Mr. Prime Minister, don’t give us the
slip on your RM2.6 billion scandal
09.07.2015
By Kim Quek
Prime
Minister Najib Rajak is obviously trying to get himself and his party off the
hook by claiming that the scope of work of the special task force is confined to
ascertaining whether the RM2.6 billion funds found in his accounts were used
for his personal interest. The inference is that if the finding is negative,
then the case is closed, full stop.
How
marvellous for Najib, if only the case is so simple!
Let me quote
what Najib said:
“The investigation of
the special task force is to determine whether the Wall Street Journal
allegation that I took 1MDB funds for my personal interest has basis or not”.
This
statement contains two errors: WSJ never said the funds came from 1MDB; neither
did it say the money was used for Najib’s personal interests. In fact, WSJ in its article dated July 2 (US
time) stated the exact opposite. I quote:
“The
original source of the money is unclear and the government investigation doesn’t detail what happened to the money
that went into Mr. Najib’s personal accounts.”
So, by completely distorting what WSJ
said, is Najib trying to pave the way for the special task force to close the
case?
CRIMINAL IMPLICATION OF
NAJIB’S RM2.6 BILLION
What is undisputed at this stage is the
existence of the said RM2.6 billion that had gone into Najib’s accounts,
because Najib has persistently failed to categorically deny the allegation
which was made with specific details. The veracity of the claim is given
further credence when WSJ uploaded on July 7 the banking documents detailing
these deposits into Najib’s accounts, for which Najib has again failed to
deny.
So, this part of the work (establishing
the RM2.6 billion deposits in Najib’s account) has already been done, since the
documents upon which WSJ based its article had actually come from Malaysian
investigators according to WSJ, and hence there is no need for the special task
force to do much more work on the issue.
What the task force has to do now is to
trace the ultimate source of these funds and to ascertain how these funds have
been spent.
RM2,600 million is a gargantuan sum; it
couldn’t possibly have come suddenly from a charitable well-wisher and just as
quickly had disappeared. The criminal implication of the mysterious movements
of such huge quantities of cash through the accounts of the Prime Minister is
awesome, to say the least. And this is exactly where the special task force
must dig in – to establish and unveil the whole truth to the public, for which
the nation is now holding its breath.
In fact, not only the nation, but the
whole world is watching now that this mega scandal has made headlines in
leading media around the globe. The
Malaysian government cannot afford to falter on the current investigation nor
to fail to apply the necessary remedies, lest it will lose its credibility,
with serious adverse consequences economically and politically.
Now, let us take a quick look at how
and when these funds flowed into Najib’s accounts.
THE LINK TO 1MDB’S US$3
BILLION BOND
The RM2.6 billion came from two sources
at two different times. The bulk of it,
US$681 came from a foreign company in late March 2013, shortly before the 2013 general
election. The second source was local,
totalling RM42 million.
The source of US$681 million looks
suspiciously linked to the US$3 billion bond raised by 1MDB, ostensibly for
investment in a joint venture with IPIC of Abu Dhabi to develop the TRX
project, which never really took off the ground.
It was on Mar 21 & 25 that US$681
arrived at one of Najib’s account at AmIslamic Bank in Kl from Tanore Finance
(based in British Virginia Islands) from its account in the Singapore Branch of
Falcon Private Bank, a Swiss bank owned
by IPIC, with whom 1MDB had sealed a joint venture only days earlier, on Mar
12, 2013.
Coincidentally, two days before the
payment to Najib’s account, on Mar 19, the US$3 billion was urgently raised,
for which a whopping commission of 10% (US$300 million) was paid to Goldman
Sachs due to the bond’s urgency.
Days later, on April 3,2013, parliament
was dissolved.
Question is now asked, what is the
urgency of the bond (raised only 7 days after sealing the joint venture) since
the joint venture with IPIC never took off the ground, if such massive cash was
not urgently needed to fund Umno/BN’s election campaign for the imminent GE13? An audit on 1MDB’s account for this period
would provide the answer.
As for the local source of RM42million, it
came from SRC International which conveyed the money via two other companies to
Najib’s other two accounts in AmIslamic Bank in Dec 2014 and Feb 2015. SRC International, a company set up by 1MDB
and later taken over by the Ministry of Finance, gained notoriety for having
repeatedly failed to properly account for the RM4 billion loan it took from
pension fund KWAP in 2011.
Why should a ministry of finance entity
pay such a large sum of money to the Prime Minister cum Finance Minister’s
personal bank account? Isn’t this act
alone a breach of the law, whatever the subsequent usage of the fund might be?
INTEGRITY OF TASK FORCE
IMPAIRED
What is worrisome now is the integrity
of the current investigation carried out by the special task force made up of
the police, MACC, Attorney General and Bank Negara. None of these have displayed independence in
the past. In fact, they have
persistently and consistently sided with the ruling elite whenever any of them
is in trouble with the law. With the Prime Minister cum Finance Minister still over
lording these institutions (since he has refused to go on leave), public
confidence on the current investigation is near zero.
An example of such lack of independence
is demonstrated in the failure of the task force to interrogate the chief
suspect who is Najib himself despite the discovery of such improprieties during
the official investigations on 1MDB which started months ago.
It is hence imperative that a truly
independent royal commission of inquiry be set up forthwith to carry out the
current task if public confidence both at home and abroad is to be restored. Members
of this RCI must be persons who enjoy public confidence, and meet bi-partisan
approval of parliament.
As such inquiry takes time, parliament
must hold an emergency session to seek urgent and interim measure to meet the
current unprecedented crisis, with both the Attorney General and Bank Negara
Governor mandated to brief parliament, as called for the during the meeting of
a hundred members of parliament and civil society leaders held in parliament
house on July 7.
PEOPLE MUST RISE TO THE
CHALLENGE
In the 58 year history of this country,
we have never had a prime minister who has been so explicitly implicated in
such grave breach of trust and breach of law as the current case, and unless we
rise up as a people to meet this challenge resolutely, we would have maimed our
image and credibility with disastrous consequences on our economy and political
standing among nations.
Kim Quek
No comments:
Post a Comment