Datuk Paul Low was the President of the Malaysian chapter of Transparency International (TI-M) when he was recruited by the Prime Minister, Dato’ Seri Najib Razak after the 13th General Election to take charge of “transparency and accountability”.
Over the past 2 years, Malaysians were shocked speechless with the brazen and blatant embezzlement in 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) where billions of ringgit were embezzled from the state-owned firm by the now infamous Jho Low.
As a result, 1MDB is now laden with more than RM42 billion of debt which it is unable to repay and is desperately shedding assets to raise short-term capital to service its debts.
This year alone, 1MDB had to beg private investors arranged by local billionaire, Tan Sri Ananda Krishnan to provide a short-term loan to repay an overdue RM2 billion of loans from Maybank and RHB Bank in February. The Government was forced to proved an emergency “standby facility” of RM950 million which was immediately drawn down by 1MDB.
Now, Malaysians are up in arms because local financial institutions managing public funds, Lembaga Tabung Haji and Kumpulan Wang Amanah Persaraan (KWAP) have purchase land from 1MDB at prices up to 43 times what 1MDB paid to acquire them from the Government.
1MDB is even desperate enough to dispose its lucrative concession to build a 2,000MW power plant to Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB) before even a single brick is laid. The project was won last February via a controversial tender exercise.
Despite the severity of the scandal, the seriousness of the crime and the utter failure of checks and balances in the 1MDB excesses which have resulted in massive loss of public funds, the so-called “Transparency and Accountability” Minister has done absolutely ZERO in ensuring transparency in the company’s transactions and accountability from the Ministers, Directors and Management in 1MDB.
Datuk Paul Low, with his glamourous title, even has the cheek to tell Malaysians via Bernama yesterday, “not to prejudge” and “wait for the audit report” by the Auditor-General (AG). Even so, the AG was only instructed to review the financial accounts of 1MDB in March this year.
Why has Datuk Paul Low ignored every single criticism and warning bells sounded by my colleagues, the media, other critics and myself, in and out of Parliament, over the last 2 years about the impending 1MDB disaster? Was Datuk Paul Low sleeping in the last two years?
While the other Ministers are equally culpaple for failing to pull the handbrakes on the escalating crisis, Datuk Paul Low is undoubtedly the single biggest disappointment and failure.
We can understand UMNO Ministers blindly cowing to the wishes of their all-powerful President for that is in their political DNA. We can’t possibly imagine the MCA Ministers to even decipher, understand and figure out the 1MDB financial fiasco, must less expect them to raise any intelligent questions during the Cabinet meetings.
But Malaysians have expected more from Datuk Paul Low because of his formerly reputable track record as an activist against corruption. We expected more because he doesn’t belong to any political party and doesn’t have to compromise his principles.
Instead, Malaysians are sorely disappointed because he has not only failed to carry out his duties without fear or favour; he has become an apologist for the Najib administration despite the sheer scale of grand larceny in 1MDB. Malaysians are disgusted by Datuk Paul Low has instead succumbed to the perks and privileges of his Ministerial office.