Call on Malaysians to turn the 14GE into a national referendum on the premiership of Najib, whether Malaysians want him to stay or to leave, giving way to Mahahir as 7th PM and Anwar as 8th PM

I call on Malaysians to turn the 14th General Election into a national referendum on the premiership of Datuk Seri Najib Razak, on whether Malaysians want him to stay or to leave Putrajaya, giving way to Mahathir as the 7th Prime Minister and Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim as the eighth Prime Minister in Malaysia.

In an interview with Bloomberg, Najib said he was “reasonably sanguine” on Barisan Nasional’s chances in the 14GE, expected “better results” than the 13th GE, as he did not see the likelihood of a change in government or a landslide BN victory.

However, his actions and speeches belied his “sanguine” confidence, for otherwise, he would not have stacked the odds for fair and honest Pakatan Harapan victory through the polls for instance in the constituency redelineation which is the nations’ worst gerrymandering in Malaysian history; the passage of Anti-Fake News Act to arm the UMNO/Barisan Nasional with draconian powers; the fixing of a Wednesday to be Polling Day in 14GE, clearly calculated to ensure low voter turnout; the 30-day provisional dissolution order by the Registrar of Societies; and Najib personally leading the UMNO/BN offensive of lies, fake news and false information and Najib himself leading the propaganda offensive against Pakatan Harapan leaders.

With Najib’s massive politics of money, he is hoping to regain two-thirds parliamentary majority.

If this happens, then Malaysia will continue as a global kleptocracy, not only with the 1MDB scandal but maybe also 2MDB, 3MDB and more 1MDB-like scandals galore hogging international headlines though not in Malaysia.

Najib said today that in hindsight, he “would have probably not had that kind of business model, probably I would make sure (that there is) tighter supervision" with regard to 1MDB.

Najib is not contrite, genuine or serious about the 1MDB money-laundering scandal, which has given Malaysia the infamy, ignominy and iniquity of a global kleptocrcy.

As US Attorney-General Jeff Sessions said, the 1MDB is “kleptocracy at its worst”.

Former US Attorney-General Loretta Lynch, when announcing the US Department of Justice (DoJ)’s largest kleptocratic litigation against the 1MDB-linked assets in June 2016 said:

“We are here to announce a significant step in our ongoing work to combat global corruption and to ensure that the United States offers no haven to those who illegally use public funds for private gain. Today, the Department of Justice filed a civil complaint seeking to forfeit and recover more than $1 billion in assets associated with an international conspiracy to launder funds stolen from 1 Malaysia Development Berhad, or 1MDB, a company wholly owned by the government of Malaysia.

“The $1 billion in assets are just a portion of more than $3 billion that was stolen from 1MDB and laundered through American financial institutions in violation of U.S. law. 1MDB was created by the Malaysian government to promote economic development through international partnerships and foreign direct investment, with the ultimate goal of improving the well-being of the Malaysian people. Unfortunately, a number of corrupt 1MDB officials treated this public trust as a personal bank account.

“Our complaint alleges that from 2009 through 2015, these officials and their associates conspired to misappropriate and launder billions of dollars from 1MDB. As my colleagues will explain in further detail, the co-conspirators laundered their stolen funds through a complex web of opaque transactions and fraudulent shell companies with bank accounts in countries around the world, including Switzerland, Singapore and the United States. The funds were then used to purchase a range of assets for the conspirators and their relatives and associates, including high-end real estate in New York and Los Angeles, artworks by Vincent Van Gogh and Claude Monet and a jet aircraft.

“Today’s case is the largest single action ever brought by the department’s Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative, which was established by Attorney General [Eric] Holder in 2010 to forfeit the proceeds of foreign official corruption and, where possible, to use the recovered assets to benefit the people harmed. This case, and the Kleptocracy Initiative as a whole, should serve as a sign of our firm commitment to fighting international corruption. It should send a signal that the Department of Justice is determined to prevent the American financial system from being used as a conduit for corruption. And it should make clear to corrupt officials around the world that we will be relentless in our efforts to deny them the proceeds of their crimes.”

It significant that in the Bloomberg interview, Najib has not repeated his earlier claim that he had been cleared of any wrongdoing in the 1MDB by the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee Report, as I has earlier challenged him to quote chapter and verse in the PAC report where he had been cleared of any wrongdoing in the 1MDB.

What the whole world refers to as corruption, kleptocracy and money-laundering, Najib refers to it as “bad business model”.

The 14th General Election on 9th May will decide whether the 15 million voters are as gullible as to believe the only trouble with 1MDB was that

It was a bad business model when the world regards it as kleptocracy at its worst!