I was offered $2.7m for stolen data: Ex-PetroSaudi employee Xavier Andre Justo on the 1MDB saga

Nirmal Ghosh

Straits Times

Bangkok

July 24, 2015

Ex-PetroSaudi employee says he was never paid what prominent Malaysian businessman promised him

Swiss national Xavier Andre Justo – who is now in jail in Thailand in connection with trying to blackmail his former employer, PetroSaudi, which is entangled in a huge scandal involving the Malaysian government – has claimed that he was promised US$2 million (S$2.7 million) in exchange for data he stole from his former employer.

He also told The Straits Times in a prison interview that he was never paid what he was promised by a prominent Malaysian businessman. Justo claimed a deal was reached in Singapore in February on the sale of the documents, which was followed by lengthy discussions on how he would be paid.

The group of people he met in Singapore to negotiate the sale of the data were named in a 22-page confession Justo made to Thai police. He showed a copy of the confession to The Straits Times.

“I tried to open an account in Singapore, to have the money paid directly from (the buyer’s) account,” Justo said. “DBS Bank refused, I don’t know why. After that I opened an account in Abu Dhabi in my own personal name which was refused by (the buyer) because it had my name on it.”

“Then I tried to use my company account in Hong Kong and he said the same, after that it was through a Luxembourg company and then again (the buyer) refused and after that Clare Brown took the lead,” he said.

He was referring to Ms Clare Rewcastle-Brown, the Malaysian-born British-based editor of the Sarawak Report, which over the past year has made astonishing claims about the misappropriation of billions at state investment firm 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), whose advisory board is headed by Prime Minister Najib Razak.

Justo claimed the buyer also “offered to pay me by cash”.

He said: “So I was supposed to go to Singapore every week or every other week to receive an envelope with a few thousand or tens of thousands, and repeat this process for months until the final amount will have been paid. And again I refused.”

Justo echoed what Thai police said last week, that his confession was backed up by documents including a record of his WhatsApp conversations with the buyers.

“All of what is written in my confession, most of it is proven by e-mail conversations, WhatsApp messages I have had with (them).”

Ms Rewcastle-Brown had agreed to receive the US$2 million from the buyer and send him US$250,000 a month for consultancy services, he claimed.

“I don’t know if she received the money or not, (because) I was arrested,” he said. “I have no idea.”

Contacted by The Straits Times, Ms Rewcastle-Brown rubbished the allegations as “bunkum”.

“What I have presented on 1MDB and has been clarified by The Edge and corroborated by several other official sources is a coherent explanation of events, versus the dodging, changing stories of 1MDB,” she said. The Edge is a Malaysian daily whose chief executive officer, Mr Ho Kay Tat, was questioned by Malaysian police yesterday over articles it published related to 1MDB.

On Monday, in a note published on the front page of his daily, Mr Ho said the newspaper had “a public duty to find and report the truth”.

“We were not involved in any theft, we did not pay anyone, and we did not tamper (with) any of the e-mails and documents we were given,” he added.

He also said the newspaper was handing over to Malaysian government investigators printed documents and the hard disk that contains bank transfers and statements linked to the 1MDB scandal.

Justo, who gave the interview across a table in a small office inside the sprawling Bangkok Remand Prison, also claimed that the group he had met in Singapore – including Ms Rewcastle-Brown – had tampered with the data he had given them.

“I gave the original documents without any kind of alteration,” he claimed. “I can say that I gave those documents to two groups of people,” he added. One was Ms Rewcastle-Brown and “her IT guy” and the other was the Malaysian businessman and his colleague. The Straits Times is not naming the businessman as well as his colleague pending their response to the latest allegations.

He alleged that those he met had talked about using the documents “to try to  bring down the Malaysian government”, adding that they also referred to plans to “modify the documents”.

 Refuting vehemently these allegations, Ms Rewcastle-Brown said Justo was “full of untruths.”

She said: “Why would I wish to alter anything?  If I had, why haven’t 1MDB and PetroSaudi brought out the evidence of such altering in all of the last five or so months?”

Thai police arrested the tattooed Justo, who has a wife and a nine-month-old son, currently in Switzerland, on June 22 at his spacious residence on the resort island of Koh Samui.

Justo, a former head of IT at the London office of PetroSaudi, has admitted that he had stolen company data – some 90 gigabytes worth – when he left in 2011.

He said he asked PetroSaudi for more money in 2013 but it turned him down. Subsequently, through a contact in Geneva with connections in Malaysia, he was introduced to Ms Clare Rewcastle-Brown, whom he later met in Bangkok at the Plaza Athenee hotel and in Singapore at the Fullerton Hotel. In Singapore, she was accompanied by the others named in his confession.

Justo, 48, was clean-shaven, looking well and composed. He was clad in a light blue cotton prison issue shirt and darker blue shorts. Looking over his reading glasses, he showed The Straits Times his confession, written densely in capital letters over 22 pages.  He said it had not been made under duress, and that he had been pleasantly surprised at how well he had been treated in the Bangkok prison.

Justo faces up to seven years in jail and a fine if found guilty of extortion. He was hoping for a lighter prison term in view of his confession, his lawyer Pranot Kalanuson told The Straits Times.

Thai police spokesman, Lieutenant-General Prawut Thavornsiri, said on Wednesday that Justo must be tried first in a Thai court on charges of blackmail and serve a jail term – if any – before he could be extradited, according to The Star newspaper in Malaysia. It quoted the spokesman as saying that police were seeking evidence against the Swiss national that would be submitted to the public prosecutors, possibly within this month.

Malaysia’s police chief Khalid Abu Bakar arrived in Bangkok yesterday to try to interview Justo.

• With reporting by Malaysia Correspondent Shannon Teoh

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 25 July 2015, 2:00 pm and is filed under
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Is Najib serious in wanting to sue WSJ?

By Mohamed Hanipa Maidin

Malaysiakini

Jul 24, 2015

MP SPEAKS
 By now everyone on this planet knows that The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) has made a very serious allegation against Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak.

The allegations may be true or false and only Najib is able to determine that.

If he really cares about protecting his reputation, he has no choice but to put the record straight by suing WSJ for defamation.

The issue now is whether he is willing to do that.

For the record, so far, Najib has sued several individuals for defamation. He has sued MPs Tony Pua, Rafizi Ramli and Nga Kor Ming; Dr Rosli Yaakob (Harakah); and Taufek Yahya (harakahdaily.com). All the suits have been filed in Malaysian courts.

It is interesting to note here that Harakah’s Rosli is being sued for an article which substantially contained reports from The New York Times (NYT).

When asked by reporters as to why he decided to sue harakahdaily.com, Najib stated that he has to protect his integrity as well as his family’s reputation.

Selective protection of reputation

However, what really puzzled many was why he never seeked to protect his reputation or his family’s good name by filing a libel suit against the powerful NYT.

Why is he being selective in protecting his reputation?

Despite the fact there are reports indicating that Najib would sue Sarawak Report, hitherto no summons has been filed by him against such portal.

The fact that the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) is being used to block the public from accessing such a powerful whistleblower site, the dream of Malaysiand to see our prime minister facing the Sarawak Report in court remains gloomy.

By suing the individuals who are linked to opposition parties, Najib has, in fact, set a new precedent in Malaysian politics in that for the first time in Malaysia, the prime minister has used the courtroom to fight against his political enemies.

Whilst it is not legally wrong for him to sue anybody for any cause of action, the legal fraternity is very concerned with this unhealthy trend.

Judges’ appointment

In one way or another, Najib, being the prime minister, has says and influence in so far as the appointment of judges are concerned.

Be that as it may, any judge who is assigned to hear his claim would naturally be put in a precarious position.

Being a human being who aspires for promotion in the judicial hierarchy, it is normal that the judge being assigned to hear Najib’s suit would be uncomfortable to be given an option between the dispensation of justice without fear and favour, and the unhindered pursuit of his or her judicial ambition.

Najib has resigned to the fact that in terms of encountering criticism from his opponents, former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad was relatively more daring and confident.

Despite being labelled with so many epithets, Mahathir, to his credit, has never used the court to silence his critics by filing libel suit.

It seems that Mahathir never believed in the notion of bankrupting his political enemy with hefty libel damages as the late Lee Kuan Yew used to do to his political rivals.

‘No guts to face foes’

Najib began his premiership with a plethora of sweet promises of respecting and broadening freedom of speech and in turn, abolishing draconian laws yet his promises are well known to be happily broken than adhered to.

By using the courtroom as his platform to redeem his reputation, if any, Najib cannot escape the reasonable perception that he has no guts to face his enemy on a political platform.

His unwillingness to debate head on with Mahathir in a forum titled ‘Nothing to Hide’ reflects that he has everything to hide from the public on 1MDB.

Najib has instructed his lawyer to write a letter to WSJ not demanding an apology, withdrawal of the impugned article, and damages, but instead asking clarification from the latter.

Since WSJ is reported to have maintained the position that its article does not contain defamatory imputation against Najib, the ball is now in Najib’s court for him to pursue his next step.

The only move which signifies his seriousness of rubbishing such damaging allegations by WSJ is to take on such a powerful newspaper i.e by suing the latter for defamation in a US court. Najib has to retain an American firm or attorney to proceed with libel suit there.

Legally speaking, Najib cannot sue WSJ in Malaysia simply because, as lawyers used to say, the cause of action took place in the US.

In fact, it is plainly ironic for Najib to engage a Malaysian legal firm to write to WSJ, prompting comments that Najib has never been serious in protecting his reputation vis a vis WSJ’s serious allegation.

Doing ‘something’

Many speculate such a move by Najib – instructing a Malaysian lawyer to write to WSJ – is mere camouflage to drive home the message to the voters that he is doing something on such allegations, when in reality, he has no intention to meet WSJ in court.

Only Najib can remove such a speculation.

Historically speaking, Najib has failed to redeem his reputation when he was seriously implicated by an article published in a French newspaper relating to the issue of Altantuya.

He never sued the newspaper, despite the serious and damaging accusations made against him.

Recently he has also failed to sue NYT which revealed many shocking allegations against him and his family.

Najib has to prove to the entire world that his critics are wrong in harbouring suspicion that he is not willing to face WSJ in court.

He equally has to show the nation that he is not a jaguh kampung (smalltown hero) in that he is only willing to face his domestic opponents who are relatively weaker in terms of financial strength.

On the contrary, being blessed with darah pahlawan Bugis (Bugis warrior blood), he is ready and willing to take on WSJ anytime, anywhere!

MOHAMED HANIPA MAIDIN is a lawyer and PAS MP for Sepang.

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 25 July 2015, 6:03 am and is filed under
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Kenyataan pahit politik Malaysia – Hadi sekali lagi akan “dipermainkan” oleh Najib pada persidangan Parlimen akan datang kerana usul rang undang-undang persendirian berkenaan hudud tidak akan diberi ruang untuk dibentangkan kerana Najib telah pun mencapai matlamatnya untuk memecah-belahkan Pakatan Rakyat

 Saya terperanjat dengan ketidakjujuran Presiden PAS Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang yang terus membuat tuduhan palsu bahawa keinginan DAP untuk merampas kuasa politik ke tangan kaum Cina adalah sebab mengapa DAP mahu mengembalikan pilihanraya kerajaan tempatan dan punca perpecahan Pakatan Rakyat.

Saya baru saja menonton video wawancara Hadi dengan Channel News Asia yang di dalamnya beliau menuduh DAP melanggar “moral” Pakatan Rakyat dan mahu merampas kuasa politik demikaum Cina dengan cara mengembalikan pilihanraya kerajaan tempatan.

Saya terkejut dan sekaligus sedih kerana seorang bekas pemimpin Pakatan Rakyat seperti beliau sanggup meletakkan dirinya ke tahap yang begitu rendah dengan menyebarkan pembohongan sedemikian. Ia perbuatan yang tidak berakhlak bagi seorang pemimpin politik atasan.

Ketika UMNO menyebarkan pembohongan tentang DAP, pemimpin atasan UMNO tidak melibatkan diri, membiarkan kerja-kerja kotor dilakukan oleh para propagandis dan pemain politik tingkat bawah.

Namun dalam PAS, Presiden parti sendiri terlibat secara giat menyebarkan pembohongan yang dulu diulan-ulang oleh UMNO!

Kita mungkin boleh berbaik hati dan memberi alasan bahawa Hadi mempunyai masalah ingatan sehingga sanggup berbohong dan menuduh DAP cuba merampas kuasa demi kaum Cina dengan cara menuntut supaya pilihanraya kerajaan tempatan dikembalikan dan kononnya pilihanraya itu akan merugikan Melayu kerana 60 peratus daripada kerusi Dewan Undangan Negeri dalam negara ini telah dikawal oleh DAP.

Dakwaan sedemikian adalah pembohongan terang-terangan dan tidak masuk akal atas enam sebab:

i) DAP tidak mengawal 60 peratus daripada kerusi DUN kerana gabungan ketiga-tiga parti Pakatan Rakyat, iaitu DAP, PKR, dan PAS (sebelum Pakatan dikorbankan dalam Muktamar PAS pada 3 Jun lalu) telah memenangi tidak sampai 50% daripada jumlah keseluruhan kerusi DUN dalam PRU ke-13 yang lalu. Jumlah keseluruhan dan peratus kerusi DUN yang dimenangi oleh parti-parti Pakatan dalam PRU 13 adalah 229 kerusi atau 45% daripada 505 kerusi DUN dalam negara.

ii) DAP tidak pernah menjadi sebuah parti khusus untuk kaum Cina atau mana-mana jua kaum atau agama. Sejak penubuhan parti ini hampir 50 tahun lalu, DAP komited dengan matlamat menjadi parti untuk semua kaum dan penganut agama di Malaysia. Malah, DAP adalah satu-satunya parti politik pan-Malaysia di Malaysia, dengan cabang di semua negeri dalam negara ini.

iii) Pemulihan pilihanraya kerajaan tempatan sentiasa menjadi matlamat DAP sejak penubuhan parti ini pada tahun 1966.

iv) Suatu perbuatan yang amat mengelirukan dan tidak bertanggungjawab untuk mengatakan bahawa pilihanraya kerajaan tempatan akan memanfaatkan kaum Cina dan merugikan Melayu. Kenyataan sedemikian mengabaikan hakikat bahawa sejak lima dekad lalu penstrukturan semula kerajaan tempatan telah berlaku dan begitu juga proses urbanisasi Melayu, menghasilkan 148 buah kerajaan tempatan, sekitar 90% daripadanya mempunyai majoriti Melayu lebih 50%, manakala kaum Cina hanya membentuk majoriti di hanya dua atau tiga peratus daripada 148 kerajaan tempatan itu, dan 13 kerajaan tempatan bersifat majmuk dengan tujuh daripadanya didominasi Cina dan enam didominasi Melayu.

v) Suatu kemuncak sikap tidak bertanggungjawab juga untuk menuduh para pejuang pilihanraya kerajaan tempatan sebagai “cauvinis” atau “komunis”, memandangkan pilihanraya kerajaan tempatan turut diadakan di Indonesia, Turki dan Iran. Apakah Hadi cuba menyatakan bahawa Presiden Jokowi di Indonesia, Erdogan di Turki, dan bekas presiden Ahmadenijad adalah “komunis” dan “cauvinis” kerana mereka berjaya dalam pilihanraya kerajaan tempatan?

vi) Tiada asas bagi dakwaan bahawa DAP telah melanggar “moral” Pakatan dengan bertindak secara bersendirian untuk cuba memulihkan pilihanraya kerajaan tempatan sehingga mencabul Dasar Bersama Pakatan Rakyat. Hakikatnya, pemulihan pilihanraya kerajaan tempatan terdapat dalam manifesto Pakatan Rakyat di peringkat kebangsaan dan manifesto Pakatan Rakyat Selangor untuk PRU 13.

Pada Mac 2010, Menteri Besar Selangor dan Ketua Menteri Pulau Pinang telah menulis surat secara berasingan atas nama kerajaan masing-masing meminta Suruhanjaya Pilihanraya mengendalikan pilihanraya kerajaan tempatan di negeri masing-masing, namun permintaan itu ditentang oleh Perdana Menteri Datuk Seri Najib Razak.

Saya berasa sedih melihat Hadi menggunakan pembohongan dan pendustaan UMNO untuk memburuk-burukkan DAP sedangkan beliau sendiri tahu menerusi penglibatan beliau selama tujuh tahun dalam Pakatan bahawa semua dakwaan itu adalah dustasemata-mata.

Lebih buruk daripada itu, Hadi cuba menyemai perpecahan dalam DAP dengan mendakwa bahawa “sesetengah pemimpin DAP” dan “pemimpin negeri” tidak bersetuju dengan pemimpin parti di peringkat kebangsaan dan bahawa hubungan pemimpin PAS dengan pemimpin-pemimpin DAP yang dimaksudkannya itu “masih baik”.

Hadi boleh terus dengan khayalannya itu kerana DAP tidak akan mula menjalankan proses “menyucikan parti” hanya berasaskan dakwaan berniat jahat Hadi itu.

Lebih penting untuk setiap orang mengenal pasti kenyataan pahit dalam politik Malaysia.

Realiti pertama – Pakatan Rakyat akan kalah teruk dalam pilihanraya umum akan datang jika melibatkan diri dalam pilihanraya itu tanpa mempedulikan sama sekali pelanggaran Dasar Bersama oleh PAS, menjadikan hudud satu isu panas dalam kempen pilihanraya.

Malah, sekiranya Dasar Bersama Pakatan dilanggar sebelum PRU 13 yang lalu dan hudud dijadikan isu panas, tentu keputusan yang terhasil berbeza – kerajaan negeri Selangor mungkin telah kembali ke tangan UMNO/BN dan UMNO/BN mendapat semula majoriti dua pertiga, menghasilkan akibat politik jangka panjang.

Sekiranya Dasar Bersama Pakatan dicabul dalam keadaan sedemikian, kesannya di kalangan pengundi Melayu mungkin tidak banyak, tetapi sokongan bukan-Melayu pasti akan merosot teruk, membawa kepada kehilangan sokongan daripada pengundi bukan-Melayu sebanyak sehingga 20%.

Peningkatan undi Melayu sebanyak 1% dan pengurangan undi bukan-Melayu sebanyak 20% dalam PRU 13 mampu menghasilkan senario berikut:

Projeksi berdasarkan negeri sekiranya Hudud dijadikan isu pilihanraya

Senario

Sokongan kepada pembangkang

Senario baru

Melayu

+1%

Bukan Melayu

-20%

Rumusan berdasarkan negeri

        GE13

        Senario Baru

        Summary Parliament

        PAS

        PKR

        DAP

        PAS

        PKR

        DAP

        PERLIS

        0

        0

        0

        0

        0

        0

        KEDAH

        1

        4

        0

        0

        0

        0

        KELANTAN

        9

        0

        0

        9

        0

        0

        TERENGGANU

        4

        0

        0

        4

        0

        0

        PULAU PINANG

        0

        3

        7

        0

        2

        7

        PAHANG

        1

        2

        1

        0

        1

        0

        SELANGOR

        4

        9

        4

        2

        4

        4

        W.P. KUALA LUMPUR

        0

        4

        5

        0

        0

        5

        NEGERI SEMBILAN

        0

        1

        2

        0

        0

        1

        MELAKA

        0

        1

        1

        0

        0

        1

        JOHOR

        0

        1

        4

        0

        0

        0

        JUMLAH

        21

        28

        31

        16

        7

        21

        GE13

        Senario Baru

        Ringkasan Parlimen

        PAS

        PKR

        DAP

        PAS

        PKR

        DAP

        PERLIS

        1

        1

        0

        0

        0

        0

        KEDAH

        9

        4

        2

        5

        1

        0

        KELANTAN

        32

        1

        0

        34

        0

        0

        TERENGGANU

        14

        1

        0

        14

        0

        0

        PULAU PINANG

        1

        10

        19

        1

        7

        17

        PERAK

        5

        5

        18

        1

        2

        14

        PAHANG

        3

        2

        7

        2

        0

        2

        SELANGOR

        15

        14

        15

        5

        5

        11

        NEGERI SEMBILAN

        0

        3

        11

        0

        0

        6

        MELAKA

        1

        0

        6

        0

        0

        3

        JOHOR

        4

        1

        13

        0

        0

        4

        JUMLAH

        85

        42

        91

        62

        15

        57

 Dalam senario seperti di atas, Pakatan tidak memenangi 89 kerusi parlimen atau 40% daripada kerusi parlimen, sebaliknya jumlah kerusi yang dimenangi hanya 53 kerusi (44 di Semenanjung dan 9 di Sarawak/Sabah) atau 24% daripada keseluruhan kerusi parlimen. Bermakna UMNO/BN kembali mendapat majoriti dua pertiga, membolehkannya membuat persempadanan semula demi memanjangkan lagi cengkamannya ke atas kuasa secara tidak demokratik.

Di peringkat Dewan Undangan Negeri, 229 kerusi DUN yang dimenangi di Semenanjung Malaysia tentu telah merosot kepada 42% atau hanya 134 kerusi DUN.

Walaupun Pakatan berkemungkinan kekal berkuasa di Pulau Pinang dengan 25 kerusi DUN (17 DAP, 7 PKR dan 1 PAS) berbanding 30 yang dimenangi dalam PRU 13 (19 DAP, 10 PKR dan 1 PAS), kerajaan negeri Selangor akan kembali jatuh ke tangan UMNO/BN di mana 44 kerusi Pakatan yang dimenangi dalam PRU 13 (15 DAP, 15 PAS dan 14 PKR) akan merosot kepada 21 (11 DAP, 5 PAS, 5 PKR).

Keputusan di negeri-negeri Pantai Barat yang lain tentunya sama buruk.

Di Johor, Pakatan tidak mungkin membuat penerobosan dengan memenangi 18 kerusi DUN (13 DAP, 4 PAS dan 1 PKR) dalam PRU 13 dan negeri itu akan kekal sebagai “deposit kekal” UMNO/BN dengan Pakatan hanya memenangi 4 kerusi negeri (semuanya DAP dan sifar untuk PKR dan PAS).

Di Perak, jumlah 28 kerusi Pakatan (18 DAP, 5 PKR dan 5 PAS) pada Mei 2013 mungkin merosot kepada 17 (14 DAP, 2 PKR dan 1 PAS); di Pahan 12 kerusi Pakatan (7 DAP, 3 PAS dan 2 PKR) mungkin merosot kepada 4 (2 DAP, 2 PAS dan 0 PKR); di Negeri Sembilan, jumlah 14 kerusi Pakatan (11 DAP, 3 PKR dan 0 PAS) mungkin merosot kepada 6 (6 DAP, 0 PKR dan 0 PAS); dan di Melaka dari 7 kerusi Pakatan (6 DAP, 1 PAS, 0 PKR) berkurangan kepada (3 DAP, sifat untuk PAS dan PKR).

Jika Hadi mencabul Dasar Bersama Pakatan Rakyat sebelum pilihanraya umum yang lalu dan hudud menjadi isu panas, PAS mungkin telah lenyap di Johor, Melaka, dan Perlis, mengekalkan hanya 1 kerusi DUN di Perak, 2 di Pahang dan 5 di Selangor dan juga Kedah – hanya mengekalkan kedudukan di Kelantan dan Terengganu.

Kenyataan pahit kedua: Dalam pilihanraya umum ke-14 yang akan datang, PAS mungkin hilang kuasa ke atas Kelantan yang telah ditadbirnya selama 15 tahun sejak 1990 jika berlaku perubahan undi sebanyak 4% yang tidak memihak kepada PAS di negeri itu.

Kenyataan pahit ketiga: Satu kesilapan besar untuk mengabaikan kemungkinan PAS kalah di Kelantan dalam PRU 14 jika berlaku perubahan undi sebanyak 4% kerana PAS hilang kuasa di Terengganu dalam pilihanraya tahun 2004 setelah berlaku perubahan undi sebanyak 15% setelah PAS memerintah dan Hadi menjadi Menteri Besar Terengganu selama hanya satu penggal.

Kenyataan pahit keempat: Hadi sekali lagi akan “dipermainkan” oleh Najib pada persidangan Parlimen akan datang kerana usul rang undang-undang persendirian berkenaan hudud tidak akan diberi ruang untuk dibentangkan kerana Najib telah pun mencapai matlamatnya untuk memecah-belahkan Pakatan Rakyat.

This article is also available in English at:
https://blog.limkitsiang.com/2015/07/25/hard-realities-of-malaysian-politics-hadi-will-again-by-played-out-by-najib-in-the-next-parliamentary-meeting-as-hadis-private-members-bill-motion-on-hudud-will-n/

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 25 July 2015, 10:11 pm and is filed under
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Malaysia’s Edge Group Publications Suspended

By John Berthelsen

Asia Sentinel

July 24, 2015

Government action comes as owner, publisher, say they obtained documents through a ruse

The Edge Financial Daily, the country’s leading financial newspaper, and The Edge Weekly have been suspended from publishing for three months by Malaysian authorities for reporting on the scandal-tarred 1 Malaysia Development Bhd development fund that authorities said was “prejudicial or likely to be prejudicial to public order, security or likely to alarm public opinion.” It also stated that the reporting on 1MDB was “likely to be prejudicial to public and national interest.”

The suspension is unprecedented. Last week, the government also blocked The Sarawak Report, written by Clare Rewcastle Brown from the UK, which has been equally critical of the government. Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak has been tied directly to the scandal by reports that US$680 million had been spirited from 1MDB-related companies into his personal accounts.

Tong Kooi Ong, the owner of The Edge Group, and Ho Kay Tat, the publisher, have both been threatened with arrest. Ho was forced to report to the police on July 22 and was questioned for two hours over the paper’s publication of a 3,800 word on July 21 report describing in deep detail, with flow charts, how money had flowed out of 1MDB into PetroSaudi International, a Middle East-based oil exploration company, and that US$1.83 billion allegedly was stolen by company officers and others.

The suspension, by an exasperated government which has been harried by The Edge’s detailed reporting on the scandal, ignited a storm of protest. Malaysia’s Center for Independent Journalism charging that “For the government to censor a newspaper in this manner is an extremely heavy-handed measure, and a breach of freedom of expression and media freedom in particular. To justify such a serious and extreme measure, it is wholly insufficient for the Home Ministry to merely make sweeping, general claims about prejudice to public order, security or alarm. It must specify exactly how The Edge’s reporting on 1MDB would jeopardize public order or security.”

Government officials are likely to be more infuriated by a sensational statement by Tong and Ho on the website of The Malaysian Insider, which the group also owns, that they had obtained 400,000 emails and other documents from a Swiss national and former PetroSaudi official, Xavier Andre Justo connected to the 1MDB scandal by lying about paying him.

Justo has been sitting in a Thai jail, expected to be charged with extortion, since June 22. Tong and Ho met Justo in Singapore in February with an offer to pay US$2 million for the documents related to the scandal.  But they stiffed him.

Justo left PetroSaudi under mysterious circumstances in 2011, supposedly with a US$5 million settlement from the company, according to news reports in Thailand.  He also left with 90 gigabytes of information on a hard disk, apparently with the intention of selling them to the highest bidder.

In February, according to a story in The Straits Times of Singapore, he turned up in the island republic to meet with Tong and Ho, apparently at the behest of Clare Rewcastle-Brown, a UK-based blogger who writes The Sarawak Report and who has been an indefatigable critic of the Sarawak state government and the national government.

According to the Straits Times story, Justo showed them a 22-page confession in which he said the two had agreed to pay him US$2 million for the documents.  In The Malaysian Insider story, Tong and Ho said it was true – but they never had any intention to pay him.

“Justo is obviously an angry man, and understandably so, as we did not pay him what he wanted,” the two wrote. “Yes, we misled him. But that was the only way to get hold of the evidence to expose how a small group of Malaysians and foreigners cheated the people of Malaysia of US$1.83 billion (RM6.97 billion).  His statement confirmed what we have said earlier i.e. we never paid anyone.”

To earlier charges that he had tampered with the information to produce more damaging charges against 1MDB and PetroSaudi, Justo said he had never done so. He was quoted in the Straits Times as saying Tan and Ho had told him they intended to do so in an effort to bring down the Malaysian government. But, they said, “surely if we had such intentions we would not tell it to someone we were meeting for the first time. All the more so when we know he will be upset with us because we will eventually not pay him what he wants.”

Once they obtained the hard disk containing the documents, they made a digital fingerprint of it and secured it, the two said, and later gave a copy to Bank Negara Malaysia, the Police and the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission, which are part of a task force investigating the 1MDB scandal, in which the state-backed investment fund has RM42 million worth of liabilities and is in serious trouble trying to meet its debts.

“[T]he money trail we have put together and passed to investigators showing how money from 1MDB were moved into the accounts of various people at several global banks in several countries can be easily verified by investigators with help from their counterparts in this country,” according to their article.

Justo, they said, is understandably bitter, “but this is not about Justo, neither is it about us. It is about a scheme to cheat the people of Malaysia of US$1.83 billion through the 1MDB-PetroSaudi joint venture. That so many government agencies are now investigating 1MDB and that it is now almost an insolvent company that needs to be bailed out validates all the work The Edge Media Group has done to expose what had happened. We have done nothing wrong and we are here to assist investigators unlike some who seem to have disappeared.”

In his confession, given to the Thai police and quoted by the Straits Times, Justo said he had tried to open an account in Singapore to have the money paid directly from the buyer’s account, but was refused. Tong and Ho apparently stalled, refusing to pay the money into an Abu Dhabi account because it had Justo‘s name on it. They also refused to pay the money into his company account in Hong Kong as well as through a Luxembourg company.

Justo said eventually the two offered to pay him cash, which was supposed to be delivered in Singapore every week or every other week to receive an envelope containing tens of thousands of dollars on a periodic basis until the final amount was to be paid, which he refused to do. Rewcastle-Brown, he said, agreed to receive the US$2 million from the buyer and send him US$250,000 a month for consultancy services, according to the Straits Times.

But, he said, he never learned if she had received the money, because he was arrested on June 22.

Rewcastle-Brown said his allegations of her involvement in the fake bribe are nonsense. Contacted by The Straits Times, Rewcastle-Brown rubbished the allegations as “bunkum”.

“What I have presented on 1MDB and has been clarified by The Edge and corroborated by several other official sources is a coherent explanation of events, versus the dodging, changing stories of 1MDB,” she told the Straits Times.

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 25 July 2015, 1:44 pm and is filed under
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Malaysia’s Growing Opposition Can’t Be Silenced

By ANWAR IBRAHIM

Wall Street Journal

July 23, 2015

Why I’ve chosen to stay and continue the fight for peaceful, democratic reform from my prison cell.

COMMENTARY

Since Prime Minister Najib Razak’s 2013 electoral victory, which was plagued by widespread allegations of gerrymandering, fraud and voter intimidation, Malaysia has taken a turn for the worse. Mr. Najib, who once promised democratic and economic reforms and pledged to allow “the voices of dissent” to be heard, has doubled down on political repression.

A former deputy prime minister of Malaysia and leader of the opposition, I am now in the fifth month of a five-year prison sentence that has been roundly condemned by governments and human-rights groups around the world. I spend my days in solitary confinement in meditation and in the company of the few books that are allowed into my cell. Meanwhile, allegations of corruption at the highest levels of Malaysian government have surfaced.

In 2012, the draconian Internal Security Act was repealed by the Najib government with much fanfare, only to be replaced by the Prevention of Crime and Prevention of Terrorism Acts, which are equally, if not more, repressive. Beyond encroaching on Malaysian citizens’ fundamental liberties, these new laws rob judges of their discretionary sentencing powers.

Instead of abolishing the outdated and much-abused Sedition Act of 1948 as promised, Mr. Najib’s government has deployed it as a weapon of mass oppression. In the past 18 months, more than 150 Malaysians have been arrested and many charged with sedition for an array of activities including accusing the government of voter fraud and criticizing the verdict in my trial. The arrested include students, professors, journalists, cartoonists, activists, human-rights lawyers and opposition politicians.

Mr. Najib’s finance ministry’s “strategic development fund,” 1Malaysia Development Bhd., or 1MDB, founded by Mr. Najib in 2008, is under intense scrutiny. As this newspaper reported on July 2, Malaysian investigators “have traced nearly $700 million of deposits into what they believe are the personal bank accounts of Malaysia’s prime minister, Najib Razak.” Neither the original source nor ultimate destination of the money is clear.

A few weeks earlier, on June 18, this newspaper reported that during the 2013 election 1MDB “indirectly supported Prime Minister Najib Razak’s campaign.” The fund paid what appeared to be an inflated price for assets acquired from a Malaysian company; the company then contributed to a Najib-led charity that announced projects, such as aid to schools, that Mr. Najib was able to tout as he campaigned.

After these two stories were published, Mr. Najib’s office put out a statement that “there have been concerted efforts by certain individuals to undermine confidence in our economy, tarnish the government and remove a democratically-elected prime minister.” It called the Journal articles a “continuation of this political sabotage.” Not surprisingly, foreign investors are increasingly wary. Malaysia’s currency, the ringgit, recently fell to a 16-year low.

Meanwhile, the Najib government sows communal and religious animosity among the Muslim ethnic Malay majority and the country’s large ethnic Chinese and Indian minorities. Mr. Najib’s ruling coalition blamed a “Chinese tsunami” for its losing the popular vote in the 2013 parliamentary elections, regardless of a study showing this to be false. And despite Mr. Najib’s claims of moderation internationally, the state-run media have vilified Shiite Islam. Last summer the prime minister urged his ruling United Malays National Organization members to be “brave” like Islamic State fighters in Iraq, causing him to later explain he doesn’t support Islamic State or its radical brand of Islam.

Such actions undermine the fragile fabric of Malaysia’s multiethnic and multireligious society. In four decades in public service I cannot recall a time when racial and religious sensitivities have become so inflamed, and at the same time so poorly managed by the country’s political leadership.

Yet I stayed put in Malaysia to face a difficult third bout of unjust incarceration because we in the opposition believe in a brighter future made possible by good governance and the rule of law. We believe in the dismantling of Malaysia’s system of race-based privileges that has devolved into nothing more than rent-seeking for the privileged few. We believe that corruption is a slow bleed that robs future generations of the education and business opportunities that will make them prosper.

Most important, we are joined by a new generation of young, millennial Malaysians with a commitment to building an inclusive, democratic and economically vibrant country.

Still, there is real danger ahead. Middle-income nations like Malaysia — after several decades of economic mismanagement, opaque governance and overspending — can devolve into failed states. The irresponsible manner in which the current leadership is handling religious issues to curry favor from the extreme right is fueling sectarianism. Increased political repression may drive some to give up on the political system altogether and consider extralegal means to cause change, thus creating a tragic, vicious cycle.

Yet there remains a clear path out of this mess: a return to the underpinnings of the Malaysian Constitution, which preserves and protects the rights of all Malaysians; a devolution of power from the executive, whose role now resembles that of a dictator more than a servant of the people; elections that are truly free and fair; and a free media unafraid to challenge authority.

Malaysia is ready for change. This is why, rather than flee my country, I chose to stay and continue the fight for peaceful, democratic reform from my prison cell. This is not easy and puts a tremendous burden on my family. I am grateful for their love and commitment. While I am physically behind bars my spirit remains with them, the people of Malaysia, and people all around the world who continue the struggle for dignity and for freedom.

Anwar, a former deputy prime minister of Malaysia (1993-98), is a former member of parliament for the People’s Justice Party and until April was leader of the opposition.

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 25 July 2015, 7:36 am and is filed under
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Najib intends to roll on, not over

Economist

Jul 25th 2015 | KUALA LUMPUR

Soldiering on – Malaysia’s prime minister battles claims of corruption

WHATEVER the truth of them, the accusations levelled against Najib Razak, Malaysia’s prime minister, have astonished a country that some had thought inured to scandal. In early July the Wall Street Journal reported that it had seen documents produced by government investigators suggesting that nearly $700m from companies linked to a troubled state-backed investment fund had been paid into what they believed to be Mr Najib’s personal bank accounts. With worries about an oil-dependent economy, the controversy is the last thing Malaysia needs.

The allegation is that the money was received shortly before the general election in 2013, in which a coalition dominated by Mr Najib’s party, the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) scraped home, despite narrowly losing the popular vote. The prime minister helped launch the fund, known as 1MDB, in 2009 and chairs its board of advisers. It has acquired land and power plants, yet has struggled to service debts of around $11 billion. The firm’s affairs were already the subject of official investigations, but until this month no one had claimed to have evidence that the prime minister himself had received any money.

Mr Najib has vigorously denied wrongdoing, including ever having used public money for personal gain. He called the allegations “political sabotage” and blamed Mahathir Mohamad, a nonagenarian UMNO grandee who was prime minister from 1981-2003, for waging a campaign against him. For months Dr Mahathir has been calling for Mr Najib’s resignation, warning that under him, UMNO — which has ruled Malaysia since independence in 1957 — may lose an election due by 2018.

The opposition has demanded that the prime minister step down until a special task force, now investigating the allegations, has finished its work. Campaigners known in the past for organising big protest rallies against Malaysia’s heavily gerrymandered electoral system are thinking of calling for fresh demonstrations against the prime minister. But Mr Najib says he is not budging. Outwardly at least he appears still to have his party’s support. A government agency has warned Malaysians against discussing the allegations on social media and has started blocking an indefatigable British website, the Sarawak Report, which has written a lot about 1MDB. Police say they are conducting an inquiry which may uncover the source of the Wall Street Journal’s report.

A boon for Mr Najib is the paucity of obvious substitutes within UMNO. One possibility is Muhyiddin Yassin, a deputy prime minister who had been tipped for the top job when it fell vacant in 2009. Another replacement might be Hishammuddin Hussein, the defence minister and Mr Najib’s cousin (who for now appears loyal). But neither man seems any more likely than Mr Najib to find the vim required to rejuvenate UMNO, which has grown quarrelsome and complacent after six decades in power — and which, in stemming its ebbing popularity, has taken to exploiting old fears among ethnic Malays that their prospects are threatened by Malaysia’s Chinese and Indian minorities.

As for the opposition, it is in disarray. Since its leader, Anwar Ibrahim, was imprisoned on a dubious sodomy charge earlier this year, the opposition coalition has been torn apart by tensions between the DAP, an ethnic-Chinese party, and PAS, a Malay Muslim one, over the latter’s efforts to enforce strict sharia punishments in Kelantan state in the north. Some in PAS now look minded to mend fences with their old foes in the ruling party. Hadi Awang, PAS’s leader, has argued that Islam requires that the Wall Street Journal should produce four witnesses to support its reporting.

All this has distracted attention from Malaysia’s pressing economic problems. Hobbled by low oil prices and slowing Asian economies, the value of the ringgit has sunk to a 16-year low against the dollar. Meanwhile, politicians of all stripes have scrambled to deny that race played a role in scuffles this month in Kuala Lumpur, when a mob of mostly Malay youths confronted the largely ethnic-Chinese employees of an electronics mall — all sparked, apparently, by an instance of shoplifting.

Even if Mr Najib is cleared of wrongdoing, the brouhaha is sapping his standing among ordinary Malaysians. It was already hurt by the recent imposition of a disliked value-added tax. If his popularity keeps sliding, it is difficult to imagine UMNO sticking by him until the next general election. The end of Ramadan, which concluded in Malaysia on July 17th and during which Muslim politicians are supposed to avoid unseemly squabbles, may bring fresh attacks from dissident factions. But Mr Najib is rumoured to be mulling a cabinet reshuffle, presumably to silence critics there. If he can blast through this crisis his opponents may well wonder what, if anything, will bring him down.

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 25 July 2015, 1:33 pm and is filed under
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Welcome GHB’s sensible and Malaysian-centric stand that pressing issues of the country are political reforms and socio-economic injustices like the killing of Teoh Beng Hock and 1MBD scandal and not hudud implementation

I welcome the sensible and Malaysian-centric stand and approach of Gerakan Harapan Baru (GHB) that the pressing issues of the country are political reforms and socio-economic injustices like the killing of Teoh Beng Hock and 1MDB scandal and not hudud implementation.

Khalid Samad, the GHB MP for Shah Alam, has told The Malaysian Insider that GHB would be consistent on this, which clearly differentiated it from PAS.

Khalid said:

“We won’t be doing a U- turn, not like PAS saying in the past that hudud is not a priority and then suddenly making it into something that is the only issue of concern.

“For Harapan Baru, it is not a priority, from our understanding it is the last item to be implemented when everything else is in place.

“There are other issues like national unity, the economy, political conflicts which has to be addressed. That would be the priority.”

I had in fact tried to save Pakatan Rakyat from from being killed by PAS Muktamar in June when two weeks before the PAS Muktamar, I proposed an Eight-Year “Save PR” Roadmap by all three PR parties – DAP, PKR and PAS – reaffirming the PR Common Policy Framework which had won the support of 52% of the electorate in the 13th General Election.

In my media statement of 24th May 2015, I had said:

“Time is running out for Pakatan Rakyat.

“In two weeks’ time, Pakatan Rakyat may cease to exist.

This is a most ludicrous political development.

“UMNO and Barisan Nasional (BN) are at their weakest in history, holding to power in Putrajaya as the first minority government in Malaysian history…

“This is the greatest opportunity for Pakatan Rakyat, formed seven years ago after the political tsunami of the 2008 general election, which smashed the hitherto unbroken two-thirds parliamentary majority of the UMNO/BN coalition and saw the establishment of five Pakatan Rakyat state governments of Penang, Kedah, Perak, Selangor and Kelantan.

“The hopes and expectations for change of Federal government and a new Prime Minister in the person of Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim in the 13th General Elections on May 5, 2013 were frustrated by an undemocratic electoral system which allowed the UMNO/BN coalition to snatch victory from Pakatan Rakyat through a majority of parliamentary seats despite a minority of the votes and to continue as the Putrajaya government.

“The historic change of Federal Government in Malaysia has been postponed from the 13th General Election to the 14th General Election, which must be held by 2018.

“All the conditions for such a historic change are in place, except that at this moment, Pakatan Rakyat is itself on the brink of disintegration.

“There is only one way to save PR from disintegration as it embodies the best hopes of Malaysians for change and improvement of the quality of life of all Malaysians.

“This is the adoption of an eight-year Pakatan Rakyat Roadmap with a re-commitment by all the three component parties of DAP, PKR and PAS to reaffirm the two fundamental principles which had been the secrets of the PR success since its establishment – strict adherence to the PR Common Policy Framework which had formed the bedrock common principles of the three component parties in the coalition, and the operational principle of consensus regarding the Pakatan Rakyat Leadership Council as the highest policy-making body for PR.

“If we stay loyal to these two fundamental principles, I am confident that PR will be able to grow from strength to strength to fulfill the hopes of generations of Malaysians for change and Malaysia’s rendezvous with greatness, and take PR to Putrajaya to form the new Malaysian government in the 14th General Elections.

“This the time when wisdom and vision of the late Tok Guru Nik Aziz Nik Mat is sorely missed.

“There is no doubt that if the former PAS Mursyidul Am and former Kelantan Mentri Besar is alive today, he would not have allowed Pakatan Rakyat to face a life-and-death crisis, for he would have ensured that PAS continue to keep faith with both the Muslims and non-Muslims in Malaysia with the party’s ‘PAS for All’ agenda and spurned renewed efforts at forming UG (Unity Government) between PAS and UMNO.”

Unfortunately, my proposal for an Eight-Year “Save PR” Roadmap died a stillbirth as Hadi was totally engrossed with his plan to wipe out the progressive PAS leaders at the PAS Muktamar and to kill Pakatan Rakyat with the resolution at PAS Muktamar to sever PAS’ relations with DAP.

Thanks to the PAS Muktamar resolution on June 3, Pakatan Rakyat is dead and no more.

There is however great expectation among the people throughout the country awaiting the Gerakan Harapan Baru (GHB) movement to launch a new political party to rekindle new hopes of political change in Malaysia – hopes many feared had been buried with the death of Pakatan Rakyat on June 3, 2015.

A new coalition of Malaysian progressives is awaiting to be born and DAP will co-operate with all progressive political forces and parties like PKR and the new party which progressive PAS leaders have announced will be formed soon to form this new political coalition to save Malaysia from becoming a failed state because of rampant corruption, socio-economic injustices and the collapse of good governance in the country.

In fact, I am hoping that there are also progressive political leaders in UMNO and Barisan Nasional who can transcend political party differences as the topmost priority in the nation today is undoubtedly to Save Malaysia from becoming a failed state because of rampant corruption, socio-economic injustices and the collapse of good governance.

Can we look forward to a Grand Get-Together of Progressive Political Leaders, regardless of whether in UMNO/Barisan Nasional, the new coalition to replace Pakatan Rakyat – whether Pakatan Rakyat 2.0, new Pakatan Rakyat, Harapan Rakyat or whatever the name finally decided upon – and progressive forces and individuals in Malaysia with the single great objective to “Save Malaysia” from becoming a failed state?

(Media Conference Statement at Nirvana Memorial Park, Semenyih after the 6th death anniversary tribute to Teoh Beng Hock on Sunday, 25th July 2015 at 12 noon)

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 26 July 2015, 8:30 pm and is filed under
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1MDB has become 1Malaysia Disaster Bhd, consuming UMNO/Barisan Nasional Federal Government but it must not be allowed to destroy Malaysia!

When the Home Minister, Datuk Seri Zahid Hamidi issued a statement on Saturday night that he was mulling action against Sarawak Report editor Clare Rewcastle-Brown, including calling for her extradition from United Kingdom for the “crime”  of foreign interference in the internal affairs of Malaysia, he was rightly mocked for his presumption in expecting the British government to “play ball” with such a silly notion merely because Claire had exposed a multi-billion dollar financial scandal in Malaysia.

As DAP MP for Segambut Lim Li Eng has pointed out, this is a “big bluff” when those involved in least four high profile cases were now abroad – sex blogger Alvin Tan, Facebook activist Ali Abdul Jalil, Malaysia Today operator Raja Petra Kamaruddin and former policeman Sirul Azhar Umar, who was convicted for murdering Mongolian Altantuya Shaariibuu.

But apart from the ludicrousness of Zahid’s extradition suggestion, I see a more sinister aspect – the thoughts behind such a ridiculous idea, as the Home Minister cannot be so dumb as to believe that his extradition proposal would  have any traction with the UK Government.

The question all discerning Malaysian should be asking is whether a plot is being hatched to launch as wide a dragnet as possible to implicate the maximum number of critics of the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak and the biggest financial scandal in the country, the RM42 billion 1MDB scandal, to rope them in and even charge them for participating in an international plot to topple the elected Prime Minister of Malaysia?

Talk of seeking extradition of Clare is just an icing for the cake of the allegation of an international conspiracy to topple the elected Prime Minister of Malaysia, as for advocates of  this extreme option, it is not important whether the extradition request succeeds or not, but suffice for it to provide the “international character” to justify the wild allegation of an international plot to criminalise Najib Razak and topple the elected Prime Minister of Malaysia.

And into such a “plot on a plot”, all the critics of the Prime Minister and 1MDB scandal could be lumped together for  allegedly committing “activities detrimental to parliamentary democracy”,  sabotage or treason  for consorting with foreign elements in criminalising Najib and seeking to topple  the elected Prime Minister – such as the Edge Media Group owner Tong Kooi Ong, Edge publisher  and Group CEO, Ho Kay Tat, MPs Tony Pua and Rafizi Ramli, even the former Prime Minister, Tun Mahathir, the Opposition leader in Sungai Buloh prison Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and Najib’s brother Nazir Razak?

Far-fetched? We are living in dangerous times.

Whether such a dragnet and ridiculous allegation of an international plot to topple the elected Prime Minister of Malaysia can stick or not may not be important, as the whole purpose of the exercise would  be to buy time for the Najib administration, which appeared to be on its last legs, and to avoid an implosion in UMNO over the 1MDB scandal, in particular Najib’s inability to say Yes or No to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) report on July 2 that RM2.6 billion had been deposited into his personal bank accounts in AmBank in March 2013, just before the 13th General Election.

Let Zahid and Najib state whether such a plot alleging that there is an international conspiracy to criminalise Najib and topple the elected Prime Minister is being hatched by some elements in his administration to justify a dragnet against all critics against Najib and 1MDB, and whether they could state categorically and unequivocally that there is no such plot.

1MDB has become 1Malaysia Disaster Bhd, consuming UMNO/Barisan Nasional Federal Government but it must not be allowed to destroy Malaysia!

For more than a month, since the WSJ report of June 19 that billions of ringgit of 1MDB funds were used to bank-roll Najib’s 13th General Election campaign, and increasingly after the July 2 WSJ report that RM2.6 billion funds had been deposited into Najib’s personal accounts in AmBank  in March 2013 just before the 13th General Election (which Najib could not deny but could only plaintively state that he had never taken funds for personal gain), the Federal Government top policy-making machinery has virtually grounded to a halt.

Not just the Federal Government top policy-making machinery, even the private sector, all political parties and the country seem to have been consumed by one and only one issue – the 1MDB scandal, which dominated all conversations and discussions,  whether in public or private sector, in Ramadan Break Fast functions or Hari Raya Open Houses, public functions or private dinners and gatherings.

The magnitude of the 1MDB crisis has crippled and paralysed the nation, all the way up to the Cabinet level as admitted by the Deputy Prime Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin at the Cheras UMNO annual general meeting last night.

Muhyiddin had  admitted that apart from Najib, no one in Cabinet really undertstood the 1MDB scandal.

Seven weeks ago, I had drafted “10 Questions on 1MDB for dummies for Cabinet Ministers” so that the Cabinet Ministers can grasp the issues of propriety, accountability, transparency and good governance raised by the 1MDB scandal, but from Muhyiddin’s admission last night that there was no one who could truly explain the 1MDB issue, even in Cabinet, my “10 Questions on 1MDB for dummies for Cabinet Ministers” in early June was a wasted effort!

Muhyiddin’s admission that he  had to get information from the media including the suspended business weekly The Edge Financial Daily, on the 1MDB scandal is most shocking – although even more shocking was that he was rebuked by fellow Cabinet Ministers for relying on The Edge.

What has our Cabinet degenerated into – a Cabinet of the Ignoramus?

Muhyiddin’s further admission that “even those who talk about 1MDB did not even understand what is the problem faced by the debt ridden company” with  the second Finance Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Husni Hanadzlah and the newly-minted Barisan Nasional Strategic Communications Director Datuk Abdul Rahman Dahlan as examples, is no surprise.

These are  not Official Secrets as Malaysians have always known that Husni and Abdul Rahman were out of their depths and were “talking cock” when they made misleading statements about various aspects of the developing 1MDB scandal.

I applaud Muhyiddin’s support for the Auditor-General’s interim report on the 1MDB to be made public.

Of course Najib’s sycophants like Abdul Rahman would oppose it, or he would not have been made the BN’s Strategic Communications Director, although no BN leader had made so many “strategic errors” in so short a time as Rahman.

Will the Cabinet on Wednesday support Muhyiddin’s proposal for the immediate publication of the Auditor-General’s Interim Report on 1MDB, or will the Husnis and Abdul Rahmans have their way to block the publication of the Auditor-General’s Interim Report?

But the Cabinet Ministers belabour under a more serious problem  than their inability to understand the 1MDB scandal – whether they are tainted and disqualified from participating in any Cabinet discussion or decision on the WSJ report or risks committing corruption because of conflict of interest as the Cabinet or the majority of the Cabinet Ministers had received improper funding from the personal accounts of the Prime Minister in the 13th General Election.

Let Abdul Rahman continues as BN Strategic  Communications Director, start by declaring  publicly whether he and Sabah UMNO had received any funding from Najib’s personal accounts for 13th general election campaign, the amounts received  – and the same questions should be answered by  all the  other Cabinet Ministers.

Are all the Cabinet Ministers prepared to make such a public statement of their relationship with the RM2.6 billion in Najib’s personal bank accounts after the Cabinet meeting on Wesneday?

1MDB has become 1Malaysia Disaster Bhd and is  consuming UMNO, Barisan Nasional and the  Federal Government but it must not be allowed to destroy Malaysia!

The country is under grave peril, not because of any fictitious international plot to criminalise Najib and topple the elected Prime Minister, but because of the  failure of the Prime Minister for more than three weeks to live up to the principles of accountability, transparency, integrity and good governance by giving an explanation of the WSJ report about RM2.6 billion deposited into his personal accounts, where the monies came from and where they have gone to, and the procrastination tactics  refusing to give an immediate accounting for  the RM42 billion 1MDB scandal.

This is the time for all political leaders, regardless of political party, race, religion, age or gender to put aside their differences and come together to draw up and implement a “Save Malaysia” Roadmap  from the deleterious  fallouts of the 1MDB scandal – whether Ministers, Members of Parliament, political leaders, former political leaders, civil society and community leaders, NGOs and NGIs.

DAP and all progressive political forces are prepared to respond to such a “Save Malaysia” clarion call.

Can such a “Save Malaysia” Grand coalition be convened, and who will convene it?

Between progressive forces on both sides of the political divide, by the three Tuns in Malaysia who had been Prime Minister or Deputy Prime Minister namely Mahathir, Abdullah and Musa Hitam or by the Opposition Leader from behind the prison walls in Sungai Buloh, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim?

It is time for all patriotic Malaysians to focus on this single issue of how to Save Malaysia from the 1MDB scandal, instead of allowing the 1Malaysia Disaster Bhd to destroy Malaysia after consuming Najib, UMNO/BN and the Federal Government.

(Media Conference Statement at DAP Hqrs in Kuala Lumpur on Monday, 27th July 2015)

                This entry was posted on Monday, 27 July 2015, 2:06 pm and is filed under
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“It Is The Government That Is Truly Jeopardising Public & National Interests”

By Martin Jalleh

                This entry was posted on Monday, 27 July 2015, 10:48 am and is filed under
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Malays say they join DAP for its struggle, not for power

by Jennifer Gomez

The Malaysian Insider

26 July 2015

Far from being mere yes-men as alleged by an Utusan Malaysia columnist recently, the Malays who join DAP do not believe in self-entitlement but instead accept its culture built on merit, a Malay DAP federal lawmaker said.

These Malays are also academically accomplished and thick-skinned enough to endure and share the ideals of the party’s politics and “don’t expect a 30% discount on anything”, Raub MP Datuk Mohd Ariff Sabri Abdul Aziz told The Malaysian Insider.

“They understand that elections to the CEC (central executive committee) are not a matter of being given a seat on the basis that a Malay is entitled to many things.

“You have to prove and earn it. Take the sons of Karpal Singh, for example. They are there because they are good, and they are not Chinese.”

Citing another example, that of Batu Kawan MP Kasthuri Patto, Ariff said she was not in the party because she was the daughter of former DAP leader P. Patto, but because she was talented and genuine.

However, becoming a member of the democratic socialist party was a bold step for any Malay as he was opening himself to the vilest of condemnation, including being labelled the running dogs of the Chinese, betrayer of the Malay race, apostate and abandoning Islam, said Ariff, a former Umno assemblyman.

This would ring true given the claims by Utusan Malaysia columnist Ku Seman Ku Hussain on July 4 that Malay DAP members were mere “yes-men” and needed to be in higher positions to really change the perception that the opposition party was Chinese-centric.

Ku Seman also labelled the DAP Malays as an “unfortunate” generation, saying they were playing cheerleaders for a party which attacked Malay interests.

“If DAP’s pull factor is that it transcends race and religion, then there is only one race that stands out in the party.

“The race is still a main factor in DAP. Only the Malays in the party are too stupid to understand that fact.”

But Ariff countered that their numbers and positions did not matter, instead it was more important that the issues articulated and fought by the party were getting the support of the people.

He said that all one needed to do was to look at the quality of the current DAP leadership, adding that its MPs were among the best.

He added that the Malays who joined DAP were the kind who would feel a sense of shame if they were lagging behind.

“The Malay who joins DAP must feel left behind and slacking when they see people like Tony Pua, Ong Kian Ming, Anthony Loke, (Liew) Chin Tong and many others articulating issues of importance.

“Seeing these people in action ought to produce a feeling of wanting to compete on those terms.Raub MP Datuk Mohd Ariff Sabri Abdul Aziz defends his choice of joining DAP, saying the Malays in the party are not mere yes-men. – The Malaysian Insider file pic, July 26, 2015.

Raub MP Datuk Mohd Ariff Sabri Abdul Aziz defends his choice of joining DAP, saying the Malays in the party are not mere yes-men. – The Malaysian Insider file pic, July 26, 2015.

“These are the Malays who will be more attracted to join DAP, and a good example is Zairil Khir Johari.”

Ariff said that before the 13th general election, there were around 500 Malay members but this has grown to 2,000 currently, making up 2% of the party’s membership with many other young Malays eager to join DAP.

His depiction seems to hit the mark with the Malays in DAP, with newbies, including Impian Kelantan coordinator Syefura Othman, Teluk Intan by-election candidate Dyana Sofya Mohd Daud and rapper Edry Faizal Yusof saying they chose DAP as it matched their own ideologies, and not based on a desire for position or power, which were aspirations of those joining Umno.

DAP Malay members speak up against yes-men claims

Businesswoman Young Syefura Othman, 26, who joined the party a year ago, said DAP fits the bill for her in terms of being a party that champions justice and the rights of the people.

“They have everything I was looking for, and I’m very happy to be part of the DAP family.

“I’ve not felt sidelined, instead I am very comfortable here,” Syefura told The Malaysian Insider.

She said that it was high time Malaysians stopped talking along racial lines and instead, come together to help the country grow and achieve greatness.

“It is very embarrassing that these people keep talking about race and religion in this day and age.

“That too coming from a scholar who should be talking about progressive ideas. Instead of saying things to unite the people, he is going the opposite route,” she said of Utusan columnist Ku Seman.

Dyana Sofya (left pic) could not agree more, and said they should actually thank the columnist for highlighting the obvious – that DAP is becoming a party of choice for all Malaysians.

“Ku Seman’s article acknowledges the fact that DAP is a multiracial Malaysian party and there is a phenomenon of young Malays now joining DAP.”

She said those who joined DAP, like national laureate Datuk A. Samad Said, understood and recognised the party’s struggle for the people.

“More of us are joining after getting to know the party, we want to join their fight,” she added.

Photo courtesy of Edry.

Photo courtesy of Edry.

Edry (pic), who is DAP Bandar Utama branch chairman, also refuted Utusan’s claims that the Malays were yes-men, and instead said he felt empowered in the party.

“As a member, I have the power to voice my opinion.

“And if I want more power in the organisation, then I need to climb the hierarchy ladder like anyone else,” said Edry, who joined the party three years ago.

He added that Utusan was too used to seeing people joining Umno for the sake of power.

“They need to step out of their Umno box and see that there are people who join a political party for the sake of fulfilling dreams and idealism of the party’s fight.”

The rapper said has only one regret – that he did not join DAP earlier. – July 26, 2015.

                This entry was posted on Monday, 27 July 2015, 5:29 am and is filed under
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The long-awaited political breakthrough

 — Koon Yew Yin

Malay Mail Online

July 26, 2015

JULY 26 — Gerakan Harapan Baru, Parti Progresive Islam — whatever name is finally decided for the breakaway group of Pas moderates and progressives — will not matter. What matters is that a new political force is being set up to provide Malaysian Muslims with an alternative to Pas and UMNO in the coming elections.

This move by PAS reformers is possibly the most important development to take place in the country’s political system for a long time. Why do I say this?

Well, most Malaysians especially non-Muslims, we have only had a choice between the devil and the deep blue sea since 1957 in terms of Muslim based parties. That is a choice of UMNO or PAS.

UMNO plays racial cum religious politics; PAS plays religious cum racial politics. We had what is referred to as Hobson’s choice or in simple English, no choice in choosing the government. This ‘take it or leave it’ option to voters is finally going to change.

In fact many Malaysians had thought that we were having a new era in politics when the Pakatan Rakyat coalition was set up in 2008 and PAS promised to adhere by the Common Policy Framework in 2010. As a result of the CPF which prioritized socio-economic justice, equality and good governance, the majority of Malaysian voters during the last elections voted for the opposition.

A very large number of voters also voted for PAS members of parliament and assemblymen because we thought that the party was sincere in joining a multiracial coalition whose agenda is not based on religion and who recognized that the answer to the problems of Malaysian society cannot come from religiously applied principles and guidelines.

This was why my friends and I put our faith in Pakatan in Perak during the past 2 elections. I also actively campaigned for Dato Seri Nizar who served as Mentri Besar until the dirty tricks of the BN toppled him and the Pakatan government.

Nizar and the Pakatan coalition had only a brief tenure as the state government. But in that short period, they did wonders in showing the potential of a genuinely multi-racial and multi-religious coalition. Led by a Pas leader, Pakatan served all Perakians with sound, accountable and pro-rakyat based policies which set a new standard for the state and country.

Hudud and PAS’s ‘gostan balik’ new leadership

When Pakatan was set up, all the parties agreed that the issue of establishing an Islamic state and implementing hudud law was to be put in the back burner. Hudud was never part of the Common Policy Framework. Everybody including PAS leaders knew this. This stand is not simply an effort to reassure non-Malay and non-Muslim voters. It is also not because of disrespect for Muslims and Islamic law.

It is because we are a multi-religious and multi-cultural country. It is common sense that our society can co-exist harmoniously and prosper only if we have our law based on secular principles and practice. This position was arrived at by the framers of the constitution which included two Islamic jurists among the five members of the Reid Commission — Hakim Malik from India and Hakim Halim Abdul Hamid from Pakistan.

Unfortunately, the present batch of newly elected PAS leaders, know little or do not care for the constitution or are ignorant of the constitutional history of the country.

They do not see the fundamental need to ensure that religion is best left in the private sphere. They are blind to the fact that religion will cause all kinds of problems if extended into public life. This is true in non-Muslim countries in Europe, Africa, and Asia where attempts by various majorities to implement a religious agenda have brought chaos and disorder.

It is especially true in countries with a majority Muslim population. Suffice it to say that many if not most of the problems of Islamic countries in the world today are because they have allowed religiously oriented politicians to hijack the state and impose their version of the Islamic state.

What the new Islamic party should fight for and against

For the new Islamic party in Malaysia to make the real breakthrough, this is what they have to do:

1. Adhere to the Common Policy Framework and reject a hard line and extremist Islamic ideology

2. Oppose the move to introduce hudud in Kelantan and the federal parliament

3. Declare full support for the Malaysian constitution’s position on democratic and human rights and the equality of all citizens, irrespective of race or creed

4. Fight racial and religious extremism and hate wherever it comes from

5. It is not enough for leaders of the new party to say that the party will have a higher purpose than the introduction of hudud. The party wants to create a better life for the people.

If PAS president and ulama leaders want to take their supporters back to the time, practices and dogmas that were found in the Middle East 1400 years ago then the new Islamic party must join Malaysians in saying to them “Good luck, good riddance and good bye!”

What Zaid Ibrahim wrote recently

Zaid Ibrahim who has been fighting a lone battle against Islamic extremist and for sanity in religious and racial politics has recently written

To my friends Mohamad Sabu, Khalid Samad and others, there are thousands and thousands of Malay Muslims waiting to hear you across the land. They want something refreshing and truthful about the country and its leaders. They are sick of the present politics and they are tired of having been burdened for more than 55 years with the dilemma of choosing either a corrupt bunch of Malay leaders milking the country dry, or a bunch of ulama who do nothing but serve their own political ends.

The people want a real alternative and we must give it to them. Millions of non-Muslim Malaysians join him in wishing the new party well!

                This entry was posted on Monday, 27 July 2015, 4:11 am and is filed under
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Andai Watergate di Malaysia: satu imaginasi ringkas

Mohsin Abdullah

The Malaysian Insider

27 July 2015

Sebut Watergate umum terus kaitkan dengan skandal politik besar di Amerika Syarikat (AS) pada 1972. Ramai tahu kisahnya. Maka tidak perlu saya mengulangi apa yang orang sudah tahu. Bagi yang “lupa” atau mereka yang mahu imbas kembali sila google.

Pun begitu, bercakap mengenai Watergate dua nama timbul dengan serta merta. Bob Woodward dan Carl Berstein. Kedua-duanya wartawan akhbar The Washington Post yang membongkar skandal itu dengan “bantuan” pemberi maklumat misteri yang mereka gelar “Deep Throat”. Lantas menyaksikan pelbagai siasatan dijalankan sehingga membawa ke Kongres.

Memendekkan cerita yang panjang, kemuncaknya ialah Richard Nixon, presiden AS ketika itu terpaksa meletak jawatan pada 1974. Woodward and Berstein menjadi terkenal. Mendapat bermacam pengiktirafan termasuk memenangi Anugerah Putlizer. Dan buku buku yang mereka tulis menjadi best seller.

Hollywood turut “masuk campur” dan menerbitkan filem mengenai 2 wartawan itu dalam pembongkaran Watergate. Dibintangi Robert Redford dan Dustin Hoffman sebagai watak utama. ‘All The President’s Men’ judul filem itu. Sekali lagi sila google untuk butiran lanjut. Cukup setakat itu. Kini izinkan fikiran melayang dan berimaginasi.

Agak agak jika skandal Watergate berlaku di Malaysia bagaimanalah jalan ceritanya?

Adakah Woodward dan Berstein akan bebas membongkar, berjaya ‘membersihkan’ negaranya daripada kekotoran skandal dan akhirnya dihargai ramai dan diberi anugerah? Dan jangan lupa “kerana mereka”, pemimpin nombor satu negara terpaksa melepaskan jawatan.

Mungkinkah mereka akan dituduh mengancam ketenteraman awam, menjejaskan keselamatan negara, menerbitkan berita tidak sah, berkomplot menjatuhkan pemerintah?

Wallahualam.

Cukuplah dengan imaginasi , andaian serta spekulasi dan agak-agak . Kembali ke alam nyata.

Kita tidak ada The Washington Post, Woodward, Berstein, Deep Throat, Watergate. Itu kisah Amerika. Kisah Malaysia, kita ada The Edge, Ho Kay Tat, Tong Kooi Ong, Xavier Justo, 1MDB. You all tahu kisahnya. – 27 Julai, 2015.

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 28 July 2015, 6:37 am and is filed under
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Call for emergency meeting of Parliament before August 31 for a  confidence vote on Prime Minister Najib and his new Cabinet and to ensure comprehensive and unfettered  investigations into 1MDB scandal and WSJ reports

The sudden Cabinet reshuffle today, sacking Deputy Prime Minister and Education Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin and four other Ministers, following the morning shocking sacking of Tan Sri Gani Patail as  the Attorney-General more than two months before his retirement on 6th October are the latest panic efforts to salvage the rapidly sinking UMNO/BN coalition which had governed this country for 58 years.

The Cabinet reshuffle today has been described as “rearranging the furniture on the sinking Titanic” and future  history  will vindicate this description.

The Cabinet reshuffle is not designed to produce a more competent, efficient and professional Cabinet which can save Malaysia from becoming a failed state because of rampant corruption, socio-economic inefficiencies and injustices, and the failure of good governance, but to give Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak a new lease of political life by removing from the Cabinet Ministers who threaten his  political future by demanding  that the Prime Minister should give proper  public explanation and accountability for the RM42 billion 1MDB scandal and the Wall Street Journal allegation that RM2.6 billion had been deposited into his personal accounts before the 13th General Election.

The important Education Ministry has again been split into two Ministries, one for Education and the other Higher Education, but looking at the Ministers and Deputy Ministers assigned to these two critical Ministries, I fully understand the feeling of the Selangor State Assemby Speaker Hannah Yeoh when she tweeted: “I look at the Education Ministry and I want to cry for our children sake.”

My disappointments at the lack of Ministerial leaderships in both the Education and Higher Education Ministries after the reshuffle are summed up in my tweet: “Not inspiring developments that Malaysian education can restore glorious past.”

But the sine qua non dictating the sudden Cabinet reshuffle is not any higher notions of taking Malaysia to  greater political, economic, educational and social heights of achievement, but purely to consolidate Najib’s power position by removing all possible threats to his political survival.

And at present, the single greatest threat to Najib’s power position is undoubtedly the monstrous 1MDB scandal.

In one fell swoop, with the unconstitutional sacking of the Attorney-General and the removal of the outspoken Chairman and three UMNO/BN members of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), whether as Minister or Deputy Ministers, efforts to pry open the 1MDB scandal suffered full body blows.

Working under a thick cloud of suspicion about its independence and professionalism, the multi-agency Special Task Force on the 1MDB scandal and the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) allegations appeared to be making headway in  trying to bring to book those responsible for the biggest financial scandal in the country affecting top-most levels of the government.

It would appear that history would be made in anti-corruption efforts, where not only “ikan bilis” would be picked up, but also “ikan yus” – the sharks – and  the sudden sacking of the Attorney-General before his due retirement date in October raises the question whether the objective of the Cabinet reshuffle was to interfere and stymie full investigations into the 1MDB scandal and the WSXJ allegations.

With regard to the PAC, although it has lost its Chairman Datuk Nur Jazlan and three BN members, Datuk Seri Reezal Merican Naina Merican (Umno – Kepala Batas)  and Datuk Mas Ermieyati Samsudin (Umno – Masjid Tanah) who have been appointed as deputy ministers and Datuk Wilfred Madius Tangau (Upko- Tuaran) who is now Minister for Science, Technology and Innovation, the PAC should proceed full steam with its investigations into the 1MDB scandal – not only full speed but even accelerate the process of investigations if this is possible.

Although the PAC has no Chairman until a new appointment by Parliament, PAC has a Vice Chairman in the person of Dr. Tan Seng Giaw (DAP MP for Kepong) and sufficident working numbers to continue with its investigations into the 1MDB scandal.

Parliamentary Standing Orders 77(2) provides that the PAC shall consist of a Chairman and Vice Chairman to be appointed by Parliament, and not less than six and not more than 12 members to be appointed by the Committee of Selection.

Without the three UMNO/BN members because of their elevation to Ministerial ranks, there are still eight PAC committee members who, with the Deputy Chairman, can continue the unfinished work of PAC, especially with regard to investigations into the 1MDB scandal. In other words, with Seng Giaw as Chairman, there are still 4 Umno/BN MPs, 2PKR MPs, 1 DAP MP and 1PAS MP  to continue PAC investigations.

But even more important than PAC investigations into 1MDB  is the larger question of parliamentary and national confidence in Najib as Prime Minister and his new Cabinet after the reshuffle.

For this reason, I call on Najib to convene an emergency meeting of Parliament before the 58th Merdeka Day anniversary on August 31 to submit himself and his new Cabinet to a  confidence vote in Parliament, as well as to ensure comprehensive and unfettered investigations into 1MDB scandal and WSJ reports.

It will be interesting to find out whether UMNO Deputy President, Muhyiddin Yassin, who had been sacked as Deputy Prime Minister and Education Minister for speaking out on 1MDB scandal, as well as others sacked in today’s reshuffle, are prepared to vote in a confidence motion in favour of Najib as Prime Minister.

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 28 July 2015, 5:13 pm and is filed under
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Facing corruption scandal, Malaysian PM fires officials investigating him

Aljazeera

July 28, 2015

Critics say Najib Razak is trying to avoid prosecution amid allegations that he received $700 million in state funds

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, stung by allegations that he received some $700 million in government money, fired the attorney general who had been investigating him and a deputy who has been among his most prominent critics on Tuesday.

Najib is under increasing pressure over leaked confidential documents that allegedly show the money, from state investment fund 1MDB, went into his personal accounts.

Najib announced over national television Tuesday that his deputy Muhyiddin Yassin will be replaced by Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, a Cabinet member who will also retain his home minister portfolio. Earlier Tuesday, the government announced it had terminated the services of Attorney General Abdul Gani Patail.

Najib said he also dropped four other ministers to strengthen his administration and ensure they can “work as a team.”

“I can accept differences in opinion and criticisms as part of the decision-making process, but these differences in opinion should not be made in an open forum that can affect public perception of the government and the country,” he said.

Critics slammed Gani’s abrupt removal and cast it as an attempt by Najib to avoid prosecution.

“The purge commences. The Attorney-General is replaced. Any flicker of hope that the prime minister might be charged for misdeeds is extinguished,” opposition lawmaker Tony Pua tweeted.

“The fact that he is not answering the allegations but instead removed his critics is not a good sign,” said Wan Saiful Wan Jan, who heads the Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs think tank. “It shows deep desperation on Najib’s side.”

Muhyiddin, the deputy, has been critical of the government’s handling of 1MDB’s massive debt and on Sunday night repeated his call for Najib to explain the alleged funds transfer.

Najib said, “The decision to replace Muhyiddin was a very difficult one, but I had to do it so that a strong team can move forward.”

Gani was replaced by a federal court judge, Mohamed Apandi Ali, months before the attorney general had been due to retire in October. The government said Gani was leaving for health reasons, but when contacted by Malay Mail Online, Gani said he had not been aware of the decision.

Gani confirmed earlier this month that he had received documents from investigators that linked Najib and 1MDB. The existence of the documents, which allegedly show $700 million was wired from entities linked to 1MDB into Najib’s accounts, were first reported by The Wall Street Journal.

Najib has not disputed the existence of the accounts or the receipt of the funds. He has only said that he has never used government funds for personal gain, and called the allegations a political sabotage. Officials with 1MDB also have denied wrongdoing.

The documents sent to the attorney general pave the way for possible criminal charges, which would be a first for a Malaysian prime minister.

Apart from Muhyiddin, Najib also dropped Shafie Apdal as rural development minister. Shafie, a vice president in Najib’s ruling Malay party, has also been critical of the government’s handling of the 1MDB saga. On Tuesday he defended his comments, saying in a statement that they were aimed at strengthening the party and putting the country on the right track.

Najib’s ruling National Front coalition has been in power since independence from Britain in 1957. However, support for the coalition has eroded in the last two general elections. In 2013, it won the polls but lost the popular vote for the first time.

The Associated Press

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 28 July 2015, 9:41 pm and is filed under
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“High Noon” in Malaysia – who will be left standing?

Its High Noon  in Malaysia.

Who will be left standing after the political showdown in UMNO?

What is  expected in the next few  days will be played out in the next few hours.

A look at the front-page headlines of the mainstream media today shows that the Malaysian people are being prepared for this High Noon:

•	STOP! – The Prime Minister’s Office urges everyone, including Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin and members of the administration, to avoid commenting on the 1MDB issue. (New Straits Times)

•	JANGAN KERUHKAN PERSEPSI RAKYAT – ISU 1MDB: MESEJ PEJABAT PERDANA MENTERI (Berita Harian);

•	SEMUA DIMINTA BERTENANG (Utusan Malaysia);

•	Be Patient, wait for  report (Malay Mail); and

•	PMO to DPM: Wait for the outcome (The Star).

It is not any Opposition Leader who is the target of these front-page headlines of the mainstream media, but none other than the Deputy Prime Minister and Deputy UMNO President, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, who as if in anticipation of the impending “High Noon”, made the fierty, but  right and proper speech at UMNO Cheras AGM on Sunday night that the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak must give satisfactory explanation about the Wall Street Journal report about RM2.6 billion deposited into his personal accounts in AmBank and most shocking of all, that no one in Cabinet  really understood the RM42 billion 1MDB scandal, which Muhyiddin estimated would have mushroomed to be a scandal exceeding RM50 billion by now.

What was most eloquent about Muhyiddin’s speech was firstly, it was completely blacked out by the UMNO mouthpiece, Utusan Malaysia; secondly, the relegation to the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) to respond to Muhyiddin’s speech, reducing the Deputy Prime Minister’s position as the No. 2 man in the government to that of a mere departmental level.

Are Muhyiddin’s days, in fact, hours,  numbered.

This is the ongoing drama of the most fractured UMNO and government in the nation’s history which is being played out now, with the sudden and surprise announcement by the Chief Secretary, Tan Sri Ali Hamsa about the termination of Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail’s service as Attorney-General due to health reason and his immediate  replacement by former Federal  Court judge Mohamad Apandi Ali, and the surprise response of Gani to Malay Mail Online expressing ignorance over the termination of his service as Attorney-General.

Who else, in the most fractured UMNO and government in the nation’s history, are on the chopping block?

We are living in interesting and dangerous times.

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 28 July 2015, 11:37 am and is filed under
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In times of crisis, truth is first casualty

Khoo Ying Hooi

The Malaysian Insider

27 July 2015

There is a saying that in war, truth is the first casualty.

No one expects journalists to risk their lives for a story. Yet, if the media constantly come under attack, we risk an information crisis.

Media, also popularly known as the fourth estate, can influence public opinion and shape policy direction.

It is a double-edged sword especially for politicians. It can help one to get unconditional publicity, at the same time it could also ruin a politician’s life.

Last week we were slammed with news of the three-month suspension on The Edge Weekly and The Edge Financial Daily beginning today (July 27), just few days after the authorities blocked access to Sarawak Report that has been extensively covering the 1MDB controversy.

According to the suspension order by the Home Ministry, the two publications’ reportage of 1MDB was “prejudicial or likely to be prejudicial to public order, security or likely to alarm public opinion or is likely to be prejudicial to public and national interest”.

The move not only triggered uproar among the citizens, it also has a chilling effect on the media landscape as a whole.

In our national report submitted for the second review of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) in 2013, it is stated that, “The administration led by Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak who was recently reelected during Malaysia’s 13th General Election on 5 May 2013 has and continues to be characterised by among others, a strong commitment to the rule of law, to upholding respect for human rights, and a commitment to continue widening the democratic space initiated during previous administrations.”

Press freedom in Malaysia is guaranteed by the constitution. Yet the media is by no means free from political interferences. Restrictive laws often on national security grounds are constantly targetted against the press.

The dream that the information age would provide greater space for critical discourse remains a fantasy, as governments feel threatened by aggressive media.

Globally, Malaysia’s low ranking, when it comes to press freedom, is no secret.

Take the world press freedom index issued by the Paris-based media watchdog group Reporters Without Borders (RSF), for example. Malaysia ranked 147th in the latest index, remaining in the same position last year.

In 2013, Malaysia ranked 145, a major drop from its ranking of 122 in 2012.

In the Press Freedom Report 2014 issued by Freedom House, Malaysia achieved a press freedom score of 65 and is categorised as “not free”, standing in the same spot with countries such as Pakistan and Turkey.

Open debate, discourse, criticism and dissent are some fundamental components in the process of creating an informed community. These processes are particularly essential in forming policies to find solutions to social, economic and political problems.

But in reality, these basic tenets such as freedom of the media and freedom of expression are absent.

Pippa Norris and Ronald Inglehart, in their 2007 paper “Silencing Dissent”, argued: “States that establish restrictive media environments aim to suppress dissent and to provide positive messages about the regime, rallying support for the authorities, as well as generating more feelings of patriotism and spreading ideological values favorable to the regime.

“If state control succeeds in its objectives, we would expect regular exposure to the news media to generate relatively high levels of confidence in the authorities, encouraging relatively negative attitudes towards democratic values and reinforcing feelings of nationalism. This is the sector of the mass media where the state usually exercises the greatest control.”

Much of the criticism stems from the current administration’s aggressive prosecution of leakers of information.

Norris and Inglehart’s statement explained aptly why states resort to suppressing media. What it implies is that at the end of the day, the government’s hostility to dissent is only spreading dissent more widely. – July 27, 2015.

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 28 July 2015, 6:22 am and is filed under
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Mr IGP, please spare us your nonsense!

By Martin Jalleh

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 28 July 2015, 6:07 pm and is filed under
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