It is utterly surreal to see incriminating documents and emails exposed every week on how billions of ringgit have been siphoned and scammed from 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB), and yet our Prime Minister, who is also our Finance Minister can go on live national television to tell the world that “we need to give time to 1MDB to develop or liquify [their] assets.”
Dato’ Seri Najib Razak had continued to emphasize on his pre-recorded TV3 interview on 9 April 2015, that “assets obtained by 1MDB had exceeded [its] liability”. He even defended to parking of the US$1.1 billion of proceeds from the disposal of its investment in Cayman Islands in BSI Bank, Singapore. He said 1MDB “keep the money abroad because they have debts abroad. Instead of bringing the money back to Malaysia, it is better for them to keep it outside because they can earn from the forex etc.”[i]
Such claims flies in the face of the evidence Malaysians have been presented on the Internet, particularly via The Sarawak Report.
On Wednesday, the whistleblower site exposed the fact that Singapore investigating authorities have received confirmation that a BSI statement of 1MDB’s subsidiary, Brazen Sky Limited which was circulated by the 1MDB top management has been falsified[ii]. In fact, the information has already been forwarded to the Malaysian counterparts on the 13 March 2015.
This meant that that Dato’ Seri Najib Razak must have already been aware of the fraud more than a month ago in the so-called cash and assets held under the Singapore branch of the Swiss BSI Bank. Under such circumstances, how can the Prime Minister tell Malaysians with a straight face on national TV that 1MDB’s assets are still worth more than its liability?
In a even bigger expose yesterday[iii], The Sarawak Report revealed documents showing how out of US$860 million (RM3.1 billion) which was siphoned from 1MDB to Good Star Limited via the PetroSaudi International joint venture, US$529 million (RM1.9 billion) was subsequently tranferred to Abu Dhabi Kuwait Malaysia Investment Corporation (ADKMIC) in BSI Singapore between June 2011 and September 2013. The Singapore authorities had revealed that the beneficial owner of the ADKMIC account is none other than Jho Low.
From the information which has been exposed, it is blatantly obvious that Malaysians have been brazenly robbed by Jho Low, abetted by his accomplices and conspirators via 1MDB, the wholly-owned subsidiary of the Ministry of Finance.
Billions of dollars have been misappropriated, bank statements falsified and the mastermind exposed. However, our Finance Minister can still find it appropriate to assure Malaysians that there’s nothing serious happening and we just “need to give time to 1MDB to develop or liquify [their] assets.”
One could certainly argue that Dato’ Seri Najib Razak is like Nero, who fiddled while Rome burns. While 1MDB burns in the raging fire, the Prime Minister acts with no sense of urgency to reflect the severity of the crime and crisis taking place.
Despite being forced to instruct the Auditor-General to “verify” the 1MDB accounts signed off by Deloitte Malaysia, it would appear that it was merely a tactic to buy time as no deadline has been set for the investigations to be completed.
Dato’ Seri Najib Razak must stop lying and covering up for 1MDB. He must stop giving protection to Jho Low by claiming that the latter has nothing to do with 1MDB, when he is clearly the villain. By failing to tell the truth and allowing Jho Low to continue his global jaunts, the Prime Minister will only cause Malaysians to speculate on his own complicity in the entire RM42 billion 1MDB monster scandal.