Najib should declare that he would testify and fully co-operate with PAC investigations on his role in the 1MDB scandal, which caused Malaysia the infamy, ignominy and iniquity of a global kleptocracy

The 20-day first meeting of the 14th Parliament ended yesterday on a high note with unanimous passage of the motion directing the Auditor-General and the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) to conduct again a detailed investigation on the embezzlement of monies and the scandal with regard to 1MDB and its related companies in order to restore the dignity of the Dewan Rakyat and for all related information to be made public.

This will be unthinkable in the 13th Parliament. In fact, such a motion would not see the light of day, like my motion at the last meeting of the 13th Parliament in March/April 2018 to find the PAC Report unsatisfactory and to direct the PAC to conduct a “fuller and more comprehensive investigation into the 1MDB scandal which had brought Malaysia the 3Is – infamy, ignominy and iniquity – of a global kleptocracy”.

It is quite remarkable that there is a change of mindset among Opposition MPs, as UMNO/BN MPs would have fought tooth-and-nail to stymie any comprehensive investigation into the 1MDB scandal in the 13th Parliament.

In fact, I was suspended from Parliament for six months each in the 13th Parliament, turned into a “parliamentary ghost” and as I said in Parliament yesterday, I was never more ashamed as a Member of Parliament during the 13th Parliament as there was a conspiracy where the 1MDB scandal was elevated into a taboo subject, where questions could not be asked or motions moved.

Yesterday, we learnt of a greater ignominy in the whole 1MDB scandal, as the former PAC Chairman, Datuk Hasan Arifin, admitted that he had tampered and deleted parts of the PAC Report on 1MDB with regard to Jho Low as the real owner of Good Star Ltd (GSL) and DAP MP Tony Pua, who was formerly in the PAC of the 13th Parliament, said the deletion in the PAC Report was made without his knowledge or that of other PAC members.

The new PAC which has been entrusted with the task of conducting a fuller and more comprehensive investigations into the 1MDB scandal should probe not only into the tampering and deletion of the PAC Report by the PAC Chairman in the 13th Parliament without approval or knowledge by all members of PAC, it should also inquire into two other aspects affecting the former PAC Chairman, firstly, why Hasan kept his silence when the former Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak, repeatedly claimed that he was exonerated of any wrongdoing in the 1MDB scandal which was not true, and secondly, why Hassan did not re-open and conduct a fuller investigation into the 1MDB scandal after the United States Department of Justice (DoJ) filed kleptocratic litigation in connection with 1MDB-linked assets in July 2016 and which was expanded in June 2017 with a mountain of evidence to support its allegations of an “international conspiracy to launder money misappropriated from 1Malaysia Development Berhad” resulting in numerous assets in the United States and other countries, like the billion-ringgit Equanimity luxury superyacht?

In particular why the PAC ignored the serious allegation contained in Paragraph 7 of the 958-Paragraph litigation (251 pages) in the US DoJ kleptocratic litigation, viz:

“1MDB was ostensibly created to pursue investment and development projects for the economic benefit of Malaysia and its people, primarily relying on the issuance of various debt securities to fund these projects. However, over the course of an approximately five-year period, between approximately 2009 and at least 2014, multiple individuals, including public officials and their associates, conspired to fraudulently divert billions of dollars from 1MDB through various means, including defrauding foreign banks and by sending foreign wire communications in furtherance of the scheme, and thereafter, to launder the proceeds of that criminal conduct, including in and through U.S. financial institutions. The funds diverted from 1MDB were used for the personal benefit of the co-conspirators and their relatives and associates, including to purchase luxury real estate in the United States and overseas, pay gambling expenses at Las Vegas casinos, acquire more than US$200 million in artwork, purchase lavish gifts for family members and associates, invest in a major New York real estate development project, and fund the production of major Hollywood films. 1MDB maintained no interest in these assets and saw no returns on these investments.”

Hasan made a great issue over the secrecy of the information that Jho Low was the real owner of Good Star Ltd, which represented the first of four phases of the 1MDB scandal from 2009 to 2014, but is he aware that three months after the PAC Report was tabled in Parliament in April 2016, the US DOJ kleptocratic litigation on 1MDB devoted some 50 pages to show that the inception of Good Star and the Good Star account was the genesis of the 1MDB scandal.

Thus Paragraph 47 of the US DoJ litigation states:

“Although 1MDB officials represented, including to Deutsche Bank in Malaysia, that Good Star was wholly-owned subsidiary of PetroSaudi, this was not the case. According to banking records, Good Star was a company controlled by LOW (Jho Low), and LOW was also Good Star Account’s beneficial owner and sole authorized signatory. At the time, LOW was a 29-year-old with no official position with 1MDB or PetroSaudi.”

What is so secretive or confidential about the information that Jho Low was the real owner of Good Star Ltd, which marked the genesis of the 1MDB scandal and Malaysia as a global kleptocracy?

Former Prime Ministe, Datuk Seri Najib Razak should declare that he would testify and fully co-operate with PAC investigations on his role in the 1MDB scandal, which caused Malaysia the infamy, ignominy and iniquity of a global kleptocracy.

Or would he revert to his previous silence on the 1MDB scandal?