Like most concerned Malaysians who are currently closely following the news, I am deeply disappointed with the Attorney General (AG) Tan Sri Idrus Harun’s response to the criminal convictions of a former Goldman Sachs banker involved in the 1MDB scandal. After Roger Ng Chong Hwa was convicted on Friday by a US jury on three counts of foreign bribery in relation to 1MDB, the AG expressed that Malaysia should wait for Ng to exhaust his right to appeal in the US before resuming legal proceedings against the ex-banker.
Idrus needs not wait for Ng to exhaust his legal appeal process in the US. Our authorities should already be continuing with legal proceedings against Ng. In 2019, before Ng’s trial in the US, he was already being detained in Malaysia for criminal investigations and was pending trial. When an order for extradition to the US arrived, Ng chose to be transferred to the US for trial and his Malaysian trial was put on hold. The trial of Roger Ng cannot and should not be postponed any further.
Malaysia has its own legal system. By allowing Ng to exhaust his legal avenues to appeal in the US, I wonder if Idrus is perhaps making the degrading suggestion that Malaysian law is subservient to American law. Malaysia is not America’s 51st state.
Idrus should immediately seek Ng’s repatriation, and orders should also be given to charge Ng’s fellow Malaysians who were implicated during his court trial in the US.
As a matter of fact, the AG’s office should already have initiated and completed the investigations on these individuals.