For instance, Mixo Das, a Singapore-based strategist at Nomura Holdings Inc., forecast “a potentially long-term investment climate deterioration” while Sydney’s AMP Capital Investors investment strategy head Shane Oliver said he will not be allocating any more funds to Malaysia.

Although Malaysian politics seems to be confronted by a great paradox where Najib seems to be getting stronger and stronger despite “scandal after scandal”, the question is whether this great paradox is sustainable or whether a tipping point is being reached where Najib’s “house of cards” will suddenly collapse and come tumbling down?

Every day, enormous pressures continue to be relentlessly mounted, as seen by the latest three developments:

Firstly
, an unprecedented challenge to the authority of the Attorney-General with former Malaysian Bar president Ragunath Kesavan declaring that in any investigation  conducted against the attorney-general as chief prosecutor, the solicitor-general, Azailiza Mohd Ahad  who is second in command in the Attorney-General’s Chambers, can decide whether to prosecute or not.  If the decision to prosecute the AG is made, any deputy public prosecutor (DPP) is competent to handle the task.

Yesterday, former Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) director Mohamad Ramli Manan, said that attorney-general Mohamed Apandi Ali can be investigated under Section 212 of the Penal Code, which relates to the crime of harbouring an offender.

Alternatively, investigations can also be carried out under Sections 217 or 218 of the Penal Code, related to a public servant disobeying a direction of law with the intent to save a person from punishment or property forfeiture.

This was in relation to Apandi’s recent decision to close cases based on the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission’s (MACC) investigations into the RM42 million from SRC International and RM2.6 billion donation that was deposited into Najib’s personal account.

Secondly
, the reiteration by former Prime Minister, Tun Mahathir that Najib  should resign in order for Malaysia to regain its reputation.

Mahathir said: “To clear Malaysia’s good name and his own, Najib must prove beyond a shadow of doubt that he is innocent of all the accusations against him.

“The A-G saying he is innocent means nothing.

“He, the A-G, has no credibility.

“Failing this Najib should resign.”

Thirdly
, the launch of a formal investigation in France into whether Najib was paid bribes over a US$1.2 billion Scorpene submarine deal in 2002 when he was Defence Minister. Immediately brought to mind is the  2006 murder of Mongolian woman Altantuya Shaariibuu.

Four months ago, in a historic statement on Oct. 6, the Malay Rulers directed Putrajaya to complete the  1MDB investigations “as soon as possible” and to take  “appropriate stern action” against all found to be implicated.

There can be no outcome to investigations into Najib’s twin mega scandals so long as Najib continues as Prime Minister.

Najib should take leave to allow the investigations to proceed unhindered or Malaysia will suffer irreparable damage to our  national and international confidence.

                This entry was posted on Friday, 5 February 2016, 5:27 pm and is filed under
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The kleptocrats who steal from us

Syerleena Abdul Rashid

The Malaysian Insider

5 February 2016

Corruption is a definite problem that exhibits itself in different ways (duit kopi, gifts, donations, etc).

Alwyn Moerdyk, a lecturer in organisational psychology at Rhodes University, highlighted that in many countries, culture was frequently used to justify blatant acts of corruption.

Moerdyk noted the “act of giving is a natural process for humans and is an expression of gratitude for a benefit received or to cement a relationship. And while some societies claim that gift-giving is ‘part of our culture’, there was no need for outsiders to confuse it with bribery.”

However, one should understand the hidden motives behind these acts – depending on the size or amount of such gifts, the purpose of cementing existing relationships and to forge new ones can be a tricky issue that has caused many sleepless nights for many elected reps and government officials.

Economic prosperity and socio-political progress can only be achieved when governments are transparent and accountable to the people. Democracy upholds the firm notion that the rule of law is sanctified above everything else and the practice of corruption only destroys the foundations democracy.

In a poll conducted by BBC, which surveyed more than 13,000 in 26 different countries, results show that corruption is the world’s most frequently discussed global problem – more than one in five (21%) of those polled said they had discussed corruption and greed with friends and family over the past month, climate change trailed behind at 20%, while unemployment stood at 18%.

Corrupt practices and especially corrupt officials are the main reason why systems become incredibly inefficient and incompetent. The abuse of public power for private benefit, leads to the rich and corrupt becoming even richer at the expense of the honest and poor.

In February 2014, reports surfaced of a six-month graft probe into 60 policemen who were allegedly involved in corruption and money laundering. It was discovered that approximately RM20 million had been accumulated in several bank accounts.

The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) stated that the policemen were “alleged to have collected bribes from various illegal businesses, ranging from illegal gaming cybercafes to massage parlours and vice dens. Depending on the type of business, each operator paid between RM10,000 and RM50,000 a month to the policemen to avoid being raided and hassled.”

It really is breathtaking how corrupt we have become and we have major scandals like 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) to remind us just how ugly kleptocracy has become. It is a blatant threat against democracy and rule of law in developing countries like ours because corruption destabilises financial accountability, it suppresses economic performance while dissuades foreign investment and destroys trust in our judiciary system.

Kleptocrats have lined their own pockets instead of funding a nation’s development –  forget roads, schools, and hospitals. Such high-level corruption undermines the constitution and more so the people.

It is a development issue simply because fraudulence makes it difficult for us to fight for social progress and political reforms. Given the amount of exposes made, corruption has become so endemic in our society that most Malaysians have accepted it as normal or in Malaysian terms “biasa la tu”.

Nevertheless, increased transparency in government has produced some positive results, although, it is still a work in progress. It has increased civic engagement in government and more so, it can restore some level of trust.

Regardless of the practical challenges that may exist, transparency will improve the overall level of deliberation and examining frameworks needed to facilitate good governance that is synonymous with democracy.

Although, transparency will not single-handedly eliminate corruption, it will certainly make the system more robust and more in line with our democratic values. – February 5, 2016.

                This entry was posted on Friday, 5 February 2016, 6:35 pm and is filed under
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What the 1MDB scandal means for democracy in Malaysia

Iain Marlow

The Globe and Mail

Feb. 04, 2016

Singaporean authorities this week seized a number of bank accounts linked to Malaysia’s beleaguered state investment fund, 1Malaysia Development Bhd., as part of an ongoing international investigation into alleged corruption that has ensnared Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak.

The move is the latest twist in a global investigation centred on an unusual payment of $681-million (U.S.) from accounts and companies linked to 1MDB into the private accounts of Mr. Najib, who founded and chairs 1MDB. As the investigations continue, Malaysia’s government has undertaken a widespread crackdown on dissidents and dismissed critical politicians – outraging human-rights groups. The eventual conclusion of a domestic investigation by the country’s Attorney-General – that the cash was a donation from Saudi Arabia’s royal family, and has since mostly been returned – has not stopped other investigations by U.S. and Swiss authorities.

The Globe and Mail spoke to Dennis Ignatius, a career diplomat who was Malaysia’s high commissioner to Canada between 2001 and 2008, and is now an advocate for human rights and democracy, about what the deteriorating situation means for the Southeast Asian country.

What is your assessment of the current state of Malaysian politics?

Malaysia is a nation in deep paralysis, a dysfunctional democracy, if it can still be called one. Allegations of massive corruption at the highest levels of government have caused a serious crisis of confidence in the government and in its ability to lead the country forward at a very challenging time.

The Attorney-General’s decision to absolve the Prime Minister of any wrongdoing in connection with the alleged donation … has not gone down well with a populace already weary and wary of the ability of our institutions to act professionally and with due diligence. There is widespread dismay, anger and disillusionment.

Furthermore, the larger implications of the issue have also been ignored. Is it proper and in keeping with Malaysia’s democratic traditions for a political party to accept such massive sums of money from a foreign donor?

In any other democracy, an elected politician facing such a barrage of allegations would have done the honourable thing and resigned to spare the country the agony and the embarrassment, but not here. Malaysia’s international reputation is now in tatters. Investigations into high-level corruption are being carried out in a number of foreign jurisdictions, including France, Switzerland, Singapore and the United States. Prime Minister Najib has clearly taken us to a new low both at home and abroad.

To what extent do the corruption allegations hint at a broader malaise in the current administration and political system?

These allegations are, of course, serious and deeply troubling. They most certainly point to a deeper malaise in the administration, in the political culture – the degradation of our institutions and the corruption of our political system. I share the view of many civil society leaders in Malaysia that our democracy is now on its last legs.

Dozens have been charged with sedition for speaking out or harassed under a number of different security-related provisions. The Internet is being censored; a number of websites critical of the government have been blocked. More rules and laws are on the way. The economic consequences have also been disastrous. A small economy such as ours cannot long endure corruption on such a scale or such massive illicit capital outflows without serious consequences.

Unfortunately, we are not free to change our government through the electoral process because of well-documented gerrymandering and an Elections Commission that tends to favour the government. The ruling party (which has held power since Malaysia’s independence in 1957), in fact, lost the popular vote in the last elections but still obtained a majority of seats in parliament.

Should foreign observers trust the internal judicial and investigative bodies looking into Mr. Najib? And are foreign entities likely to get help from local authorities?

If you ask most Malaysians, the answer will most likely be a resounding “no.” Certainly, only the most naive or self-serving believe that a fair and independent investigation is possible or that foreign investigators will receive any substantial assistance from Malaysian authorities. They are simply going through the motions.

Many Malaysians, in fact, welcome the investigations by foreign agencies into the 1MDB scandal because they know that justice is not possible at home.

Petronas, Malaysia’s state-owned oil and gas company, is set to be the largest foreign investor in British Columbia through its proposed Pacific NorthWest LNG project. What do you make of it, given the price of oil and what’s happening to politics in Malaysia?

As with other oil corporations, there will be pressure to review investment strategies, hold off on new investments or delay existing ones. With regards to its planned investments in Canada, I suspect that Petronas will dig in for as long as it can. As its CEO has said, even in bad times, oil corporations need to invest with an eye on the future. However, I personally would not be surprised if a decision is taken to quietly delay the project for now, given the current market situation, as well as Petronas’s financial position.

                This entry was posted on Friday, 5 February 2016, 6:11 pm and is filed under
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AG Apandi’s Islamic test must apply to both sides

By Martin Jalleh

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 6 February 2016, 6:52 pm and is filed under
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Apandi has left behind questions aplenty!

By Martin Jalleh

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 6 February 2016, 9:12 am and is filed under
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France Probes Possible Bribes in 2002 Malaysia Submarine Sale

Geraldine Amiel and Pooi Koon Chong

Bloomberg

February 5, 2016

French financial prosecutors said they have started a formal probe into whether bribes were paid by Thales SA officials to secure the sale in 2002 of two submarines to Malaysia for more than $1.2 billion.

Prosecutors placed former Thales International Asia President Bernard Baiocco under investigation for “active corruption of foreign governmental officials” and are seeking to determine if “kickbacks” were used to win the contract, a spokesman for the French national prosecutor’s office said Friday, asking to remain anonymous in line with office policy.

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, who was defense minister in 2002, is a suspect in the case, a French official said, asking not to be named because of the sensitivity of the investigation. The Financial Times reported earlier that Najib is suspected of receiving one of the bribes, along with his associate Abdul Razak Baginda.

Najib’s office said the allegations were “baseless smears for political gain.”

“The reality is that there was absolutely no wrongdoing on the prime minister’s part in the government’s purchase of the submarines,” a spokesman for Najib said Friday in an e-mail. “Absolutely no payments ever benefited him.”

Neither Baiocco nor his lawyer, Jean-Yves Le Borgne, could be immediately reached to comment. Thales’s head of communications, Matt Pothecary, said the company didn’t comment on legal cases. Abdul Razak Baginda couldn’t immediately be reached.

Najib has faced a series of scandals for more than seven months. Malaysia’s attorney general last week cleared Najib of wrongdoing in receiving a $681 million personal donation from the Saudi Arabian royal family in 2013, as well as money from a company linked to debt-ridden government investment fund 1Malaysia Development Bhd., or 1MDB. Of the Saudi funds, $620 million was later returned.

Last month the Swiss Attorney General’s office said a probe of 1MDB revealed “serious indications” that about $4 billion may have been misappropriated from state companies in the Southeast Asian nation, and some former public officials had funds transferred to Swiss accounts. Najib is “not one of the public officials under accusation,” it said.

Singapore said Monday, in response to queries on 1MDB, that it had seized a “large number” of bank accounts in connection with possible money-laundering carried out in the country.

Najib’s office said Friday that similar French probes were conducted into defense contracts with Taiwan and India, adding the premier has never been contacted by the French judges leading the investigation.

The French formal probe follows a complaint made in 2009 by the Malaysian human rights NGO Suaram, according to the organization’s website.

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 6 February 2016, 9:16 pm and is filed under
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Let us rediscover our greatness as Malaysians

(2016 Chinese New Year Message)

Forty-six years ago, on New Year’s Eve marking the end of 1969 and the decade of the sixties, I wrote to the DAP founding chairman Dr. Chen Man Hin from political detention in Muar about the challenges of the future.

I ended my letter thus:

“It is our duty, the duty of every one of our members, branch, state and national leaders, elected representatives, to march in the frontline of the struggle to spread the word of a multi-racial Malaysia to Malaysians of all races, in both the urban and rural areas.

“Let us not shirk from our responsibility and duty to our nation, ourselves, our children and children’s children.”

This is in fact a challenge for all Malaysians for all times.

We are a nation with a confluence of different races, languages, cultures and religions, where Malaysians celebrate the diverse ethnic and religious festivities not in an exclusive but in an inclusive Malaysian manner.

Just as Chinese in Malaysia celebrate the Chinese New Year together with Malays, Indians, Kadazans and Ibans; Muslims celebrate Hari Raya Aidilfitri together with non-Muslims; Hindus celebrate Deepavali and Thaipusam with non-Hindus;  Christians celebrate Christmas with non-Christians; and Dayak and Kadazandusunmurut communities celebrate their respective festivals with other Malaysians  – without fear of losing our common national bond  and  our respective ethnic or religious identities.

This is the ingredient which makes Malaysia great and  Malaysians unique and distinct from other peoples in the world!

Let us continue to celebrate Malaysia’s diversity, an asset which could lead to Malaysia’s greater achievements as a people and a nation.

The time has come for a realignment of progressive political forces to save Malaysia and to keep faith with the vision of an united, plural,  inclusive, moderate, democratic and prosperous Malaysia.

Malaysians must find and restore our self-confidence to compete with the rest and the best in the world.

We must rediscover our greatness as Malaysians.

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 6 February 2016, 6:14 pm and is filed under
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Malaysia’s Anti-Graft Efforts Haven’t Put Investors at Ease

Andrea Tan and Pooi Koon Chong

Bloomberg

February 5, 2016

Bank accounts frozen. Bankers quizzed. As offshore authorities seek to track money flows involving Malaysia’s troubled government investment fund, fresh questions are rising about doing business in the country.

Crisscrossing countries from Switzerland to the U.S., Middle East and Singapore, investigators are chasing a trail of transactions linked to 1Malaysia Development Bhd. With the probes potentially running for years, investors and analysts say it may damage the perception that Malaysia is trying to become a more transparent place.

The risk is political, economic and commercial. Debt-ridden 1MDB, which is in the process of being broken up, was touted as the vehicle for the government to spur growth, investing mainly in property and power generation. Prime Minister Najib Razak — who has faced a separate furor over a $681 million personal donation from the Saudi royal family — sits on its advisory board.

The premier was cleared of any graft, and $620 million of the funds were returned. He and 1MDB have consistently denied any wrongdoing.

“The scandal has thrown Malaysia’s governance failings – both political and economic – into sharp relief,” said Nicholas Spiro, a partner at London-based Lauressa Advisory Ltd. “The 1MDB scandal raises the stakes significantly.”

State Companies

Malaysia’s economy has long been dominated by state-run companies like power producer Tenaga Nasional Bhd. and lender Malayan Banking Bhd., and the top 17 government-linked companies accounted for about a quarter of the nation’s stock market capitalization as of July 28, according to government data and Bloomberg calculations. While directors or heads of several GLCs have been associated with 1MDB, they and their companies haven’t been linked to alleged financial irregularities at the fund.

1MDB is currently the subject of overlapping investigations at home and abroad. Last week the Swiss Attorney General’s office said a probe revealed “serious indications” that about $4 billion may have been misappropriated from Malaysian state companies. Najib is not one of the public officials under accusation, it said.

Singapore authorities said in response to queries on 1MDB that they have seized “a large number” of bank accounts in connection with possible money-laundering in the country. 1MDB has said it is committed to fully cooperating with any lawful authority and investigation.

‘Game of Thrones’

The scandals, alongside months of political tensions for Najib, have unnerved senior figures in Malaysia. Najib’s brother, CIMB Group chairman Nazir Razak, wrote on Instagram on Jan. 30 that the future for Malaysia “terrifies him,” likening the current environment to the HBO series “Game of Thrones.”

Rafidah Aziz, Malaysia’s trade minister for more than two decades until 2008, mostly during the era of then-premier Mahathir Mohamad — a fierce Najib critic — said she was “mentally fatigued” and worried the country was “on a scary downhill course.”

“Some key parts of the system is indeed broken,” Rafidah said on Facebook Jan. 30. She declined on Wednesday to comment further.

The probes come amid a slowdown in growth and investment, with sliding oil prices taking a bite out of government revenue, limiting Najib’s ability to both rein in a fiscal deficit and stimulate spending. The economy grew at the slowest pace in more than two years in the three months through September from a year earlier.

Market Outflows

“It’s a difficult environment that needs to be improved and we seem to be a bit stuck,” said Gerald Ambrose, managing director of Aberdeen Asset Management Sdn in Kuala Lumpur. “It is difficult, having lived in Malaysia myself for 25 years. That does worry me.”

In 2015, foreign investors sold a net $7.4 billion of Malaysia stocks and bonds and the ringgit fell 19 percent. Outflows spurred in part by the rout in oil and China’s slowdown led Najib to announce in September he’d tap state funds for as much as 20 billion ringgit to bolster government-linked shares.

While it is early days for the overseas probes of 1MDB, Mixo Das, a Singapore-based strategist at Nomura Holdings Inc., says it’s damaged how investors perceive Malaysia.

“The market is pricing in a potential long-term investment climate deterioration,” said Das, who has an underweight rating on Malaysia given the poor corporate earnings outlook this year.

‘The Exception’

Malaysia’s global score worsened in Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index for 2015, putting it on a ranking near Slovakia and Cuba. Issues related to 1MDB contributed to the nation’s fall to 54th from 50th in 2014, it said.

Malaysian companies have made strides in improving transparency, Economic Planning Minister Abdul Wahid Omar said Feb. 2 in an interview with Bloomberg Television.

“We must remember that 1MDB is the exception,” he said. “The norm for government-linked companies would be the massive transformation that we undertook some eleven years ago and we have seen this group of 20 large government-linked companies, they have improved in terms of their governance, their performance and their role in nation building. ”

Kedah Ousting

Elsie Tham, a senior fund manager at Kuala Lumpur-based Manulife Asset Management Services Bhd. who oversees more than $1 billion, said investors remained focused on fundamentals.

“What most investors are looking for is political stability and certainty — despite all the background noises, these two elements are still very much intact in Malaysia at this juncture,” she said. “I believe there are still plenty of opportunities for investors in Malaysia.”

The 1MDB difficulties are intermixing with political turmoil. This week Najib succeeded in replacing Mukhriz Mahathir — the son ofMahathir — as Kedah state minister with a ruling party ally. Najib has fired other detractors and curbed dissent.

Wong Wing Keong, who owns an information security services company in Malaysia, said the streets lack a festive Chinese New Year atmosphere as citizens fret over the falling ringgit and political squabbling.

‘Very Uncomfortable’

“There’s a lot of uncertainty,” Wong said. “People are wondering if they should park their funds offshore. All these probes — they’re making some very uncomfortable.”

Najib was cleared of wrongdoing by Malaysia’s attorney general last month. The probe found a “personal contribution” of $681 million from Saudi Arabia’s royal family that appeared in his bank accounts before a general election in 2013. His office did not respond on Thursday to requests for comment.

Shane Oliver, head of investment strategy in Sydney at AMP Capital Investors Ltd., which oversees about $120 billion, said he won’t be allocating more funds to the country, though some economic headwinds hitting Malaysia are beyond its control.

“If you go back a decade ago, emerging markets were a favorite place to invest in, but now there are issues with commodities and governance,” he said. “It probably doesn’t change anything in Malaysia, but it does in a sort of way change the view of others towards Malaysia. It is something you need to be wary of. ”

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 6 February 2016, 7:07 pm and is filed under
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Nazir warns of 1MDB scandal fallout

By Martin Jalleh

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 6 February 2016, 9:14 am and is filed under
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UMNO bukan lagi pilihan anak muda

This is the cry of a young UMNO activist in Penang over the summary and ignomious removal of Mukhriz Mahathir as Kedah Mentri Besar:

“Selepas TSMY dan DS Shafie Apdal, Kini giliran Mukriz pulak.

Sibodoh yang tak faham politik pun bijak menilai kenapa.

Benar bahawa pemimpin datang silih berganti.

Kepentingan parti perlu diutamakan.

Tetapi atas kesalahan apakah Mukhriz Mahathir perlu dihukum sebegini rupa?

Hanya kerana Mukhriz Mahathir lantang bersuara?

Pemimpin kami diatas dah kurang mendengar.

Di pekakkan telinga, dibutakan mata dan masih dalam sindrom penafian.

‘Menjaga’ pemimpin Bahagian dengan beri habuan semata-mata untuk mengekalkan kuasa.

Kami bukan pekak.

Juga bukan tuli yang hanya terima segala perbuatan kepimpinan atasan.

Kami lihat, kami dengar, kami baca, kami berbual, kami rasa dan kami cari jawapan.

Tetapi kami tahu, suara kami tidak akan kemana.

Tidak akan didengar.

Apabila Mukhriz letak jawatan, bukan sahaja rakyat Kedah merasa kesannya.

Kami di Pulau Pinang juga terkena tempiasnya.

Maka, telah tanam hasrat sejak dari awal lagi, jika Mukhriz turun dari jawatan MB Kedah, UMNO bukan lagi pilihan kami.

Kami terpaksa.

Kerana kami kesal..

Bukan UMNO ini yang kami mahukan…”

I believe this is not only the cry of an UMNO youth activist in Penang, but represents the cry of the young generation of Malaysians, whether in UMNO or outside, whether in Penang or in the rest of Malaysia.

The question not only UMNO youths, but all Malaysian youngsters, are seeking has not been answered by the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak, who made his first official visit to Kedah yesterday.

What the youths of Malaysia want is  not the Prime Minister’s on-the-spot RM15 million approval of a project requested by the new Kedah Mentri Besar Datuk Ahmad Bashah Md Hanapiah  when launching the Sungai Petani Urban Transformation Centre, but  his full and satisfactory accountability in the  world-class twin mega scandals – RM2.6 billion “donation” and RM55 billion 1MDB – which have brought such shame and humiliation to Malaysia’s international image as well as damage to national and international confidence about the future of Malaysia.

When will Najib give full and satisfactory accountability for his role in  the twin mega scandals and not hide behind the exoneration of his Attorney-General, Tan Sri Mohamad Apandi Ali, who is going down in Malaysian annals as the Attorney-General with least credibility, trust and public confidence in the nation’s history.

Is Najib prepared to convene a Special Parliament in February to clear himself of any impropriety, abuse of power or malpractices in the twin mega scandals or is he prepared finally to agree to the establishment of a Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI)  into the twin mega scandals, with the RCI  membership arrived at by consensus by Parliament and the civil society?

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 6 February 2016, 10:56 am and is filed under
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