Najib Shouldn’t Be Smiling Much in New York

PM Najib arrives in NYC

By Guest Blogger: Rusman

As Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak arrives in the United States, he can expect that his movements, meetings, and activities will be closely scrutinized, not only by the Malaysian public and media but by U.S. law enforcement.

On September 21, it was reported by the New York Times that the Federal Bureau of Investigation and U.S. Justice Department’s Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative is investigating both the $11 billion of losses of 1MDB but also the transfer of $700 million of funds into Prime Minister Najib’s personal account from an unnamed Middle Eastern source. Earlier the Wall Street Journal reported that the FBI has started investigations into allegations of money laundering related to 1MBD.

This joins the already announced investigations by Singapore, Switzerland, Hong Kong, and United Kingdom. One has to assume there is a certain amount of coordination going on behind the scenes to get to the bottom of what is going on.

Ordinarily, a foreign leader would have little to worry about in his or her dodgy transactions, as long as they weren’t completed in U.S. dollars. But a little focused on but essential fact about this story is that Mr. Najib received his $700 million in U.S. dollars and all dollar-denominated transactions must pass through and be subject to the full law enforcement jurisdiction of the United States. It appears Najib’s love of all things American may get the better of him.

Buried in the details of the news reporting is that the $700 million, allegedly from a Middle East donor, came via an offshore fund through a Swiss private bank via Wells Fargo & Company, an American bank. Most of the funds transferred to Mr. Najib’s account were transferred out after the 2013 elections to unknown recipients as well.

Given the Prime Minister has acknowledged this was his personal bank account – and all of that money came through the United States – unless every source and use of those funds has been legal, depending on how the facts unfold Najib could be subjected to a raft of criminal laws in the United States from criminal conspiracy to wire fraud to violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act or to violations of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act.

Prior news reports have suggested that a wave of Malaysian money was spent in New York and beyond in recent years by family and associates of Najib to buy expensive real estate. Every one of those transactions, holding companies, and persons who touched any part of those deals could be subject to Federal subpoena demanding answers to questions about these transactions. And once a few people have been caught up in the net and have struck their own deals for immunity, the pieces could fall into place and point back to the Prime Minister.

If these investigations uncover fraudulent or corrupted transactions that lead back to Prime Minister Najib, he, his family, and his associates could all be indicted for the commission of Federal crimes in the United States and any proceeds of these corrupted transactions could be seized and forfeited. Anyone under indictment could find themselves subject to an international arrest warrant, or Red Notice, issued by INTERPOL, and find themselves facing extradition to the United States on the various charges relating to grand corruption.

Najib, himself, must be viewed as a separate case. Ordinarily, under customary international law, heads-of-state are accorded immunity, which means they are not subject to the jurisdiction of foreign courts at least to authorized official acts taken while the leader was in power. As a matter of diplomacy, it is unlikely that the United States would seek to arrest a sitting head of state. But that doesn’t mean that they could not be indicted for serious crimes. And if these acts were taken outside the official authority of the head or state or violated international law, then upon leaving office, Najib himself could be subject to arrest and prosecution.

Indeed, since 1990, some 75 former Heads of State have been prosecuted for serious human-rights abuses and financial crimes.

While Najib continues to fly high believing that his golfing buddy President Obama values their friendship and will keep him safe, he doesn’t understand the American system. Even if Obama wanted to protect him, at this point, he can’t. Under the U.S. system, the Attorney General operates independently with respect to the investigation and prosecution of Federal crimes.

President Obama couldn’t stop the investigation even if he wanted to – and the moment Najib or anyone in his inner circle were to approach him to ask for assistance, Obama would have to distance himself dramatically from Najib to avoid even the appearance that he had tried to do so.

While ordinarily, the convening of a Federal Grand Jury to examine evidence in such cases is not publicly reported, the mere fact of leaks suggest the Justice Department is confident in its evidence and it has strategically confirmed the investigation to provide strong incentives for anyone with useful information to come forward to strike their own deals to avoid prosecution.

And once the Justice Department has decided there is sufficient evidence to merit deploying their considerable investigative resources, they almost always win. Indeed, the conviction rate for Federal crimes in recent years has approached 95 percent.

But most cases never go to trial – when the weight of the U.S. government comes down on criminal defendants with strong evidence, almost everyone pleads guilty.

While the noose always gets tightest around the target at the very end, in the meantime Najib can’t trust anyone. There is almost no amount of money that people will take to keep quiet but spend the rest of their lives on the run from the United States.

Prime Minister Najib Razak goes abroad despite pressing political problems at home

September 12, 2015

Malaysia: Prime Minister Najib Razak goes abroad despite pressing political problems at home

by John Berthelsen @www.asiasentinel.com

Another Expensive Shopping Trip cum Holiday

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak is preparing for another world trip sometime this month, which will culminate in his annual grip-and-grin with other leaders at the September 25  opening of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, where he likes to stroll on the world stage as a moderate Muslim diplomat despite the fact that he has done nothing to quell rising ethnic and religious tensions between Malays and Chinese at home.

But first. he flies quietly to London on September 15, on the eve of Malaysia Day, for the annual London Arms Fair, the world’s biggest such exhibition, which gives global weapons manufacturers a chance to exhibit their newest and deadliest wares to potential buyers.

Flying in an opulent government-owned Airbus A320 outfitted at the direction of his wife, Rosmah Mansor, Najib leaves behind him a troubled nation and an incipient insurrection at the grassroots over massive corruption despite the fact that his vast hidden resources have seemingly bought the loyalty of United Malays National Organization cadres down to the district chief level.

Those resources, a support network of payments of up to RM1 million to party chiefs and jobs at government-linked companies and state offices, have insulated him within the party despite increasing rank-and-file outrage. Nonetheless, concern is percolating through the party that Najib’s refusal to go in the face of arguably the biggest scandal in Malaysian history generating voter outrage that will reduce UMNO to a smoking ruin in 2018, counteracting the party wheelhorses who continue to feed at Najib’s stable.

Will the US meet Najib again?

Najib, behave yourself, don’t take me for granted

Despite his turn on the world stage, he also faces problems with the United States, where the administration is faced with a series of questions in Kuala Lumpur including the Trans-Pacific Partnership, ASEAN economic integration and other issues over a man who has credibly been accused of receiving US$680 million from unknown but probably shady sources whom he refuses to name. 

US President Barack Obama will have to decide whether to attend the annual ASEAN summit in Malaysia in November. Najib is this year’s host. The US cancelled an April meeting between Najib and Obama after the massive 1Malaysia Development Bhd. scandal began to emerge, in which the state-backed investment fund appears to have lost billions of US dollars funneled out of the fund to unknown destinations.

In addition, Al Jazeera aired an explosive 26-minute documentary on September 10 alleging that text messages retrieved in Australia from the mobile phone of Sirul Azhar Umar, convicted of killing Mongolian translator and party girl Altantuya Shaariibuu in 2006, show Sirul was attempting to blackmail Najib for millions of dollars to stay in Australia and “say nothing” about the case just before he was re-arrested. This way, according to Sirul’s messages: “I won’t bring down the PM.”

Nonetheless, Najib seems sufficiently confident that he can leave the country to his newly appointed Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, who is regarded as both supremely ambitious and a loose cannon. Najib has scheduled the UMNO general assembly for December 8-12, an indication he feels he can withstand any assaults that might be generated by the forces of former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad.  

One longtime political analyst termed Najib a “dead man walking,” but said he is likely to keep on walking indefinitely. “We keep waking up every morning and he is still Prime Minister,” said another.  Dzulkifly Ahmad, the former information director for the now-split Parti Islam se-Malaysia, said in a telephone interview that his extensive surveying indicates the PM can probably survive to elections projected for March 2018. 

Party rebels hang on

Planned Ouster Delayed

Nonetheless, the PM had to cancel a planned ouster, rumored to have been ordered by his wife, of seven top UMNO officials including Muhyiddin Yassin, the party vice president whom he fired in August as Deputy Prime Minister, and Mukhriz Mahathir, the Chief Minister of Kedah and son of Mahathir, who has vowed to drive him from office and have him arrested if possible.

“He didn’t do it, based on the reality that the ‘unholy seven’ are seen as heroes by grassroots members,” said Imran Imtiaz Shah Yacob, a rebellious longtime UMNO member from the Mahathir wing of the party. 

Zahid Hamidi, the Deputy Premier who replaced Muhyiddin, is increasingly driving the political agenda in ways that are both unhealthy for the country and disconcerting to cooler heads.

Zahid has unofficially loaned his support to a controversial “red shirt” rally by a self-styled coalition of militant ethic Malay groups headed by Jamal Mohd. Yunos, whose rhetoric has veered close to threats of violence at a time when the country’s always-delicate racial mix has become more precarious. The rally is supposedly in reaction to the Bersih 4.0 gathering of August 29, which drew tens of thousands of people protesting corruption and the crackdown on civil freedoms.

In addition to Zahid, the rally has received unofficial support from UMNO ministers including Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob. Posters of the rally on social media imply violence, with one featuring a figure brandishing a kris, a Malay dagger, and the caption: “Tanah tumpahnya darahku” (I will die for this land).  

London is nice if you like guns

Najib, however, will be well out of the country at the time. He is due to be joined in London by his cousin, Hishammuddin Hussein, the Defense Minister, and at least one top general.  The London arms bazaar is a child’s garden of delight for arms dealers, and Malaysia is said to be in the market for jets. Dassault, the French defense company, on September 1 submitted a bid to sell 18 Rafale multi-role fighter jets to Malaysia.

Dassault is believed to have edged out the BAE Systems Eurofighter, known as the Typhoon, although no official announcement has been made. Philippe Lubrano, a senior partner with Heli Partner Sdn Bhd., the Malaysian representative of Dassault, is said to have grown close personally to Najib. In the past, UMNO has profited enormously from defense kickbacks including submarines, jet fighters, patrol boats and other weaponry when Najib was defense minister.

Malaysia is also rumored to be expressing an interest – officially denied – in a French-built Mistral helicopter carrier built for the Russians before France cancelled a deal for two of the craft in 2014 following Russia’s continuing misadventures in Ukraine. Despite the denial, Reuters reported that Malaysia is in talks to buy one of the two.

The problem is that the craft is outfitted for deep northern-hemisphere operations in freezing weather. The decks, according to Pascal Najadi, a Moscow-based financial consultant, are fitted out with expensive de-icing gear to keep snow and frost at bay, hardly a problem on the equator. Also, according to defense publications, the Russians have demanded that the French strip out all armaments and electronic gear, basically leaving the carrier an empty shell, much like Scorpene submarines the Malaysians bought from the French in the 1990s and were delivered in the middle of the last decade.

There is also the question of why Malaysia would need an assault craft. According to defense publications, it is capable of transporting and deploying 16 helicopters, four landing barges, up to 70 vehicles including 13 tanks or a 40-strong tank battalion and 450 troops. It is hard to think of why Malaysia would need an expensive assault craft unless it can figure out somewhere to assault. None of the nearby countries looks likely.  More likely is the possible additional funds that a deal could earn for UMNO – or Najib — as has happened so often in the past.

 

Malaysia: Grave concerns among academicians, intellectuals (G-87)

August 10, 2015

Comment: It started with G25, followed by G33 (and God knows what else that joined the herd)  and now G87.  My wife, Dr. Kamsiah and I were signatories to the G33 statement.  On this, I was approached a few days ago via email by my respected young academic-civil society activist  and friend at the University of Malaya . Having read it, I informed him that the statement was a weak one. So, I politely declined.

I wanted a very strong message to the Prime Minister. For example,  I expected the statement  to ask for his resignation, and not repeat the political opposition’s suggestion that Najib Razak should go on leave to enable investigators to work without  interference from the Prime Minister’s Office or be intimidated by his presence in the country. In his reply, the academic told me   that if the statement was tough, nobody would sign it.

In my view, the 4-member Task Force has almost completed its work. The PAC is also getting close to getting at the truth behind the 1MDB scandal based on the Auditor-General’s Interim Report and other documents at its disposal. When it became too uncomfortable as the noose was tightening, the Prime Minister reacted swiftly with the Cabinet reshuffle which saw the removal of Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin for daring to speak up, the illegal sacking of the Attorney-General,  the harassment of the Governor,  Bank Negara Malaysia and her staff, and the dismemberment of  the MACC team which was  investigating the SRI-1MBD link and the rm2.6 billion “donation” that went into the Prime Minister’s personal bank account.

Calling the Prime Minister to “come clean” is utter waste time and effort.  We know he will not. If so, why call him to account for all  the shenanigans in 1MDB and his administration. It will be asking him to commit political suicide.

The G87 statement  cannot be taken seriously. It will not change the Prime Minister’s DNA. In stead they should reflect on what an intellectual is. He is somene who has the courage to speak the truth, no matter how inconvenient, to power.  And I quote Edward W Said as follows to let you decide  if G87 fits the bill:

 “The intellectual is an individual endowed with a faculty for representing, embodying, articulating a message, a view, an attitude, philosophy or opinion to, as well as for, a public. And this role has an edge to it, and cannot be played without a sense of being someone whose place it is publicly to raise embarrassing questions, to confront orthodoxy and dogma (rather than to produce them), to be someone who cannot easily be co-opted by governments or corporations, and whose raison d’etre is to represent all those people and issues that are routinely forgotten or swept under the rug.”― Edward W. Said, Representations of the Intellectual

In stead, these academics and intellectuals should get off their high horses and join the forthcoming BERSIH 2015 Merdeka rally. Please get out of your comfort zone and do something more substantial and meaningful. –Din Merican

http://www.malaysiakini.com

Muhyiddin and his ex-Boss

We, the undersigned, note with grave concern the allegations of financial abuse and corruption against 1MDB. We note that these allegations are directed at various forms of wrongdoing and have been raised by multiple sources, some of which have made public numerous documents to substantiate their claims.

We also note with increasing alarm that various individuals entrusted with the responsibility to investigate these allegations of wrongdoing, in particular the officials at the MACC, have now become the targets of harassment and a probable witch hunt.

Other incidents of significant concern include the sudden replacement of the Attorney-General, barely a few months before he was supposed to retire, and the abrupt dismissal of the Deputy Prime Minister.

The ensuing reshuffling of the cabinet has led to the paralysis of the Public Accounts Committee that was investigating 1MDB, further damaging the credibility of the multi-pronged investigation authorised by the Prime Minister himself.

Apart from these criminal allegations, we also note with alarm how 1MDB is currently burdened with a huge debt. Finance Minister II Ahmad Husni Hanadzlah has estimated the amount of annual loan interests serviced by 1MDB as between RM2.4 billion and RM2.7 billion.

Millions of ringgit in daily interest repayment!

This means that its daily interest repayment amounts to millions of ringgit! The government owes the people a clear explanation as to how a state-owned company using public funds has come to incur such an astronomical debt, which continues to drain the wealth of our nation. The government must investigate and reveal those responsible for such gross mismanagement.

The issuance of a mere statement thus far, based on the Auditor-General’s Report that there has been no wrongdoing, is clearly unsatisfactory from the point of view of transparency and accountability.  It is equally a matter of public concern that, even though a denial of any wrongdoing has been issued by the Prime Minister, it has been officially revealed that there was a deposit of nearly US$700 million into his personal bank account and he, somehow, does not see the need to justify or provide further details about this massive amount.

We wish to state that, short of coming clean about the problems 1MDB is saddled with, no amount of counter-allegations of conspiracy to oust the prime minister from his office will be able to clear the air and the names of those involved.

We therefore urge:

1    The Prime Minister to go on leave, temporarily,  pending the investigation by the various agencies to ensure the credibility and integrity of these investigations;

2    The government and law enforcement agencies to exercise restraint and discernment and desist from carrying out repressive actions that could be construed as attempts at obstructing investigations and muzzling freedom of the press;

3    The government to make public all interim or preliminary reports produced by various agencies investigating 1MDB; and

4    For all persons exercising functions of public office and involved in the investigation to do so with impartiality and integrity.

We strongly urge the relevant authorities not to ignore the wide-ranging international and domestic implications and consequences – both in the short and long term – of a failure to address the serious allegations of corruption that arise from this series of events.

We believe the aggressive police interference with the work of the MACC, ostensibly to investigate  an alleged conspiracy to overthrow the government, will have a huge negative impact on Malaysia’s international anti-corruption reputation, and affect bilateral and multilateral foreign relationships in transborder anti-crime cooperation efforts.

The total disregard towards openness and transparency may deter and dissuade further foreign direct investment into Malaysia, and any resultant capital flight will seriously jeopardise the international financial rating and reputation of Malaysia. The government must be advised, and act, accordingly.

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This note is signed by 87 people, ranging from students to academicians, researchers, people in various professions, social activists and retirees. It was coordinated Professor of Media and Communication Studies Rom Nain and Associate Professor Dr Helen Ting.

Attack on the Malaysian Ringgit

August 5, 2015

Malaysia: Attack on the Malaysian Ringgit

by John Berthelsen@www.asiasentinel.com

Sensing blood, global currency traders have declared war on Malaysia’s already-flagging currency, forcing Bank Negara Malaysia, the country’s central bank, to spend US$5 billion in the past month defending it. The ringgit has slumped by 21 percent against the US dollar in the past year, with the dive picking up speed.  It has lost 11.98 percent of its value since May 1.

The pressure on the ringgit is partly triggered by a slowing economy, a rumored downgrade by Fitch Ratings and the troubles facing Prime Minister Najib Razak, who is up against a series of scandals that have resulted in at least one European bank downgrading the country’s risk outlook. The messiest of the scandals tracked US$680 million from the 1Malaysia Development Berhad government fund into his personal bank accounts, according to the Wall Street Journal and UK-based Sarawak Report. 

Get Whitey

For Najib, the attack is a mixed blessing.  While it plays havoc with the economy, in the past week he has gone on the offensive against foreign interests. In an extraordinary speech in Seremban on August 1, he warned “white people” to stay out of Malaysian affairs although his chief detractor is Mahathir Mohamad, the former premier who put him in the job.

Currency traders in Switzerland and other European countries were said to be shorting the ringgit in the expectation that the downward pressure would pick up speed.  The traders are said to be position-buying British pounds against the ringgit in the expectation that the economy, stalling out because of the political crisis, will continue to fade.

Central bank reserves are healthy but they have been falling steadily for months, from US$136 billion in July 2014 to US$105 billion, although the final figure doesn’t show on the chart below. Reserves amount to 7.8 months of imports.  As the reserves per months of imports continue to drop, the situation is expected to grow increasingly critical.

“They have lost control. The forex market is betting against the ringgit and is punishing Najib with no mercy,” said Pascal Najadi, a Moscow-based financial consultant who has made a crusade of trying to find the truth behind the murder of his father, a founder of what was the Arab Malaysian Development Bank and is now called AmBank – where Najib today keeps his money. 

Zeti in the light

As Najib defends himself, the spotlight has fallen recently on Zeti Akhtar Aziz, the long-serving central bank governor, who has come under unprecedented attack from a flock of bloggers. Some of them quote the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists in attempting to tie her family to a series of secret bank accounts in the British Virgin Islands and other tax havens. Zeti is said to have records of all the 1MDB transactions and those into Najib’s bank accounts. There is no word of what she intends to do with the records.

One of the blogs, a Hong Kong-based outfit said to be put together by foreign interests, The Recounter, identifies Zeti as one of 13 people on a “top wanted list of conspirators against the democratically elected government.”  There is no indication of what Zeti did to land on the list, which includes four other members of Bank Negara, Edge Group Owner and Publisher Tong Kooi Ong and Ho Kay Tat, Sarawak Report editor Clare Rewcastle Brown and others.

A request to Bank Negara for an explanation of the raid on the currency was not answered, nor was a request for a statement on the accusations about the bank accounts allegedly in the names of her husband and sons. 

Asia Sentinel identified Najib’s wife, Rosmah Mansor, as being behind the pressure to drive Zeti out of the Bank, to which her lawyers replied with a blistering denial and demand for a retraction.  [Read her press release here.]

Economy at risk

The country’s economy is suffering from a steep fall in commodity prices, with Brent crude oil descending from US$105 per barrel to US$50.02 on August 4. Palm oil has fallen from US$641 per tonne to US$606.  Exports slid by 2.5 percent after a 0.5 percent gain in the final quarter of 2014,” reflecting mainly a decline in the growth of commodity exports and resource-based manufactured exports, amid lower commodity prices” according to Bank Negara.

But the situation has been exacerbated by the prolonged political scandal, which has turned attention away from efforts to revitalize the economy.

In addition to having to explain how the US$680 million ended up in his personal account at AmBank in Kuala Lumpur in 2013, Najib is also under prolonged attack for his role as the economic advisor to 1Malaysia Development Bhd, which is said to have RM42 billion worth of debt, as much as RMB25 billion of it unfunded. There are allegations that a major portion of that was steered into the accounts of a family friend, tycoon Jho Taek Low.

On August 3, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission said that the US$680 million in Najib’s accounts was from “donations,” a statement that raised more questions than it answered. It didn’t indicate where the “donations” came from or where they went. If the money was a personal donation, there is no indication that it was taxed.

It has been suggested that the money was directed to the effort to win the 2013 general election, in which the ruling Barisan Nasional did very badly.  But campaign donations are officially limited to RMB50,000 for state races and RMB200,000 for parliamentary seats. That much money washing through the electoral process would have set off alarm bells.

Impact

As the currency deteriorates, the price of imported goods and services, which amount to 69.9 percent of GDP, will grow sharply. There are already complaints about the rising cost of living.  However, the price of exports will fall on international markets, making the country more competitive.

The options are to continue to defend the ringgit by throwing the country’s reserves into the fight, which is a losing battle, considering the trillions of dollars that float through currency markets every day. Despite the fact that Malaysia’s reserves remain relatively healthy, the forex markets are simply too big to bet against.

The alternative is to peg the ringgit against the US dollar, as former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad did in 1989 during the Asian Financial Crisis, which would endanger the billions the currency traders are betting. Mahathir was successful, as was the Hong Kong government in pegging the Hong Kong dollar to the US dollar during a currency crisis in the 1960s.

There are downsides to freezing the currency against the dollar. Given the diminishing reserves, it would require the implementation of currency controls, putting additional brakes on the economy. There are few attractive alternatives at this point.

Malaysia: Besieged Malaysian PM Sacks Enemies

July 28, 2015

by John Berthelsen

http://www.asiasentinel.com/politics/besieged-malaysia-pm-sacks-enemies/

Under fire from a spreading scandal, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak ordered a sudden, wholesale housecleaning of top officials on Tuesday, July 28. Those getting the boot include the deputy prime minister, attorney general, head of the police special branch intelligence unit and others. The move may come to be seen as either bold or reckless depending on whether Najib survives in office.

Najib is trying to evade a tightening noose related to financial irregularites involving the 1MDB state-owned investment fund. Fired Attorney General Abdul Gani Patail has been leading a government investigation into the fund.

Last week, Najib ordered the suspension of The Edge Financial Daily and its sister paper after they printed that the equivalent of U$1.83 billion was allegedly stolen by company officers and others from the troubled fund; he also ordered the suspension of the passports of some journalists and opposition figures. A report in the Wall Street Journal earlier said US$700 from 1MDB had found its way into Najib’s personal bank account.

The New Deputy Prime Minister

Although the sacking of Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin had been expected after Muhyiddin broke with Najib over 1MDB on July 26, the replacement of Gani Patail, a career United Malays National Organization loyalist, was a surprise. Well-placed sources in Kuala Lumpur said he was poised to charge Najib with corruption. Akhil Bulat, the head of the Special Branch, had also grown increasingly critical of Najib in private circles.

Muhyiddin has been replaced by Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, a deep party loyalist who was once Najib’s party secretary, as Deputy Prime Minister. He is also Home Minister and is regarded by many as mercurial.

Time to sweep up

The decision to clean house was precipitated by a speech Muhyiddin gave to a suburban Kuala Lumpur UMNO branch that Najib must answer questions over 1MDB, saying. “If the parliament is dissolved tomorrow, we won’t win the general election.”

Despite the scandal, the Prime Minister maintains the loyalty of a majority of the 190-odd UMNO division chiefs and most of the cabinet through an intricate system of patronage and rent-seeking contracts. Asked to sum up Najib’s ability to act so rashly and still survive, one well-placed Malaysian political observer said, “It’s like the man says, ‘Cash is king.’”

There has been no public protest so far and the political opposition is hamstrung by internal dissension. “The guys who had to be removed have been removed,” a political analyst told Asia Sentinel. The only constituency Najib has to worry about, with elections three years away, are the UMNO cadres, 160 of whom swore loyalty to Najib earlier this year.

Opposition Democratic Action Party Leader Lim Kit Siang described the reshuffle as “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.”

But it’s doubtful that any other opposition statements will have any more impact.

Can’t remove everybody

No Longer A-G

The announcement of Gani Patail’s ouster said he had been removed for health reasons, although he told friends in Kuala Lumpur that he had no idea it was coming. He is due for retirement on October 6 but now has been shunted into a position as judicial and legal services officer. He was replaced by a former federal court judge, Mohamed Apandi Ali, who was described by a source as an UMNO stooge despite his position on the bench of the country’s highest court.

The sackings are a vivid indication of the growing crisis over 1MDB, which according to a spate of officially unreleased investigations has looted hundreds of millions of US dollars that were said to have been diverted into accounts of financier Low Taek Jho, a close Najib family friend. Another US$680 million was traced from 1MDB-linked companies into Najib’s personal account at AmBank in Kuala Lumpur. The money was believed to have been used to fund the 2013 general election for the Barisan Nasional. As nearly as can be determined, 1MDB has the equivalent of US$11.8 billion in liabilities, an unknown amount of that unfunded. The fund, backed by Malaysia’s Ministry of Finance, is having trouble meeting its debt obligations and money has been steered from various government accounts to 1MDB to try to cover the losses.

The surpsise ouster of Gani Patail may be an indication that the official tide is turning against Najib, as is the removal of the Special Branch chief. However, along with the others who have been removed, including cabinet ministers, Najib has neutralized – for now at least – almost everybody who opposed him.

Najib also has sought to remove Zeti Akhtar Aziz, the long-serving Governor of Bank Negara Malaysia, the country’s central bank, since 2000. The widely respected Zeti is said to be a special target of Rosmah Mansor, Najib’s wife, who has been trying to forestall a Bank Negara-ordered probe into 1MDB. The central bank governorship by law is an independent position and not subject to disciplinary action by the government.

Gani Patail has been a strong UMNO loyalist since 1998, when he was the lead prosecutor in the corruption and sodomy trial of opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, a trial widely criticized by human rights organizations across the world. He joined the government as a deputy public prosecutor in 1979 and he has been accused of short-stopping a long string of legal cases ever since.

As chief public prosecutor, he was also responsible for a sudden change of the prosecution during the trial of Sirul Azhar and Azilah Hadri, two of Najib’s bodyguards, for the murder of Mongolian translator Altantuya Shaariibuu in 2006. The lengthy trial seemed designed to make sure that no speculation would emerge on who ordered the killing of the high-flying party girl.

Malaysia: A rich history of Media Suspension

July 27, 2015

by Anisah Shukry@www.themalaysianinsider.com

The Edge Weekly and The Edge Financial Daily’s three-month suspension starting today marks the government’s continued tradition of clamping down on print media, a practice which began nearly three decades ago with the infamous Ops Lalang of 1987.

The Edge joins The Star, The Sunday Star, Sin Chew Jit Poh, Watan, Sarawak Tribune, Guang Ming Daily, Berita Petang Sarawak, The Weekend Mail, Makkal Ossai, The Heat and Thina Kural, which had their publishing permits revoked for reasons ranging from national security to technical issues.

Most papers survived their suspension, even as it dragged on for months, with journalists reportedly taking up part-time jobs to support their families until the newsrooms reopened. But some newspapers never recovered, while others never saw their suspensions lifted.

The Edge, however, which is being punished for its reportage on debt-ridden state investment firm 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), is fighting this. This morning, The Edge will file a leave application for a judicial review.

Speaking to reporters after briefing The Edge’s staff, hours after the suspensions were announced on Friday, The Edge Media Group publisher and group CEO Ho Kay Tat said: “We will be filing it on Monday and we hope to get a speedy hearing.”We must file a judicial review as a matter of principle because we don’t think the suspension is justified,” Ho also said The Edge would continue reporting on 1MDB through its online platforms despite the suspension of the two papers.

“We will not apologise as we have not done anything wrong.” The Malaysian Insider looks at the brief, yet colourful, history of media suspensions in Malaysia.

1987: The Star, Sin Chew Jit Poh, The Sunday Star and Watan

Within three years of the enforcement of the heavily criticised Printing Presses and Publications Act (PPPA) 1984, Malaysia witnessed what is often described as the worst attack on media freedom in the country.

In October 1987, The Star along with its weekend edition The Sunday Star, Sin Chew Jit Poh, and weekly paper Watan had their publishing permits revoked, just days after the government embarked on Ops Lalang, a crackdown that saw more than 100 political leaders and activists arrested and detained.

A day earlier, the front page of The Star featured mug shots of prominent leaders nabbed in then Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s Ops Lalang swoop.

The headline screamed a single word: Detained. The next day, The Star was no longer available on newsstands. After nearly six months, the papers were allowed to resume publications, but not without a price – for the newspapers affected, as well as the entire industry. Journalists spoke of self-censorship to avoid facing similar action, while Watan shut down in 1996.

2006: Prophet Muhammad caricatures in 3 papers

In 2006, the controversial caricatures of Prophet Muhammad from a Danish newspaper were carried by several newspapers and TV channels, including Berita Petang Sarawak, Guang Ming Daily, Sarawak Tribune and The New Straits Times.

Sarawak Tribune, an English-language newspaper published in Kuching, Sibu and Bintulu, in Sarawak, was indefinitely suspended that year for publishing the caricature in an article titled “Cartoon not much impact here” on February 4, 2006. The newspaper, which was established in 1945, reappeared in 2010 as the New Sarawak Tribune.

Chinese-language newspapers Guang Ming Daily and Berita Petang Sarawak were suspended for two weeks for carrying the caricatures in their newspapers.

Guang Ming Daily’s article was titled “European media republish caricature to heighten controversy; Denmark paper insults Islam, apology sought” while Berita Petang Sarawak’s was “We are prepared to launch a holy war”.

Then Prime Minister Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who was also the internal security minister, suspended the permits under sub-section 6(2) of the PPPA 1984, Bernama had reported. However, no action was taken against the NST because it had published an open apology for publishing the comic, Abdullah had said.

2006: The Weekend Mail discusses Malaysians’ sex lives

The Weekend Mail – the short-lived weekend issue of The Malay Mail – courted outrage among lawmakers when it published a series focusing on the sexual lifestyle of Kuala Lumpur residents in its November 4-5 issue.

According to The Straits Times in Singapore, the English-language tabloid had surveyed 100 people in the capital city to write the “unusually frank articles”, and published it alongside pictures of pregnant women in bikinis, a woman performing an erotic dance and a couple kissing.

Then Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak had said he received endless angry calls over the article, and said such stories could hurt the fabric of Malaysian society, the NST reported.

“The media going overboard in exploiting sex will only worsen our social problems,” Najib reportedly said.

“The feature spoke of this and that position and I am not talking about positions during a football game or the Middle East position.”

Home Ministry Secretary-general Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof said the reports and photographs were contrary to the values practised by Malaysians, according to The Star.

The New Straits Times Press’ then Chief Executive Officer Datuk Syed Faisal Albar apologised to the papers’ readers for the distress caused the following Monday, while The Malay Mail editor Zulkifli Jalil was suspended.

But the government suspended the Weekend Mail anyway, for breaching guidelines and conditions in the PPPA 1984.

2007: Jesus caricature in Makkal Osai

Tamil daily Makkal Osai, or “The People’s Voice” was slapped with a one-month suspension three days after it published an image of Jesus holding a cigarette and a beer can on the front page of its August 21, 2007 edition.

The caricature was published under its “Quote of the Day” column, with a caption quoting Jesus as saying that those who repent for their mistakes would enter heaven, according to Bernama.

The suspension came after Makkal Osai apologised for what it said was an oversight, the paper’s general manager had reportedly said the picture was mistakenly inserted by a graphic artist.

2013: Putrajaya takes down The Heat

On December 19, 2013, the Heat became the first newspaper suspended under Prime Minister Najib’s administration.

The official reason for the indefinite suspension was that the weekly had not informed the Home Ministry of changes in its ownership and refusal to respond to two show-cause letters.

But speculation was rife that the Ministry clamped down on The Heat over its front-page article on Najib and his wife Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor’s allegedly lavish lifestyle.

The suspension was lifted on January 27 the following year, but the weekly’s return to the newsstands was short-lived. It was soon pulled off the streets and now remains a digital publication.

2014: Thina Kural fails to notify government of printer change

Failure to notify the Home Ministry that it had changed printers led to Tamil daily Thina Kural’s three-month suspension starting on March 27, The Malaysian Times reported.

The suspension was also a result of the daily’s error in publishing two different versions of the paper on January 24, causing confusion among readers.

Thina Kural editor-n-chief D.R. Rajan told The Malaysian Times that 63 families were affected by the suspension, and that the editorial team would continue to operate under a new publication called Tamil Puthiya Paarva.

2015: The Edge Weekly and The Edge Financial Daily

The Home Ministry on Friday suspended the publishing permits of The Edge Weekly and The Edge Financial Daily for three months beginning today.

A letter from the Ministry stated that the publications’ coverage 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 interests”.

Earlier this month, The Edge received a show-cause letter in which the ministry gave it seven days to explain why action should not be taken under the PPPA 1984.

The Edge was accused of publishing articles on the controversial state fund which were said to have created confusion and doubt about the Malaysian government and financial institutions.

Last week, the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) has admitted to instructing local Internet service providers to block access to whistle-blower site Sarawak Report, claiming that the site was disrupting “national stability”.

The site was blocked under Section 211 and Section 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998, it said.