‘Wolf of Wall Street’ Financier Challenges U.S. Government’s 1MDB Seizures

by Eriq Gardner

The Hollywood Reporter

FEBRUARY 16, 2017

Red Granite co-founder Riza Aziz says through court documents he’s an “innocent owner” of assets allegedly derived from embezzlement.

In court papers quietly filed this past week, various entities connected to Red Granite Pictures co-founder Riza Aziz are attacking the U.S. government’s attempt to seize real estate properties in the huge $1 billion action targeting alleged corruption of Malaysian public funds.

The Justice Department has touted the 1MDB case as its biggest kleptocracy case to date, but Aziz’s lawyer, Matthew Schwartz, a former assistant U.S. attorney who once prosecuted Bernie Madoff, slams the U.S. government for failing to include “essential detail” about the supposed crimes. He’s demanding a dismissal.

Aziz is the stepson of Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak and, along with Joey McFarland, founded Red Granite, which financed The Wolf of Wall Street, Dumb and Dumber To and Friends With Kids.

Back in July, the Justice Department made its big move by seeking the civil forfeiture of rights to Wolf of Wall Street, Martin Scorsese’s Oscar-nominated film, as well as other assets allegedly traced to foreign corruption.

According to the government, high-level officials in Malaysia diverted assets into a fund called 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) and then into shell companies with the assistance of big banks, including Goldman Sachs. Some of the money, it’ is asserted, went into Red Granite productions, and now the government is looking to claw proceeds.

Later this month, Red Granite is due to file its response to the government’s attempt to seize rights to Wolf of Wall Street, and, in advance of this, Aziz’s lawyers have foreshadowed the line of attack in motions to dismiss separate complaints filed over real estate property in Beverly Hills, New York and London.

Aziz, through his holdings, presents himself as an “innocent owner” of properties.

“The alleged beneficial owner of the Claimant (and therefore the defendant property), Riza Aziz, is neither alleged to have participated in any transactions involving 1MDB nor even to have knowledge of any transactions involving 1MDB — let alone knowledge of any supposed misappropriation,” states his court papers.

The motion continues, “Thus, even taking the Complaint’s allegations at face value, Mr. Aziz plainly did not engage in a money laundering transaction or any other offense. But without identifying the person or persons the Government believes to be culpable, it is impossible to test the adequacy of the Government’s allegations…”

Schwartz is opening up several areas of attack besides asserting the government has failed to allege with specificity Aziz’s involvement in transactions.

The attorney asserts the government has failed to allege that anyone committed a crime, comparing the 1MDB case unflatteringly to the way the U.S. once seized Michael Jackson memorabilia from the son of the president of Equatorial Guinea.

“To be sure, [the government’s complaint] alleges an ‘international conspiracy to launder money misappropriated’ from 1MDB — but it fails to identify the alleged co-conspirators, or the allegedly criminal acts,” states the motion in the case over Beverly Hills property. “At best, it at various points asserts that ‘1MDB officials and others misappropriated and fraudulently diverted’ money. Given that the Complaint identifies multiple relevant 1MDB officials, however, this allegation (which is, of course, purely conclusory) provides no guidance.”

Schwartz acknowledges the funds were plainly not used for the benefit of a public official in Malaysia, but asks which public official did the alleged misappropriation, who directed payments and how does it constitute wire fraud?

The government is also being attacked for not adequately alleging an offense against a foreign nation.

Separately, the judge is being asked to dismiss the government’s complaint under the “act of state” doctrine, which stands for U.S. courts not questioning the validity of other sovereigns. It’s noted that the Malaysian attorney general has closed an investigation and concluded no criminal conduct occurred. That public official may have not wanted to do anything embarrassing to Prime Minister Razak. Nevertheless, Aziz is using it.

“[T]he Government’s entire theory of the case presupposes that the Malaysia Attorney General’s findings are factually and legally invalid,” states the court papers. “There is therefore no way for this litigation to proceed without a ruling from this Court on whether the Malaysian Attorney General’s sovereign functions were illegitimate.”

Finally, in an effort to protect assets allegedly intended to conceal embezzlement, Schwartz is faulting the U.S. government with failing to come forth with allegations of knowledge of wrongdoing.

“According to the Complaint, Mr. Aziz was not involved in any transaction with 1MDB and was not involved in any conversation or written exchange concerning 1MDB whatsoever,” writes Schwartz. “Indeed, the face of the Complaint offers no basis to infer that Mr. Aziz had even heard of 1MDB at the time of these transactions.”

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 19 February 2017, 4:53 pm and is filed under
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My 76th birthday wish is that Malaysians will try to be more Malaysian in their thinking, outlook and response regardless of race, religion, region or culture

I thank all who have sent their best wishes in various forms on the occasion of my 76th birthday today.

My birthday wish is that Malaysians will try to be more Malaysian in their thinking, outlook and responses regardless of race, religion, region or culture.

Malaysia will celebrate the 60th National Day on August 31 to mark Malaysia’s independence in 1957 and the 54th Malaysia Day on September 16.

Malaysia is a nation of diverse races, languages, religions and cultures and this diversity is Malaysia’s greatest strength and asset.

Malaysia should be the showcase of peace, tolerance, understanding, inter-action and unity of diverse races, religions and cultures in the world to build a new global civilization of justice, freedom, dignity and excellence of humanity.

But we have still a considerable distance to go to reach this goal which must be predicated on the resolve and unity of diverse peoples of Malaysia to build a great Malaysian nation.

The horrific Johor Baru disaster in the early hours of Saturday, where eight teenagers died and eight were seriously injured when a car rammed into a group of some 30 to 40 cyclists out for a joyride at JB Middle Ring Road, is one example of why Malaysians need to be more Malaysian in their thinking, outlook and responses regardless of race, religion, region or culture.

Although the 22-year-old salesgirl driver, was a Chinese and the teenage casualties and victims Malays, this is not a racial but a social problem.

The Johor police chief, Datuk Seri Wan Ahmad Najmuddin Wan Mohd, said that the woman driver, who has been  released by the police, was not intoxicated or speeding at the time of the accident nor  was she using a handphone at the time.

Like the parents of the eight teenage deaths and those injured, she is highly traumatised by the tragedy.

Deputy Home Minister Datuk Nur Jazlan Mohamed admitted today that the Middle Ring Road in JB and Danga Bay were the two spots most frequented by “mosquito bicycle” groups in the wee hours of the morning – a problem which had persisted for almost ten years.

The Johor Baru tragedy  brought to light the cycling sub-culture among children from low-income families who race with  mosquito bikes (basikal nyamok) – “modified bicycles” without brakes.

The JB disaster highlights a major social problem, and all must bear part of the responsibility for the tragedy – the parents, teachers, community leaders, politicians and   official institutions which by their inactions or omissions, have contributed to the making of the Johor Baru tragedy and disaster.

It is not just a problem of the Malay community, but for all Malaysians – as illustrated by the tragedy where  the driver is a Chinese while the casualties and victims are Malay teenagers.  The driver could have been a Malay but this does not make the mosquito bike sub-culture phenomenon/problem any less Malaysian.

Malaysians must grieve for the eight teenagers who died in the JB tragedy – Shahrul Izwan, 14; Fauzan Halmijah, 13; Muhammad Harith Iskandar Abdullah, 14;  Mohammad Azrie Danish Zuldefli, 14; Muhammad Shahrul Nizam Maruddin, 14; Mohamad Azhar Amir 16;  Muhammad Firdauz Danish Mohd Azahar 16; Haizal Kasrin, 16; and eight other kids who were injured in the  horrible accident.

Malaysians must grieve for the parents and family of the eight teenagers who died as well as the parents and families of  those injured in the accident.

Malaysians must also  grieve for the 22-year-old saleswoman driver who will have to live with a  life-long trauma of having caused the death of eight teenagers and injuring many others, although this was never her intention whatsoever.

But Malaysians must not see the problems highlighted by the Johor Baru tragedy as a racial one, least of all Malay versus Chinese.

It is our collective responsibility to ensure that those who died or suffered injuries and trauma  in the Johor Baru tragedy would not do so in vain, and that immediate and urgent actions would be taken to ensure that what happened in Johor Baru can never recur, whether in Johore or anywhere in Malaysia.

All Malaysians, and not just DAP leaders, MPs, State Assemblymen and women, must be prepared to contribute to the  mission for Malaysians  to be more Malaysian in their thinking, outlook and responses regardless of race, religion, region or culture.

Just as Balamurugan Suppiah’s death is not solely an Indian problem, the recognition of United Examination Certificate (UEC) is not solely a Chinese problem, or the grouses and grievances of Felda settlers  not solely a Malay problem – Malaysia must make the next quantum leap in Malaysian nation-building with more Malaysians trying to be Malaysians in their thinking, outlook and responses regardless of race, religion, region or culture.

                This entry was posted on Monday, 20 February 2017, 3:38 pm and is filed under
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I volunteer to speak at the UMNO/BN nation-wide roadshow on the Cabinet’s decision to set up special task force to probe Bank Negara’s forex losses more than two decades ago

Umno information chief Datuk Seri  Annuar Musa has announced that Umno and Barisan Nasional (BN) component parties will be going on a nationwide roadshow to inform the public about the special task force set up by the Cabinet to probe Bank Negara Malaysia’s (BNM) foreign exchange trading losses in the 1990s.

He said that the roadshow, scheduled to start on Feb 25, was mooted following attempts by certain parties to question the need for a task force.

Last Friday, I responded promptly to the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said, who said that  I should assist the special task force set up to probe the foreign exchange losses incurred by Bank Negara more than two decades ago as I had been so vocal in the 1990s in the Dewan Rakyat  bringing up various motions to propose the setting up of a Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) to probe the losses.

I declared that I am prepared to serve on a public probe into Bank Negara forex losses, but the scope of investigations should be expanded to cover the BMF and 1MDB scandals, in view of the new dimension of the country suffering the ignominy and infamy of being regarded worldwide as a global kleptocracy because of the international multi-billion dollar 1MDB money-laundering scandal touching the honour, credibility and integrity of the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak himself.

But there is thunderous silence from Azalina in the past three days.

 I hope Azalina will have the honour, courage and integrity to propose at the Cabinet meeting on Wednesday, February 22, 2017 firstly, to appoint me as a member of the Special Task Force (STS) to probe the Bank Negara forex losses more than two decades ago; and secondly, to expand the terms of reference of the STS to include the 1MDB and the BMF scandals, as well to give priority to the probe into the 1MDB scandal as it is haunting and hounding Malaysia and Malaysians with its international developments and headlines almost every other day.

While we wait for the Cabinet outcome on Wednesday, we have Annuar Musa announcing the launching of an UMNO/BN nation-wide roadshow on the government’s probe into the Bank Negara forex losses more than two decades ago.

I hereby make another offer to the top UMNO/BN leadership – I volunteer to speak at the UMNO/BN nation-wide roadshow on the Cabinet’s decision to set up special task force to probe Bank Negara’s forex losses more than two decades ago.

Annuar Musa should inform me in the next 48 hours whether I have to re-schedule my programmes from February 25 onwards in order to speak at the launch-off of the UMNO/BN roadshow this Saturday.

                This entry was posted on Monday, 20 February 2017, 11:00 am and is filed under
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Malaysia PM stepson’s lawyers warning to DOJ: Don’t undermine 1MDB

The Independent

February 19, 2017

Lawyers of Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak’s step son Riza Aziz taunted the American justice not to take the closure of the 1MDB case in Malaysia lightly.

In documents submitted by the lawyers Riza Aziz – to fight back against the US Department of Justice (DOJ) attempt to seize his property in the US – the lawyers said:

“Seizure of the assets would require a US court to ‘second-guess and undermine’ a decision made by Malaysia’s attorney-general.

Mohamed Apandi Ali, the attorney-general, has ordered Malaysia’s anti-corruption agency to close an investigation into the transfer of $681m into the prime minister’s personal bank account, ruling that the money was a donation.

Apandi Ali also shut down a separate inquiry into SRC International, a 1MDB subsidiary.

The Malaysian government replaced a previous attorney-general in July 2015, shortly after alleged corruption linked to 1MDB was first made public.

Riza is the co-founder of the Hollywood studio behind The Wolf of Wall Street, a film US authorities allege was financed with money diverted from Malaysian state investment fund 1MDB.

The lawyers response is part of the fightback against prosecutors’ attempts to seize property in Beverly Hills, New York and London.

Riza is also a co-founder of Red Granite Pictures and is described as an “innocent owner” of the properties in court papers filed in California this month, revealed the Financial Times of London.

                This entry was posted on Monday, 20 February 2017, 6:49 pm and is filed under
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Annuar Musa’s statement is an example of what a patriotic Malaysian should not be –  full of venom, hatred, prejudice even lies and deceit

In my 76th birthday statement yesterday, I expressed the hope that Malaysians will try to be more Malaysian in their thinking, outlook and responses regardless of race, religion, region or culture.

This is because Malaysia’s diversity of  races, languages, religions and cultures is the nation’s greatest strength and asset.

Malaysia should be the showcase of peace, tolerance, understanding, inter-action and unity of diverse races, religions and cultures in the world to build a new global civilization of justice, freedom, dignity and excellence of humanity.

I want to thank the UMNO Information chief, Datuk Seri Annuar Musa for personifying the very anti-thesis of a such model Malaysian, as  illustrated by his statement rejecting  my offer to speak at the  UMNO/BN nation-wide roadshow on the Cabinet’s decision to set up special task force to probe Bank Negara’s forex losses more than two decades ago.

Annuar Musa’s statement is “must study” by all Malaysians, regardless of race, religion or political affiliation, for it is a statement no patriotic Malaysian should ever make  –  steeped with  venom, hatred, distrust, prejudice even lies and deceit!

I do not know why the UMNO leadership is so frightened of me, that its Information Chief  had to invent eight reasons why I would not be welcome on the UMNO/BN roadshow on the government probe into the Bank Negara’s forex losses more than two decades ago.

Does Annuar know that he had told eight lies in his statement yesterday?

I am prepared to point out the eight lies in his statement in a joint media conference by both of us – Annuar can  just name the place and time within the next  48 hours, and I will be there.

But  Annuar may belong to that special class of politicians in Malaysia who do not know the lies he had told in statements issued in his name!

If so, no wonder Annuar is doing such a lousy job as UMNO Information chief!

Annuar has made wild and baseless attacks against me, among other things, accusing me of not upholding the Federal Constitution and Rukunegara and disrespect Malays, syariah law and Islam.

Let me re-state my political creed in my 51 years in Malaysian politics.

I had always been guided by one principle – to serve all Malaysians, regardless of race, religion or socio-economic background.

Malaysia can only build a great future and great Malaysian civilization if all races, religions, languages and cultures fully participate and contribute to the Malaysian vision.

In this sense, no one can claim to be a truly Malaysian if he is anti-Malay, anti-Chinese, anti-Indian, anti-Kadazan, anti-Dayak or anti-Muslim, anti-Christian, anti-Buddhist, anti-Hindu or anti-Sikh.

While a Malaysian is a Malay, Chinese, Indian, Kadazan or Dayak, no one can claim to be a Malaysian if he is anti-Malay, anti-Chinese, anti-Indian, anti-Kadazan, anti-Dayak or anti-Muslim, anti-Christian, anti-Buddhist, anti-Hindu or anti-Sikh.

This is why in  my 51 years in Malaysian politics, I have never called anyone anti-Malay, anti-Chinese, anti-Indian, anti-Kadazan or anti-Dayak, or anti-Muslim, anti-Buddhist, anti-Christian, anti-Hindu or anti-Sikh as I will in fact be challenging his or her very core existence as a Malaysian!

In our 51 years of political struggle, DAP had never been anti-Malay or anti-Islam.

This is why we have Malay and Muslim Members of Parliament, both in Dewan Rakyat and Dewan Negara, and State Assemblymen, as well as the unprecedented example of Lim Guan Eng crossing the racial and religious divide to defend the honour of an underaged Malay and Muslim girl, going to jail in Kajang Prisons, forfeiting his position as Member of Parliament and disenfranchised from standing for elections for five years from his release from prison.

Has any UMNO leader sacrificed his political career for the honour and dignity of a Malay or Muslim, let alone crossing the racial and religious divide to defend the rights and honour of a non-Malay or non-Muslim citizen?

Malaysia needs a new political culture of honest, moral and ethical politics in Malaysia, involving three Noes – No politics of fear, no politics of hate and no politics of lies.

Does Annuar understand what I am saying?

In any event, Annuar has loaded my lawyers with  extra work as they will have  to study Annuar’s vicious, defamatory and false accusations to consider the possibility of  legal proceedings.

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 21 February 2017, 5:48 pm and is filed under
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Himpunan PAS RUU 355 : A Big Flop

Koon Yew Yin

21.2.2017

The recent PAS RUU rally in support of the private member’s bill tabled by PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang, to amend the Shariah Courts (Criminal Jurisdiction) Act 1965 turned out to be a damp squib or in simple English – a big flop!

It was a flop in several ways. Firstly, although PAS had targeted a crowd of 300,000 to show the country that the Malay electorate was behind the controversial amendment, police and analysts estimated the crowd at only 20,000. The turnout – so much smaller than even Bersih or Hindraf organized past rallies – not only shows that this issue does not resonate with the Malay public. It also shows that the reputed grassroots support for PAS has been overrated.

Although in the past we have seen the organizational ability of PAS in drawing the Malay Muslim crowd to rally alongside non-Muslims in Bersih and Pakatan rallies, this time round the Malay public stayed away.

If the thinking in PAS ulama leaders led by Hadi is that his proposed amendments would serve as its main political strategy in order to attract greater support, it is clear that grassroots supporters do not want to give wider powers to shariah courts and to be made use of by Hadi in his ambition to push for an Islamic state in Malaysia.

Which Malay in his right mind wants to see an increase in maximum punishment for shariah offences to 30 years’ jail, fine of up to RM100,000 and up to 100 strokes of the cane for offences?

Which rational Malaysian wants to see the introduction of a two tier legal system in which Muslims will be discriminated against as proposed by Hadi and his men, and which could also result in hudud law being a reality in our multi-racial Malaysia?

I am sure that many if not most Malays will agree with lawyer activist, Siti Kasim, who has pointed out that PAS’ statement that the shariah laws are God’s law is incorrect. She has noted:

“As a Malay, I am the most oppressed. We are told what to wear, what to drink, what to eat and even how to think. Every aspect of our life, we are told what to do.

“If it’s truly God’s law, I will not go against it. But I know for sure that this is not God’s law, this is Hadi’s law.”

The rally’s poor attendance was not only a big slap in the face for Hadi.

It was also a similar slap in the face for Najib and UMNO. The Malay public is well aware that Najib has been playing footsie with Hadi on Islamic issues as a quid pro quo for Hadi keeping quiet on the 1MDB, donation into the Prime Minister’s account, and other scandals which have caused Najib and UMNO to lose popular support.

During the rally, Minister in the PM’s Department Jamil Khir Baharom said he attended the PAS rally after getting the green light from Najib Razak. Besides Jamil, his deputy, Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki was also there in a show of strength by the present leadership of UMNO to show off its new found solidarity with PAS.

But the ordinary UMNO members despite given the go ahead to attend the rally refused to do so. This accounts for the small crowd in what was in effect a combined PAS-UMNO rally. To me this shows the growing disillusionment of UMNO members with Najib’s and Hadi’s marriage of convenience.

UMNO members must have known that they were being made use of. Thus, despite the presence of two senior UMNO ministers at the rally, they preferred to stay at home!

If the RUU 355 rally was a flop for PAS and UMNO, the opposition should take heart and feel encouraged. Amanah leaders especially should be comforted that the Muslim support for RUU 355 has been overrated. They should now go into the kampung with a campaign that shows that Hadi has little moral or religious standing or integrity because of his silence on Felda scandals , corruption, GST, and the many other issues that affect the Malay rural masses.

I hope Amanah, PKR and Bersatu leaders can analyse the RUU 355 rally in the way that I have done here and activate a plan to leverage on it since the election date is drawing closer.

The opposition can also benefit from the fact that there is now confusion in the Barisan parties as to whether Najib and UMNO are playing out the other BN parties on Hadi’s bill.

This is because prior to the rally, MCA secretary-general Ong Ka Chuan had said Jamil’s attendance was not sanctioned by the government or BN.

All the other BN parties have also repeatedly said that they will vote against Hadi’s bill and strongly signalled their opposition to it.

So what was PM Najib doing when he sent his Malay ministers in charge of religious affairs to the rally. What he was doing was hitting the other BN parties below the belt. Najib should have said “No”. After all it was a PAS sponsored rally and one which will open the floodgates to a greater role in society for the religious elite who presumably will have little mercy when those responsible for 1MDB and similar crimes against the nation are brought before them.

In the coming election, the opposition must focus their attack on UMNO under Najib and PAS under Hadi. These two leaders must be exposed and rejected for their political opportunism and hypocrisy as well as their major shortcomings – one is the king of financial chicanery and the other, the king of religious trickery.

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 21 February 2017, 6:17 am and is filed under
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Call on Cabinet to give priority to my private member’s bill to establish IPCMC to restore public confidence in the police by ending police corruption, misconduct and abuses of power – as IPCMC  should have been established 10 years ago if not sabotaged by police officers

I call on the Cabinet to support and give priority to my private member’s bill to establish the Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC) to restore public confidence in the police by ending police corruption, misconduct and abuses of power – as the IPCMC should have been established 10 years ago if it had not been sabotaged by police officers.

The IPCMC was the most important recommendation of the Police Royal Commission set up by the fifth Prime Minister, Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi in the first flush of his premiership to transform a Malaysia with “First World Infrastructure, Third World Mentality” into an advanced nation in all dimensions, especially good governance and government accountability and transparency.

We seemed to have regressed to the period more than a decade ago before the establishment of the Police Royal Commission headed by the former Chief Justice, Tun Dzaiddin with former Inspector General of Police Tan Haniff Omar as Deputy Chairman when public confidence in the police was at an all-time low, with widespread complaints about  police corruption, brutalities and indiscipline resulting in many deaths in police lock-ups.

Yesterday, I was at the Klang office of the DAP MP for Klang, Charles Santiago, together with the DAP MP for PJ Utara  Tony Pua in connection with half a dozen of cases of  police brutalities and abuses power – including:

•	the case of the police custodial death of  Balamurugan Suppiah where the second post-mortem report from the Kuala Lumpur Hospital confirmed that he died from “multiple blunt force injuries” which are clearly visible from his corpse  (why  the police personnel responsible for Balamurugan’s death had  not been suspended and charged in court?);

•	16-year-old Mikail Quay who was beaten by police at a roadblock in Shah Alam in the early hours of Sunday, resulting in a cracked skull with injuries to his face, nose and cheek bones and is in hospital in a critical condition;

•	Ang Kian Kok, 16, who was hanged upside down during police custody and whacked; and

•	14-year-old Elaamaran a/l Paramasivan and another 14-year-old kicked, punched and shoes thrown at them while under police custody.

All these horror stories of police abuses of power, brutality and even custodial death in Klang would not have happened if the IPCMC had been established as proposed by the Police Royal Commission ten years ago, as the Enforcement Agency Integrity Commission (EAIC) which was formed instead is a toothless agency with neither powers, staffing nor funds to be an effective check on police misconduct and abuses of power.

The Police Royal Commission had warned that its recommendations will fail to secure desired results “if the leadership in PDRM does not rise to the challenges and champions change in the service for its own benefit”.

It said: “Effective change management starts from the top. The role of leadership at all levels is absolutely vital in a command organization like PDRM. Leaders are role models. They should be incorruptible and take ownership of programmes to eradicate corruption in PDRM.”

It is tragic that the Police high command  ten years ago failed this important leadership test and succeeded in sabotaging and ensuring that the IPCMC was not established.

As a result, we are now back to square one, where public confidence in police is again at an all-time low with impunity for gross  police misconduct and indiscipline – like police custodial deaths, police brutalities and the police openly defying the orders of magistrates to release detainees.

I have given notice to Parliament to move a private member’s bill to establish IPCMC when Parliament reconvenes for a month from March 6 to April 6.

The Prime Minister and  Cabinet should  support and give priority to my private member’s bill to establish the IPCMC to restore public confidence in the police by ending police misconduct and abuses of power.

In fact, the  IPCMC itself can be established after  the March/April meeting of Dewan Rakyat and the April meeting of Dewan Negara as I have also sent to Parliament the IPCMC bill which was drafted by the Police Royal Commission and which was included  in the Report of the Royal Police Commission Report – a 49-page, 104-section Bill with two schedules.

This means that if the Cabinet supports the IPCMC private member’s bill giving it priority to be voted – as Malaysians will be thoroughly shocked if there are MPs who are opposed to the IPCMC Bill which had been drafted by Police Royal Commission ten years ago – Parliament can proceed to debate and vote on the second reading of the IPCMC Bill without any delay, as the IPCMC Bill had been ready ten years ago!

This means that the IPCMC can be established as early as May 2017 – 11 years after it was recommended by the Police Royal Commission but better late than never!

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 22 February 2017, 1:06 pm and is filed under
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Enacting harsh laws makes us less Islamic

By Ahmad Farouk Musa

Islamic Renaissance Front

February 20, 2017

Every rule that turns justice into tyranny, mercy into cruelty, good into evil and wisdom into triviality does not belong to the Shariah.

Much has been debated about the amendments to the Shariah Courts (Criminal Jurisdiction) Act 1965. A massive demonstration in support of the bill was held last Saturday and tensions are running high.

PAS has insisted that the main aim of the proposed amendment is not to introduce hudud but to strengthen the shariah laws and shariah courts.

But if that is true, then PAS for sure must have identified the weaknesses. To the general observer, the weaknesses are apparent and appalling.

Just look at the number of cases of women abandoned by their husbands and children denied their maintenance. Or the prolonged cases of fasakh (annulment of marriage). These cases sometimes take years to resolve, if they are ever settled. Most of the time, it is due to the failure of the men to show up in court. And most of the time this is deliberate; they want to “teach a lesson” to the women.

This is a clear manifestation of injustice. It is injustice committed in the shariah courts and in the name of Islam, with no foreseeable remedy. If indeed one really wants to strengthen the shariah system, wouldn’t it be more meaningful to strengthen the Islamic Family Law? This is a law that falls under the ambit of the shariah courts. When one has failed to strengthen this aspect of the law, it looks rather foolish and irresponsible to focus on criminal matters to increase the severity of punishments.

Why this preoccupation with severe punishments? Even if one argued that the amended version proposed in November 2016 is deemed constitutional since it did not have the same over-arching principle that intrudes into the Federal Constitution as in the May 2016 amendment, why the need for harsh punishments? Will they really “strengthen” the shariah law and shariah courts when we know for sure that the glaring weaknesses are not being tackled?

Wouldn’t the religion of Islam look more just when the so-called guardians of the faith fight for the rights of the abandoned wives and neglected children? And does the imposition of such harsh laws make us more Islamic in the eyes of God? We have to ask ourselves, were we not imbued with the notion that the most noble thing to be done is to dispense justice?

In this regard, a renowned student of Ibn Taimiyyah, Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyyah, in his book I’lam al-Muwaqi’in, said: “The foundation of shariah is wisdom and the safeguarding of people’s interest in this world and in the next. In its entirety, it is justice, mercy, and wisdom.”

Every rule which turns justice into tyranny, mercy into cruelty, good into evil, and wisdom into triviality, does not belong to the shariah, even though it might have been introduced therein by implication.

“The shariah is God’s justice and mercy. Life, nutrition, medicine, recuperation and virtue are made possible by it. Every good that exists is derived from it, and every deficiency is the result of its loss and dissipation. For the shariah, which God entrusted to His Prophet to transmit, is the pillar of the world and the key to success and happiness in this world and the next.”

It becomes obvious then that the ultimate aim of shariah, like the aim and purpose of any law in the world, is to establish justice and to preserve and promote human welfare. And since the shariah did not come to us in a codified form, it requires our human agency to approximate God’s justice. And as humans, we might err. But to err in approximating God’s justice is better than to enforce something because it is believed to be the will of God.

We should not gravitate into becoming a Taliban state by imposing harsh shariah criminal laws when we have failed to solve mundane issues such as divorce and alimony in our shariah courts, or more pressing issues like economic equality and good governance.

When some people are still living in makeshift tents after the floods of two years ago, when clean and colourless water is still a main problem even after twenty years under our rule, and when many of our youths are still unemployed with a high rate of intravenous drug users among them, to prioritise pushing for harsher penalties for personal offences only proves that we have failed to understand Fiqh Awlawiyyat, or the jurisprudence of priorities, in decision-making.

Does lashing someone a hundred times for fornication make us the warriors of Islam or defenders of the laws of God?

The Prophet himself was very reluctant to impose a hadd punishment to an adulterer who made a confession. When Ma’iz al-Aslami confessed his act of adultery to the Prophet, the Prophet refused to engage him in conversation and turned his face away.

While we acknowledge there are variations in the report, what transpired was that the Prophet finally asked, after avoiding Ma’iz the fourth time, whether Ma’iz was sane. Then he asked whether Ma’iz really knew what fornication meant or “you only kissed her or, or winked at her, or checked her out?” Lastly, the Prophet asked Ma’iz or his people if he had ever been married.

These three elements plus the Prophet’s act of turning his face away from Ma’iz can only be interpreted as an extreme reluctance to apply the hadd punishment. The Prophet’s intention was clearly to allow Ma’iz to rethink and to be left alone so that he could repent.

Now compare this noble attitude of the Prophet to that of the Talibans in PAS today. Mercy and compassion are alien to them, although mercy is traditionally considered to be the all-pervasive objective of the shariah.

And looking at the political situation in this country, and the timing for such a divisive issue to take place, leads us to one main conclusion. That the main beneficiary from this commotion is none other than the ailing and corrupt government of Najib Razak. This issue is practically a lifeline to the despotic regime. And this issue will be blown out of proportion in order to drown the growing criticisms against financial malfeasance and kleptocratic authoritarianism of the government of the day.

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 22 February 2017, 8:43 am and is filed under
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Martin Jalleh: Happy Birthday! (2)

By Martin Jalleh

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 22 February 2017, 10:50 am and is filed under
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Martin Jalleh: Happy Birthday!

By Martin Jalleh

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 22 February 2017, 10:47 am and is filed under
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Where Crony Capitalism Rose and Prosperity Fell (and Vice Versa)

Matthew A. Winkler

Bloomberg

FEB 20, 2017

With populists emulating autocrats from Azerbaijan to Zimbabwe, free markets are being forced to confront crony capitalism.

One response is visible in the reversal of fortunes of Malaysia and Indonesia. The two nations still wrestle with the politics of ethnicity and religion at odds with the capitalism of market competition. In Indonesia, Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, a Chinese Christian who is the governor of Jakarta, is running for office while defending himself against charges of blasphemy against Islam in a country of predominantly Muslim voters. Malaysia’s embrace of an ideology of Malay supremacy and the low interest rates that invite a debt bubble are impediments to a dynamic economy.

But the historic advantage that Malaysia, with just 30 million people, has enjoyed over its Southeast Asian neighbor of 250 million is disappearing amid a barrage of corruption allegations challenging Prime Minister Najib Razak.

Najib, who was elected in 2009, says hundreds of millions of dollars in his personal bank accounts came from a gift from an unidentified Saudi donor, denying a U.S. Justice Department complaint filed in federal court last July that accuses Najib of stealing from a Malaysian government investment fund, 1Malaysia Development Berhad, or 1MDB.

The money is “just a portion of the more than $3 billion that was stolen from 1MDB and laundered through American financial institutions in violation of United States law,” said then-Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch. “Unfortunately and tragically, a number of corrupt officials treated this public trust as a personal bank account,” Lynch said at a briefing in Washington. The civil action and asset seizures represent the “largest single action ever brought” by the Justice Department’s six-year-old Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative, she said.

Global investors aren’t waiting for a legal verdict. They’re already making Indonesia the favored regional economy at Malaysia’s expense: The relative value of every financial asset in the young democracy is increasing at an unprecedented rate after decades of authoritarian rulers. By the time Haji Mohamed Suharto, the former Indonesian army leader who ousted President Sukarno in 1967 and who ruled for 32 years, resigned in 1998, Indonesia was the exemplar of the kind of corrosive, mutually-advantageous relationships between business people and government officials that define crony capitalism.

Malaysia has assumed that dubious distinction the past several years. The Justice Department complaint says that $681 million transferred to Najib in 2013 originally came from $3 billion of bonds sold for 1MDB by an investment banking unit of New York-based Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Najib started 1MDB in 2009 to promote Malaysia development. He was the chairman of the advisory board of the fund, which is wholly owned by the Finance Ministry.

Indonesia’s rupiah has strengthened 26 percent against the Malaysian ringgit since June 2014, the biggest rally so far in the new century, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

During the past three years, the Indonesian economy also has been growing at a faster rate. As recently as the second quarter of 2014, Indonesia’s gross domestic product expanded at an annual rate of 1.56 percentage points less than Malaysia’s. Today, the trends are reversed, with Indonesia’s GDP advancing 0.71 percent faster than the Malaysian economy.

The divergent growth rates are reflected in the stock market, where the 539 companies in the Jakarta Stock Exchange Composite Index gained 287 percent during the past 10 years, according to Bloomberg data. That’s more than three times the 95 percent return during the same period for the 30 companies that make up the FTSE Bursa Malaysia Kuala Lumpur Index, and amounts to Indonesia outperforming Malaysia by 7.6 percent each year. The gap has grown more pronounced since 2014, as the Indonesia market has outperformed Malaysia’s by 9.3 percent annually.

In the bond market, Indonesian government securities provided a total return (income plus appreciation) of 100 percent since 2010. That’s 6.5 percent per year more than Malaysian government debt, which returned 30 percent over the same six years, according to Bloomberg data. Since 2014, Indonesia’s advantage has widened to 7 percent.

The inferior performance of Malaysia’s debt is reflected in the country’s deteriorating fiscal outlook during the past two decades. Since 1997, when both countries saw their surpluses transformed into deficits, Indonesia kept its budget close to balanced with an average annual deficit of 1.32 percent of its GDP, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

The creditworthiness of Malaysia worsened, with the deficit exploding to 4 percent of GDP. That’s another way of saying that business and investment conflicts of interest don’t pay.

(With assistance from Shin Pei)

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 22 February 2017, 1:25 pm and is filed under
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With Anwar’s support and offer of assistance, there is even less reason to delay RCI into Bank Negara forex losses more than 20 years ago, as well as probe into 1MDB and BMF scandals

Malaysians welcome Anwar Ibrahim’s support for a Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) into the Bank Negara foreign exchange (forex) losses in the 1990s and his offer of assistance if the RCI was established but not a Cabinet task force.

With Anwar’s support and offer of assistance, there is even less reason to delay the establishment of a Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Bank Negara forex losses more than 20 years ago, as well as probe into the 1MDB and BMF scandals.

Anwar’s support and offer of assistance are most significant, as Anwar was the Finance Minister at the relevant period of the Bank Negara forex losses, being Finance Minister of the country from 1991-1998.

In passing, it should be noted that Anwar was named as a top four finance minister by Euromoney shortly after becoming Finance Minister, and in 1996 Asiamoney named him Finance Minister of the Year.  Anwar also earned many accolades as Finance Minister, including the Asian of the Year from Newsweek International.

In contrast, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak who has insisted in doubling up  as Finance Minister  since becoming the sixth Prime Minister in April 2009, did not have any brilliant or remarkable record as Finance Minister except the infamy and ignominy of Malaysia as a global kleptocracy.

Most  mortifying for Malaysia, Najib was named as Asia’s worst finance minister in 2016 by FinanceAsia pipping 12 other finance ministers of Asia-Pacific largest economies for the “crown”. In 2015, Najib came eighth in FinanceAsia’s ranking.

The online finance magazine said in Feb. 2016 that 2015 had been a “very challenging year” for the Malaysian economy, having suffered a “double whammy” of a political scandal involving state fund 1Malaysia Development Fund and Najib. It also faced the collapse in the price of its key oil export.

“The long-running political crisis has taken up time that could have been better spent addressing the country’s acute economic troubles and made Malaysia appear even less attractive as an investment destination,” FinanceAsia said in Feb 2016.

Najib and the Cabinet have not heeded Finance Asia’s warnings.

As a result, a year later today, the editor-in-chief emeritus of Bloomberg News and Bloomberg View columnist, Matthew A. Winkler, in his latest column
 “Where Crony Capitalism Rose and Prosperity Fell (and Vice Versa)”
,  referring to the US Department of Justice’s largest kleptocratic legal suit on the 1MDB scandal, wrote:

“Global investors aren’t waiting for a legal verdict. They’re already making Indonesia the favored regional economy at Malaysia’s expense: The relative value of every financial asset in the young democracy is increasing at an unprecedented rate after decades of authoritarian rulers. By the time Haji Mohamed Suharto, the former Indonesian army leader who ousted President Sukarno in 1967 and who ruled for 32 years, resigned in 1998, Indonesia was the exemplar of the kind of corrosive, mutually-advantageous relationships between business people and government officials that define crony capitalism.

“Malaysia has assumed that dubious distinction the past several years. The Justice Department complaint says that $681 million transferred to Najib in 2013 originally came from $3 billion of bonds sold for 1MDB by an investment banking unit of New York-based Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Najib started 1MDB in 2009 to promote Malaysia development. He was the chairman of the advisory board of the fund, which is wholly owned by the Finance Ministry.

“Indonesia’s rupiah has strengthened 26 percent against the Malaysian ringgit since June 2014, the biggest rally so far in the new century, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.”

If Malaysia is to stop losing out even to countries like Indonesia which had always been behind Malaysia’s economic development, it must stop the protracted  bleeding of national and international confidence by immediately setting up a RCI not only into the Bank Negara forex losses more than two decades ago, but also into the 1MDB and BMF scandals.

Let Najib and the Cabinet be forewarned  that the bleeding of national and international confidence in the Malaysian economics and politics will intensify and escalate if there is only  a RCI into the Bank Negara forex losses, for it can only mean that the government is not prepared to come to grips with an international financial scandal which the whole world and the nation are fixated except the government of the day, which is in deep-freeze in its denial complex!

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 22 February 2017, 4:48 pm and is filed under
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1MDB Roils Opaque Fine Art Market

finews.asia

22 February 2017

Scandal-engulfed 1MDB has roiled the opaque market for fine art, an $64 billion industry where deals of several hundred thousand dollars can be clinched with no questions asked.

Jho Low allegedly spent millions on a Hollywood film, penthouses, luxury hotels, a recording company – and fine art. Last year, Monet’s
«Water Lilies with Reflections of Tall Grass»
 was seized in a Swiss freeport as part of an investigation into alleged graft at 1MDB.

Freeports, one of the last remaining vestiges of Swiss private banking secrecy, have come under increased scrutiny – as now has the art world.

Loan from Sotheby’s

The Monet’s presumed owner? Low, alleged mastermind behind the opaque international money trail to hide billions pilfered from the Malaysian state fund.

The now-AWOL Malaysia businessman is accused of buying works by Jean-Michel Basquiat, Mark Rothko and Vincent Van Gogh – even taking out a loan from auction house Sotheby’s, using art as collateral.

1MDB isn’t the only high-profile case raising awareness of just how much money is sloshing through the art world.

In a separate case, Geneva art dealer Yves Bouvier and Russian billionaire collector Dmitry Rybolovlev are waging a high-profile legal war after their art dealings soured.

KYC for Art Houses

«The art market is an ideal playing ground for money laundering,» said Thomas Christ, of the non-profit Basel Institute on Governance told the «New York Times». And: «We have to ask for clear transparency, where you got the money from and where it is going.»

Sotheby’s told the newspaper it subjected Low to «extensive due diligence» before granting him a $107 million loan; by that time, Low was busy placating the compliance officers of Swiss banks he dealt with. Auction houses insist they have stiffened their compliance requirements, but a preponderance of scandals would indicate there is still much to do.

Art auctions aren’t subject to the same scrutiny as private banks, though some countries such as Switzerland are more heavily regulating major purchases with cash – including art, luxury goods, and even real estate.

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 23 February 2017, 11:18 am and is filed under
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Nor Mohd Yakcop should resign or be sacked or suspended as Khazanah Nasional Deputy Chairman if the Cabinet is serious about probe into Bank Negara forex losses in the 1990s

Tan Sri Nor Mohamed Yakcop should resign or be sacked or suspended as Khazanah Nasional Bhd Deputy Chairman if the Cabinet is serious about probe into Bank Negara foreign exchange (forex) losses in the 1990s.

This is because Nor Mohamed Yakcop was the chief operator of Bank Negara’s forex speculation which resulted in colossal losses which could total some RM30 billion.

Former Finance Minister, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said when he appeared in court yesterday that Nor Mohamaed Yakcop was complicit in the Bank Negara forex losses in early 1990s when the latter was then a senior Bank Negara official.

He made a revelation when he said that as Finance Minister at the time, he had asked for Nor’s resignation but this was not allowed.

In fact, I had referred to Nor’s role in the Bank Negara forex losses in my speeches in Parliament on the issue in 1993 and 1994,  referring to the massive forex speculation by Bank Negara in the forward foreign exchange market where at its height, Bank Negara’s maximum exposure could be in the region of RM270 billion – three times the country’s GDP and more than five times the country’s foreign reserve at the time!

This is what I quoted from a Reuters report in my speech in Parliament in April 1993, with London dealers  saying that Bank Negara “was by far the biggest market player, trading foreign exchange volume vastly in excess of any other in the market”:

“Over the past two years it has stepped up its trading volume, and this year it has started dealing in what dealer described as ‘really massive amounts’….

“Typically, Bank Negara operates in US$50 million lots, compared with the market norm of US$5 million or US$10 million and deals with maybe six major banks in Europe and six in New York, dealers said.

“One trader said the only dealers rivaling Bank Negara would be Japanese funds.

“But while these funds enter the market no more than once or twice a year, Bank Negara is coming in and doing yards (billions) of dollars in a day.

“Its recent technique has been to hit major banks for US$50 million each, then hit them 10 minutes later, dealers said.

“Then it changes centre and does it all over again.”

More than 20 years have elapsed, but Nor Mohd Yakcop, who was the chief operator in the  Bank Negara forex speculation in the early 1990s and the person responsible for the Bank Negara’s colossal losses, owes it to the nation and Malaysians to make a clean breast of what he did more than two decades ago –  and not just to the Cabinet special task force.

I stand by my speech in Parliament in April 1994 calling for a Royal Commission of Inquiry into the colossal Bank Negara forex losses, with the following tasks:

•	to ascertain whether Bank Negara’s forex losses since 1992 could exceed RM30 billion;

•	to ascertain whether there had been any financial malpractices and abuses in view of the inconsistencies and conflicting explanations about the colossal forex losses; and

•	to establish as to how the Bank Negara could incur such colossal losses.

However, the Cabinet Ministers yesterday are guilty of three grave misdemeanors when they decided on former Chief Secretary, Tan Sri Sidek Hassan as Chairman of the Special Task Force to probe Bank Negara forex losses more than 20 years ago but dared not do anything  about the current and “mother” of all financial scandals in Malaysia, the 1MDB scandal, viz:

•	guilty of colossal negligence and irresponsibility of the first degree;

•	guilty of craven moral and political cowardice; and

•	shown utter lack of Malaysian patriotism when they could be indifferent and unmoved  by Malaysia’s infamy and ignominy of being regarded world-wide as a global kleptocracy as a result of the 1MDB scandal.

I am not surprised that the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Seri Azalina Othman  dared to challenge me to co-operate with the Special Task Force but dared not take up my counter-challenge – to appoint me as a member of the probe and to include 1MDB and BMF scandals in the probe.

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 23 February 2017, 9:03 am and is filed under
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The Danger of Najibizing Malaysia’s Foreign Policy

By Prashanth Parameswaran

The Diplomat

February 15, 2017

 Recent controversies over the country’s foreign policy decisions are the product of a broader problem.

On February 2, Malaysia revived a decades-old dispute with neighboring Singapore over the islet of Pedra Branca/Batu Puteh, complicating a historically rocky bilateral relationship that has been stable of late. Though Malaysia claimed that the application to revise the 2008 International Court of Justice (ICJ) judgement that was in Singapore’s favor is grounded in its discovery of newly unearthed documents, some dismissed the move as posturing by the government led by Prime Minister Najib Razak ahead of Malaysia’s upcoming elections.

While Malaysian officials have rejected claims that the decision was politically motivated, the truth matters less than the doubts being raised. The reemergence of the dispute is just the latest example the reveals a more fundamental problem: that the perception Najib is acting in his own personal interest rather than the national interest is increasingly undermining the execution of Malaysia’s foreign policy. Though this perceived “Najibization” of Malaysia’s foreign policy may benefit certain groups, it also poses greater dangers for the country.

During his first few years in office, Najib found himself subject to criticisms about the glaring contradictions between his domestic and foreign policy. Particularly since the ruling party, the United Malays National Organization (UMNO), recorded its worst-ever performance in the country’s history in the May 2013 elections, the gulf between the leader that was touting a Global Movement for Moderates and signing on to the high-standard Trans-Pacific Partnership abroad while promoting an exclusivist Islamist agenda and expanding affirmative action privileges for ethnic Malays at home was growing increasingly wider (See: “Getting to Full Bloom in US-Malaysia Relations”).

Since Najib has been mired in the high-profile 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) corruption scandal which deepened in July 2015, however, the greater danger has been not the contradictions between domestic and foreign policy, but their confluence (See: “After the Scandal: What’s Next for Malaysia?”). More specifically, Najib’s personal quest for survival domestically amid that deepening scandal, which has already crippled Malaysia’s economy, polarized its politics, and upset Malaysia’s fragile multi-ethnic fabric, has been read to be subsuming the country’s foreign policy (See: “Malaysia in 2015: Crises of Confidence”). What we are witnessing is not merely another wave of nationalism, but what one might call the Najibization of Malaysian foreign policy as the country approaches its next general election which is likely to occur sometime this year.

Examples abound. Najib’s sudden championing of the Rohingya cause late last year was cynically dismissed as currying favor with the Malaysia’s majority Malay-Muslim population as opposed to standing up for an oppressed minority. The string of economic deals Malaysia inked with China in late 2015, including two tied to 1MDB were read not as a way to promote the country’s prosperity, but to bail the prime minister out (See: “Malaysia is Not Pivoting to China With Najib’s Visit”). And the revival of the Pedra Branca/Batu Puteh case this month was read by skeptics as nothing more than chest-thumping to desperately secure votes, especially in Johor, rather than simply an exercise of Malaysia’s right to pursue the any outstanding legal claims it might have.

The prime minister’s advisers have unsurprisingly vehemently denied that Najib is acting based on his personal interest rather than the national interest. And, to be fair, some of the accusations against him are laced with sloppy reasoning and conspiracy theories that undermine the valid concerns that undergird them. More broadly, a nation’s foreign policy is very rarely the result of one person or factor, but rather the interaction of structural and agential factors that have domestic and foreign influences, with some mattering more than others.

But irrespective of intentions or causes, the outcome is the same: the perception of Najibization of Malaysian foreign policy is undermining the country’s real foreign policy decisions. Regardless of what the Najib government intended, Malaysia is simply not being seen as a guardian of the oppressed, a model for managing ties with major powers, or a principled upholder of international law. Rather, it is being viewed as a country whose foreign policy is directed at securing the narrow personal interests of its embattled premier.

That perceived Najibization of Malaysian foreign policy matters because perceptions often create their own dangerous realities. They can sow doubt and cynicism in the minds of Malaysian citizens, making it even more difficult to marshal domestic support for foreign policy decisions. They may also become further ammunition for Najib’s already well-armed critics, who do not believe that politics ought to stop at the water’s edge. And they can also spark alarm among Malaysia’s neighbors, complicating important and already complex bilateral relationships and generating troubling ripple effects.

Perceived Najibization may also affect the substance of foreign policy. Opportunities for Malaysia to demonstrate its leadership can be undermined, as was the case with its championing of the Rohingya issue which was dogged by cynicism about Najib’s motives expressed even by the Myanmar government. They can also create challenges for Malaysia’s relationships with major powers like China (See: “Is China Now Malaysia’s Largest Foreign Investor?”). If every deal is perceived to be merely enriching Najib instead of benefiting Malaysia, that could get in the way of actual gains that the country could realize.

Some may argue that this perceived Najibization is only a temporary problem that will be resolved once Malaysia holds its next general election (See: “When Will Malaysia Hold Its Next Election?”). But even if Najib and UMNO do secure another win in those polls, it does not necessary follow that the disturbing pattern of a moderate, reform-minded, and worldly premier struggling to chart a coherent foreign policy course for Malaysia while fighting for his survival domestically, and the (mis)perceptions that follow from it, will end. Indeed, it is far more likely that the debate over whether Najib’s personal quest for survival is exacting too high a price for Malaysia’s national interests is likely to continue and perhaps even deepen while he remains in power.

In the meantime, while individual Malaysian foreign policy decisions will continue to generate sporadic hype among the chattering classes as the country approaches its next election, it is worth remembering that it is this more general dynamic of perceived Najibization that merits closer attention, rather than the specifics of each episode.

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 23 February 2017, 2:07 pm and is filed under
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Call on Home Minister and IGP to ensure that the two teenagers in Klang police custody are not subjected to police abuse or torture

I am very concerned about the continued remand to two teenage boys in Klang, who were detained along with death in custody victim S. Balamurugam. Especially whether they are being physically abused while in police custody and detention.

Their lawyer Mishant Thiruchelvam said the two 16-year-had  been “beaten up and detained in an adult lock-up” instead of being kept in a separate facility.

Balamurugan, 44, was arrested on Feb 6 when he was found in the same car with two other men, one of whom was wanted by the police.

He died in police custody at the North Klang district police headquarters on Feb 8.

One of the teenagers was arrested along with the deceased in Bukit Rajah, while the other was arrested subsequently in Banting.

After they were brought to the North Klang police station, remand was granted for four days. On Feb 11, the police applied for three more days of remand, which was granted.

On Feb 14, the remand for the boys expired, so they were taken to the Banting police station to process a new arrest, following which they were granted two more days of remand until Feb 17.”

On Feb 17 the two boys were brought to the Telok Datuk court for further remand, but the magistrate, Marsilawati Mohd Shah, denied the request after seeing his clients “were severely injured”.

However, the duo were rearrested upon emerging from the court and taken to South Klang police headquarters where they were remanded until Feb 21.

Another Klang magistrate granted the police four days remand instead of the applied two days although the boys lawyers did not know why.

In view of Balamuguram’s latest case of death in police custoday, with a second post-mortem report from the Kuala Lumpur Hosptial confirming  that Balamuguram had died from  “multiple blunt force injuries” which are clearly visible from his corpse , I call on the Home Minister, Datuk Seri Zahid Hamidi and the Inspector-General of Police, Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar to ensure that the two 16-year-old teenagers are not abused and physically tortured while in police custody.

There there  has been a spate of complaints against police brutality and violence.

I call on the Cabinet to support and give priority to my private member’s bill to establish the Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC) to restore public confidence in the police by ending police corruption, misconduct and abuses of power – as the IPCMC should have been established 10 years ago if it had not been sabotaged by police officers.

The IPCMC was the most important recommendation of the Police Royal Commission set up by the fifth Prime Minister, Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi in the first flush of his premiership to transform a Malaysia with “First World Infrastructure, Third World Mentality” into an advanced nation in all dimensions, especially good governance and government accountability and transparency.

We seemed to have regressed to the period more than a decade ago before the establishment of the Police Royal Commission headed by the former Chief Justice, Tun Dzaiddin with former Inspector General of Police Tan Haniff Omar as Deputy Chairman when public confidence in the police was at an all-time low, with widespread complaints about  police corruption, brutalities and indiscipline resulting in many deaths in police lock-ups.

On Tuesday, I was at the Klang office of the DAP MP for Klang, Charles Santiago, together with the DAP MP for PJ Utara  Tony Pua in connection with half a dozen of cases of  police brutalities and abuses power – including:

the case of the police custodial death of  Balamurugan Suppiah where the second post-mortem report from the Kuala Lumpur Hospital confirmed that he died from “multiple blunt force injuries” which are clearly visible from his corpse – why  the police personnel responsible for Balamurugan’s death had not been suspended and charged in court?;

16-year-old Mikail Quay who was beaten by police at a roadblock in Shah Alam in the early hours of Sunday, resulting in a cracked skull with injuries to his face, nose and cheek bones and is in hospital in a critical condition;

Ang Kian Kok, 16, who was hanged upside down during police custody and whacked; and

14-year-old Elaamaran a/l Paramasivan and another 14-year-old kicked, punched and shoes thrown at them while under police custody.

These are  horror stories of police abuses of power, brutality and even custodial death in Klang!

They  would not have happened if the IPCMC had been established as proposed by the Police Royal Commission ten years ago, as the Enforcement Agency Integrity Commission (EAIC) which was formed instead is a toothless agency with neither powers, staffing nor funds to be an effective check on police misconduct and abuses of power.

The Police Royal Commission had warned that its recommendations will fail to secure desired results “if the leadership in PDRM does not rise to the challenges and champions change in the service for its own benefit”.

It said: “Effective change management starts from the top. The role of leadership at all levels is absolutely vital in a command organization like PDRM. Leaders are role models. They should be incorruptible and take ownership of programmes to eradicate corruption in PDRM.”

It is tragic that the Police high command  ten years ago failed this important leadership test and succeeded in sabotaging and ensuring that the IPCMC was not established.

As a result, we are now back to square one, where public confidence in police is again at an all-time low with impunity for gross  police misconduct and indiscipline – like police custodial deaths, police brutalities and the police openly defying the orders of magistrates to release detainees.

I have given notice to Parliament to move a private member’s bill to establish IPCMC when Parliament reconvenes for a month from March 6 to April 6.

The Prime Minister and  Cabinet should  support and give priority to my private member’s bill to establish the IPCMC to restore public confidence in the police by ending police misconduct and abuses of power.

In fact, the  IPCMC itself can be established after  the March/April meeting of Dewan Rakyat and the April meeting of Dewan Negara as I have also sent to Parliament the IPCMC bill which was drafted by the Police Royal Commission and which was included  in the Report of the Royal Police Commission Report – a 49-page, 104-section Bill with two schedules.

This means that if the Cabinet supports the IPCMC private member’s bill giving it priority to be voted – as Malaysians will be thoroughly shocked if there are MPs who are opposed to the IPCMC Bill which had been drafted by Police Royal Commission ten years ago – Parliament can proceed to debate and vote on the second reading of the IPCMC Bill without any delay, as the IPCMC Bill had been ready ten years ago!

This means that the IPCMC can be established as early as May 2017 – 11 years after it was recommended by the Police Royal Commission but better late than never!

                This entry was posted on Friday, 24 February 2017, 11:16 am and is filed under
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An important note for 60th National Day celebrations – Najib has achieved in eight years what none of the five previous Prime Ministers had done in 52 years

Malaysia will be celebrating our 60th National Day celebrations on August 31, 2017.

It will be an important note for our 60th National Day celebrations that the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak, has achieved in eight years what none of the five previous five Prime Ministers – Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tun Razak, Tun Hussein, Tun Mahathir and Tun Abdullah – had done in 52 years.

Firstly, Malaysia has become a global kleptocracy since Najib became Prime Minister in April 2009.

Although Najib and his Cabinet keep up a pretence and a façade that the international multi-billion dollar 1MDB kleptocratic money-laundering scandal does not exist, the “ghost” of the 1MDB scandal would not go away, for almost every other day, there would be new developments resulting in 1MDB world headlines in some part of the world.

In the month of February 2017 – which has not ended – the world news on the 1MDB scandal included:

Singapore seizes Bombardier Global 5000 jet of Malaysian tycoon Jho Low in the centre of the 1MDB scandal;

“Wolf of Wall Street” financier, Riza Aziz (Najib’s stepson) challenges US Government’s US$1 billion 1MDB seizures;

Malaysian and civil society call for Royal Commission of Inquiry on 1MDB when Najib said his cabinet will fully investigate the BMF and Bank Negara forex losses;

Swiss authorities ordering private bank, Coutts, to pay back SFr6.5 million of profits over 1MDB as numerous 1MDB “high risk” transactions were processed through a Coutts account, including the use of US$35 million for visits to casinos and the purchase of luxury services such a chartering yachts.

Jho Low is ramping up his fight to get back assets like New York’s Park Lane Hotel and a Van Gogh artwork. Newly-installed trustees are striking a fiestier tone than previous steward, Swiss bank Rothschild.

Talks by UAE fund seeking $6.5 billion from 1MDB deadlocked – the Abu Dhabi state fund International Petroleum Investment Co (IPIC) took its case to the London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA) last June but the two state-owned investment companies have been trying to thrash out a private settlement since then, the sources said.

US court gives nod for sale of Jho Low’s NYC hotel.

The kleptocratic 1MDB money-laundering scandal has caused untold shame to Malaysia and it is no wonder that Malaysians travelling abroad are shy to admit that they are from Malaysia.

But Najib has not only achieved “global kleptocratic” infamy for Malaysia, he has also Ministers and top UMNO leaders who are “global liars” like the Minister for Rural and Regional Development, Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob, and the UMNO Information Chief, Datuk Seri Annuar Musa.

Sabri is unable to rebut my statement, which I am prepared to substantiate in a joint media conference with him, that he had reached “global liar” status as he hold told more than ten lies in short five-paragraph statement attacking me.

Anuar has achieved infamy in telling eight lies about me in a short statement responding to my offer to speak at the UMNO/BN nation-wide roadshow on the Cabinet’s decision to set up special task force to probe Bank Negara’s forex losses more than two decades ago.

Again, I offered to appear at a joint media conference where I could point out the eight lies which Anuar had made.

But neither Ismail Sabri nor Anuar Musa dared dared to accept my offer, although they do not bat an eyelid to issue statements replete with lies and falsehoods.

Now, Najib has set up a Cabinet special task force to investigate the Bank Negara forex losses in the 1990s.

Tan Sri Nor Mohamed Yakcop should resign or be sacked or suspended as Khazanah Nasional Bhd Deputy Chairman if the Cabinet is serious about probe into Bank Negara foreign exchange (forex) losses in the 1990s.

This is because Nor Mohamed Yakcop was the chief operator of Bank Negara’s forex speculation which resulted in colossal losses which could total some RM30 billion.

Why has there been no word from either Nor Mohd Yakcop or Najib?

(Media Conference Statement at the start of “Jelajah Desa” in Teluk Kumbar on Saturday, 25th February 2017 at 9am)

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 25 February 2017, 12:40 pm and is filed under
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