1MDB: Task Force Showing Seriousness

A Kadir Jasin

UPDATE, July 24 – The 1MDB Special Task Force made its third arrest on Thursday night. The suspect is a 28-year old company owner. He is expected to be remanded. – The Star SMS.

ORIGINAL POST

I BELIEVE the chips are falling in the 1Malaysia Development Berhad scandal.

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I believe too, albeit with slight reservation, that the 1MDB Task Force is serious about uncovering the truth and acting, without fear and favour, against the guilty parties.

My slight reservation is based on my observation of media statements that suggest a certain member of the Task Force is still playing "kayu tiga".

But with two arrests in two days, the Task Force cannot be engaging in play acting or an act of deceit involving the Attorney General, the police, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Agency and Bank Negara. They have to be serious.

On July 20, an executive director of a publicly traded construction company was arrested at KLIA as he was about to board a plane bound for Taiwan.

The 39-year old is believed to be a Chinese Malaysia. He has been variously identified as Jerome Lee Tak Loong and his company is Putrajaya Perdana Berhad.

If the information is correct, his arrest has another twist to it. According to the company’s official website, its chairman is (Datuk Panglima) Abdul Azeez Abdul Rahim, the Barisan Nasional MP for Baling and the chairman of Tabung Haji. Tabung Haji is one of the many government agencies embroiled in the 1MDB debt saga.

The 39-year old must be a very important person in the 1MDB saga because his lawyer is the high-profiled (Tan Sri) Muhammad Shafee Abdullah. Not every Dollah, Tong and Harishan (the Malaysian version of Tom, Dick and Harry) can afford or would need his services.

So logically Lee’s arrest must have been very significant to the case so as to warrant Muhammad Shafee’s services.

Media reports quoted Muhammad Shafee as saying that his client was remanded for fours day for investigation under Section 17 (a) of the MACC Act. He said he did not know the grounds for his client's arrest but was told it was on "investigation on national grounds". 

Then yesterday afternoon a high level executive identified as (Datuk) Shamsul Anwar Sulaiman was also arrested and was this morning remanded for five days in relation to the same investigation.

He is the managing director of Ihsan Perdana Sdn Bhd, the company that undertakes corporate social responsibility (CSR) programmes for 1MDB's charity foundation, the Yayasan 1MDB.

Ihsan Perdana was one of the entities mentioned in the Wall Street Journal expose of July 2 as being part of the money trail involving billions of ringgit that led to Mohd Najib's personal accounts.

The MACC prosecutor Ahmad Sazilee Abdul Khairy today said  that Shamsul, 54, was met at The Curve and taken to the agency's headquarters where he was arrested under Section 17 (a) of the MACC Act.

Is the PM’s Propaganda Backfiring?

Sources said the arrests were partly hastened by the heightened campaign to discredit the investigation by Mohd Najib’s propaganda machine.

Mohd Najib’s propaganda outfit, led by his Strategic Communications Chief, MP Abdul Rahman Dahlan, had gone on high gear to discredit the Prime Minister's critics and to create doubt about official and unofficial investigations into the 1MDB scandal and its link to Mohd Najib.

The latest to be rolled in the offensive was a little known Sarawak reporter by the name of Lester Melanyi who “confessed” that he knew about the “falsification and adulteration” of 1MDB documents by Sarawak Report (SR), a claim which had since been rubbished by the latter. In addition, SR is taking legal action against Abdul Rahman, the New Straits Times and others for malicious falsehoods.

The emergence of Abdul Rahman and the rolling out of Melanyi and other unknowns coincided with the news that the high-profiled public relations man, (Tan Sri) Lim Kok Wing had hastily resigned as Mohd Najib’s media adviser.

Lim’s resignation is telling. It appears that even he could not burnish Mohd Najib’s sagging reputation. I have known Lim since the 1970’s. He was involved in the advertising aspect of Barisan Nasional’s election campaign over several general elections. In my days, editors did not always agree with him or his role. Some barely tolerated him.

In joining Mohd Najib he must have thought he could repeat and replicate what he did for (Tun) Dr Mahathir. But even in the worse of circumstances, Dr Mahathir’s problems were pale by comparison to what Mohd Najib is going through now. Even the flamboyant Lim could not burnish Mohd Najib’s image and reputation.

Lim is wealthy and has reputation to protect. He could easily say no to Mohd Najib’s money or, maybe, he was doing it for free.

Before Lim jumped onto Mohd Najib’s media bandwagon, many seasoned media and PR personalities had tried to build and burnish his image. They failed and gave up. (Tan Sri) Jalaluddin Bahaudin aka Jalal was one of them. He was Dr Mahathir’s former Press Secretary and Special Assistance.

Medium Is The Message

Now the PM and his protectors (the likes of Abdul Rahman and Ramesh Rao Naidu) had to rummage through the woodwork to find people who would be willing to play the roles once performed by Jalal and other seasoned media people like (Datuk) Khalid Mohamad (former editor-in-chief of Utusan) and (Datuk) Hardev Kaur (the former group editor of NST).

Mohd Najib’s predicament reminded me of the final days of Almarhum Tunku Abdul Rahman in the early 1970’s when chief editors, news editors and senior journalists progressively stopped covering his functions and leaving the task to junior reporters.

I was one of those greenhorns assigned to cover him. It was an honour for me to cover him although I was once threatened with a sack by his Political Secretary, the late Tan Sri Shariff Ahmad, for not following his instruction on how to report Tunku’s speeches.

What is happening to Mohd Najib’s media campaign today defies the very core of journalism and communication as taught by the great journalism guru, late Marshall McLuhan.

This Canadian writer, communicator and philosopher was the originator of the terms “Medium is the Message” and “The Global Village” back in the 1960’s.

He argued that the message is embedded in the medium. If the medium is credible, the message it carries will be believed. On the other hand, if the medium is not credible, even a truthful message will not be believed.

So who is a more credible medium, Dr Mahathir or Abdul Rahman, Melanyi or Clare Rewcastle-Brown, Ho Kay Tat or Ramesh Rao Naidu?


FOOTNOTE: I am  sorry I forgot about the Singapore Police freezing two bank accounts relating to an investigation into 1MDB in the republic. In a statement today it said: “On 15 July 2015, we issued orders under the Criminal Procedure Code to prohibit any dealings in respect of money in two bank accounts that are relevant to the investigation.” I think the door is also closing in Singapore.

Wallahuaklam.

The PM Does Not Need You

A Kadir Jasin

UPDATE - ON political ground and, for political reason alone, Mohd Najib would not step down as Umno President and Prime Minister. But he would be forced to step down if it is proven in the court law that he is implicated in criminal wrongdoings relating to 1MDB and other institutions. The arrest and remand of a 39-year old executive director of a Bursa Malaysia-listed property company, believed to be a Chinese Malaysian, could (I repeat COULD) be the beginning of that legal process. The company’s chairman is believed to be an Umno MP and an ally of the Prime Minister.

ORIGINAL POST

 THE BLOCKING of the whistle-blowing UK-based Sarawak Report by the Malaysian Communication and Multi-Media Commission (MCMC) on July 20 is another example of the many faces of Mohd Najib Abdul Razak as Prime Minister.

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He may be weak and ineffectual, but there are still enough people – the latest being the once sensible Ahmad Shabery Chik – clamouring to serve him for power and cash. Cash, said Mohd Najib, is king.

The Prime Minister is a man of many policies, programmes and slogans. He is, by his own reckoning, a transformational leader. So he transforms.

It is his ability to transforms that makes it hard to pin him down and shoo him away from the Prime Minister’s office. He is unlikely to pack up and go anytime soon.

Let us consider the following:

1. He started his transformational initiatives by launching the 1Malaysia concept soon after he became Prime Minister in 2009 with the slogan “people first and performance now.”

2. On that basis he declared himself Malaysian first and attached the 1Malaysia label to all things possible. So there were the “salam 1Malaysia” greeting, 1Malaysia shops, 1Malaysia clinics, 1Malaysia people’s housing and, last but not least, 1Malaysia Development Berhad.

Has not lived up to people first, performance now

3. Then there was the New Economic Model, his answer to the New Economic Policy (NEP), which was founded on inclusiveness - hence the declaration “I am the Prime Minister for all” and “the  government does not know all."

4. To replace (Tun) Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s Islam Hadhari he launched the  Wasatiyyah or "middle of the road" concept - the Arabic version of his "moderation”.

The Transformation of the PM

I had been speaking in past tense because that is what has become of Mohd Najib. He had transformed. Consider the following:

A. His 1Malaysia slogan of “people first, performance now” has been rendered hollow as a result of the sputtering economy and the burdensome Goods and Services Tax (GST). Now it looks more like “Mohd Najib first rakyat later.”

B. From being Malaysian first he had transformed himself into a “Pahlawan Bugis” (Bugis warrior). In his April speech at the presentation of the Government Transformation Plan (GTP) and the Economic Transformation Plan (ETP) 2014, Mohd Najib alluded to his Bugis ancestry saying that a Bugis would not abandon his ship even though it was battered by giant waves, its rudder broken, its sails torn to shreds and the ship is finally swallowed by the ocean. A Bugis would toil on instead of returning to the harbour. (In 2005, as Deputy Prime Minister, he was bestowed the Bugis highest award of the “I Mappadulung Daeng Mattimung Karaeng Sandrobone Sultan Abdul Jalil”).  

The making of a Bugis Warrior

C. From being one of us via his inclusiveness, he distance himself from us by bragging about his blue blood. When speaking at a gathering in Kuching on June 4, he declared that he would not be disheartened because the blood in his body was no ordinary blood.

D. From the Prime Minister for all he has become the Prime Minister for members of the Cabinet, the Umno Supreme Council, the Umno Liaison Chairmen and the Umno divisional heads. They number less than 300.

He thrives on love

E. His inclusiveness has change into exclusiveness. He is concerned only with those who support him.

So, since Mohd Najib is concerned with only these few people, why should he want to step down even if the majority of the rakyat want him gone?

Mohd Najib is not concerned with the majority, especially the 52-per cent who voted for the opposition in the 2013 general elections.

His position now is determined by the 300 or so Umno warlords and Cabinet members. Only the Umno Supreme Council, the state liaison chairmen and the divisional chiefs can remove him. If he loses their support he loses the privilege to remain Prime Minister. But they are unlikely to revolt because they are beholden to him.

Fighting Separate Battles

So (Tun) Dr Mahathir Mohamad, the bloggers, Sarawak Report, the opposition, the Whatsapp chat groups, the Instantgramers and the Facebookers can shout and scream, and even claim victory but Mohd Najib will stay.

We are fighting two different battles in two separate battlefields.

Those who want the truth about 1MDB, a stronger economy and a respectable country are fighting in the battlefield of public opinion.

They may be winning but they do not have the power to remove the Prime Minister – at least not until the next GE.

Mohd Najib and his exclusive club of supporters may not be winning the public opinion battle but they have the political power – at least until the next GE.

Unless there is a revolt by Umno akin to the storming of the Bastille by the hungry and angry Frenchmen and women in 1789 that saw King Louis XVI and his inconsiderate wife, Marie Antoinette, being sent to the guillotine, Mohd Najib will stay.

He does not need the teeming nation to support him. He only needs the Cabinet ministers, the Umno chiefs, the mainstream media and the hangers-on to be loyal to him, even superficially.

Pemuda Umno is making sure he does not fall

And with the power vested in him by the 48-per cent Barisan Nasional voters during the 2013 GE he can continue to rule come rain or shine until the next general polls.

That’s the reality for now.

Footnote: This is my 1,000th article since I started this blog in 2006. Thank you for your support.

Wallahuaklam.

TH: Manipulasi dan Mungkir Janji Peringkat Tinggi

A Kadir Jasin

DALAM kita beraya, ramai saudara-mara, suku-sakat dan kawan-taulan kita sedang bersiap sedia untuk ke Tanah Suci mengerjakan haji.

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Kalau ikut laman web rasmi Lembaga Urusan Tahun Haji (TH), penerbangan pertama musim haji tahun ini adalah pada 16 Ogos.

Sejak ditubuhkan pada tahun 1963, TH amat berjasa kepada umat Islam Malaysia. Ia bukan sahaja membolehkan mereka mengerjakan haji dengan lebih selesa malah membantu menjana ekonomi umat Islam melalui penabungan dan pelaburan.

Walaupun berlaku sekali dua penyelewengan dan salah tadbir, TH umunya diuruskan dengan baik sehinggalah terbongkar rahsia penglibatannya dengan 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) Mei lalu.

Bakal haji: Amanah mereka di bahu Tabung Haji

Sejak itu nama TH tercemar dan ia terpaksa berdolak-dalik serta berbohong dengan umat Islam dalam percubaannya menghalalkan urus niaga dengan 1MDB itu.

Ambil contoh Pengerusinya, Abdul Azeez Abdul Rahim yang juga Ahli Parlimen Barisan Nasional (Baling), yang berkata Mei lalu tanah Tun Razak Exchange (TRX) akan dijual dengan keuntungan dan ramai pembeli menunjukkan minat.

Tapi selepas hampir tiga bulan belum ada khabar berita yang ia sudah dijual sebaliknya timbul dolak-dalik yang tanah itu tidak perlu dijual kerana ia berupa pelaburan jangka panjang yang baik.

Masalahnya ini bukan calang-calang arahan dan bukan main-main punya janji. Arahan jual dibuat oleh Perdana Menteri Mohd Najib Abdul Razak sendiri dan janji untung dibuat oleh Abdul Azeez.

Abdul Azeez (kanan) orang kepercayaan Mohd Najib

Setiap hari berlalu tanah itu tidak dijual, Abdul Azeez “berbohong” kepada khalayak dan ingkar kepada Perdana Menteri.

Hakikatnya, dalam keadaan sekarang dan dengan kontroversi 1MDB yang makin memuncak, tidak banyak pihak yang berani membeli tanah TH itu.

Lagipun mengapa harus beli atas tangan sedangkan masih banyak tanah TRX yang belum dijual.

TH beli tanah seluas 0.63 hektar itu dengan harga RM188.5 juta sebagai sebahagian daripada operasi rahsia untuk menyelamatkan 1MDB yang berhutang RM42 bilion dan ketandusan wang.

Selepas dipersoalkan oleh rakyat jelata yang peduli dan digerudi oleh media atas talian, TH mengaku ia bukan sekadar membeli tanah malah telah memberi “hutang” sebanyak RM920.8 juta 1MDB dengan membeli sukuk Bandar Malaysia.

Sukuk adalah surat hutang syariah dan Bandar Malaysia adalah tapak Tentera Udara Diraja Malaysia (TUDM) di Sungai Besi yang dijual murah kepada 1MDB.

  

TH Mangsa Manipulasi Peringkat Tinggi

Kerajaan menjual tapak TRX kepada 1MDB dengan harga sekitar RM60 sekaki persegi tetapi 1MDB menjual kepada TH pada kadar RM2,774 sekaki persegi – 46 kali ganda.

Jadi semuanya keterdedahan (exposure) TH kepada hutang 1MDB sebanyak RM42 bilion itu ialah RM1,109.3 juta (diperbetulkan).

TH sebenarnya telah “kena main” dan dianaktirikan. Ia membayar RM2,774 sekaki persegi berbanding RM2,300 yang dibayar oleh Kumpulan Wang Amanah Pencen (KWAP) di tapak yang sama.

Sentuhan Sang Kelembai 1MDB menyebabkan ramai penyimpan dan bakal penyimpan hilang keyakinan kepada TH.

Ketua Pegawai Eksekutif TH, Ismee Ismail sendiri mengaku kepada akhbar Berita Harian bahawa ramai penyimpan mengeluarkan simpanan mereka apabila rahsia urus niaga TH-1MDB terbongkar.

Simpanan bulanan merosot kepada RM40 juta dalam bulan Mei berbanding purata RM71 juta bagi empat bulan pertama tahun ini. 1MDB sudah menjadi “toxic” (beracun).
 

Tambah membimbangkan ialah Ismee juga adalah ahli lembaga pengarah 1MDB. Nampak wujud percanggahan kepentingan (conflict of interest) dan unsur persekongkolan.

Inilah bencana sumpahan Gedembai 1MDB ke atas TH. Badan Islam itu terpaksa berbohong dan bersembunyi-sembunyi dengan para penyimpannya dan dengan seluruh rakyat jelata.

Jadi apa yang ditakuti dan dipertikaikan oleh banyak pihak apabila Abdul Azeez dilantik menjadi Pengerusi TH pada tahun 2013 kini menjadi kenyataan.

Sumbang Mahram Korporat (Corporate Incest)

Ciri-ciri sumbang mahram korporat yang melibat Mohd Najib, Abdul Azeez dan Ismee ini terbukti merosakkan, di samping mempersenda urus tadbir korporat (corporate governance) dan kewibawaan pengurusan entiti-entiti yang terlibat.

Ismee juga ahli lembaga pengarah1MDB

Walaupun kekusutan membabitkan 1MDB dan entiti-entiti lain yang bersekedudukan dengannya boleh dirungkai melalui “corporate restructuring” (penyusunan semula korporat), tetapi nawaitu yang membawa kepada penubuhan 1MDB tidak boleh dilupakan begitu saja.

Apakah niat sebenar Mohd Najib dan para penasihatnya (termasuk Jho Low) menubuhkan 1MDB dengan modal berbayar RM1 juta tetapi berhutang hingga RM42 bilion?

Di manakah amalan urus tadbir mengenai “debt to equity ratio” (nisbah hutang kepada modal)?

Di manakah ciri-ciri kecukupan modal (capital adequacy)?

Jawapannya diberikan oleh Mohd Najib sendiri apabila beliau tidak menafikan akaun AmBank Islamic atas nama beliau yang pernah mengandungi simpanan RM2.63 bilion.

Setiap hari berlalu dan Mohd Najib membisu mengenai akaun itu, semakin ramai orang akan membuat andaian dan percaya wujudnya pertalian antara urus niaga luar biasa 1MDB dan berbilion ringgit wang 1MDB yang tidak dapat disahkan (unaccounted for).

Adalah hak dan budi bicara beliau serta jentera propaganda beliau mencetuskan pelbagai tipu-helah bagi meyakinkan audiens yang tidak tahu apa-apa mengenai ekonomi, perniagaan dan kewangan canggih.

Tetapi rakyat jelata yang celik ekonomi, perniagaan dan kewangan tidak boleh diyakinkan lagi. Mereka boleh membezakan antara kaca dan permata.

Wallahuaklam.

1MDB: Sang Kelembai and Its Victims

A Kadir Jasin

UPDATE, July 16 – This modern day Sang Kelembai is far worse than it’s Malay folklore cousin. The latest to fall victim to its “sial” power is its own investment banker, Goldman Sach.

The Asian Financial Review (AFR) reported that the American firm now finds it hard to win new business in Malaysia. In 2013, Goldman helped to arrange a US$3 billion (RM11 billion) bond for 1MDB and was paid almost US$300 million in fees.

Since then, according to a Financial Times analysis of data from Dealogic, its fee income from work in the Malaysia had slumped.

On the allegation by Abdul Rahman Dahlan that Sarawak Report and the opposition used falsified documents to attack 1MDB, the next step is for Mohd Najib to sue Sawarak Report since suing has become his modus operandi. Sarawak Report editor-in-chief Clare Rewcastle Brown has challenged him to sue her.

UPDATE, 16 July - The statutory declaration (SD) purportedly by a former AmBank staff related to fund transfers to Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak’s account with the bank as published in certain news portals is fictitious, the non-governmental organisation that released it has claimed.

Citizens for Accountable Governance Malaysia (CAGM) admitted this in its latest posting on its blog.

UPDATE – COULD “Mo..” who claimed to be an ex-executive of AmBank be another victim of Sang Kelembai? Read here.

ORIGINAL POST

 

1MALAYSIA Development Berhad (1MDB) continues to claim its victims. The primary casualties are all of us Malaysians. We are being made to suffer indignity and its contagion effects.

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The Finance Ministry-owned "strategic investment" company has become what, in the Malay folklore, is called “Sang Kelembai” or “Gedembai”.

Sang Kelambai is so evil and sinister that whatever it touches or touches it turns into stone. 

This famous "elephant rock" is said to be the handiwork of Sang Kelembai

To cite just two examples; it touched Tabung Haji and Tabung Haji got into trouble. Its deposits thronged its offices to withdraw their savings. It touched TNB and TNB got into trouble. Investors dumped its shares.

And don’t forget, 1MDB has also been established as one of the reasons for the prolonged weakness of the ringgit in addition to the global factors.

The latest victim is an individual by the name of Badlisyah Abdul Ghani. He is the CIMB Islamic Bank chief executive officer.

Badlisyah, the latest victim of Sang Kelembai

In his enthusiasm to prove the Wall Street Journal’s expose on the Prime Minister’s billions (some RM2.63 billion to be exact) in AmBank Islamic wrong, he had to resign from his job and face internal inquiry. He could end up losing his employment benefits.
 
Soon after WSJ published its report on July 3, Badlisyah posted a Facebook comment, casting doubts on the authenticity of the documents WSJ used.

The US business newspaper, had among other things, alleged that some US$700 million flowed into Mohd Najib’s account at AmBank Islamic, believed to be from 1MDB.

The mainstream media and the Mohd Najib-linked bloggers (those he once called “bangang” (stupid)) went into feeding frenzy, publishing and broadcasting Badlisyah’s comment.

He subsequently released a statement admitting that his analysis was wrong and that the views expressed in his Facebook page were strictly his personal opinion.

Whether he was trying to prove his prowess as a banker or he harboured a deeper motive – like attempting to defend the Prime Minister – he paid a heavy price for touching the Sang Kelembai.

In a filing with Bursa Malaysia, CIMB Group Holdings Bhd said his resignation as CEO and board member would be effective Aug 15. Earlier, CIMB group chairman Mohd Nazir Abdul Razak – a stern critic of the Prime Minister – had said in an Instagram posting that Badlisyah should not have commented on the documents as it was a technical matter and an internal inquiry had been ordered.

Until today the Prime Minister has not denied the existence of the AmBank Islamic account apart from twitting that he did not use public funds for personal benefit.

PM Give Up Party Leadership

NO, not in Malaysia. I am talking about in Romania, the home of the Dracula and once the domain of dictator Nikolai Nicolae Ceaușescu.

Its Prime Minister, Victor Ponta, had resigned as chairman of the ruling Social Democratic Party amid corruption allegation.

Blood-sucking Dracula

On Monday he was charged with fraud, tax evasion and money laundering dating back to when he was a lawyer and before he became prime minister in 2012.

President Klaus Iohannis called on Ponta to resign as premier but he refused. Ponta wrote on his Facebook page on Sunday that he was quitting the party leadership to prove his innocence. Prosecutors said some of his property has been seized pending the outcome of the case.

Ponta gave up party leadership because he wanted to prove his innocence and also because he is not a Bugis, his party is not Umno and his country is not Malaysia.

Wallahuaklam.