The 1MDB “chickens coming home to roost”…

The Al Jazeera programme “Malaysia: The World’s Biggest Heist” featuring the former PetroSaudi International employee, Swiss national Xavier Andre Justo, is the latest 1MDB “chickens coming home to roost”.

The question posed at the end of the programme: "If PetroSaudi had paid Justo the money he said he was owed, would the world's biggest heist have ever been exposed?" is food for thought for all Malaysians.

Xavier’s answer to the question was simple and straightforward – he did not know.

At least half-a-dozen criminal investigations into the misappropriation of billions of dollars from 1MDB are currently under way around the world and charges are being laid not only against former Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak and the conspirators, but also against executives from global financial institutions while the other mastermind of the 1MDB scandal, Jho Loh, is on the run and has become the most infamous international fugitive from justice.

But without Xavier Justo’s more than 200,000 confidential PetroSaudi’s emails containing evidence of the genesis of the criminal embezzlement and money-laundering activities which constituted the monstrous and global 1MDB scandal, though the expose of the world’s biggest heist would still have been made, it would have taken a longer time to do so.

This was because the historic decision of the Malaysian voters in the 14th General Election on May 9, 2018 to oust Najib as Prime Minister was the most far-reaching and critical decision that made it impossible for Najib to continue the charade to cover up the 1MDB scandal, which he had done so by subverting and suborning the three branches of government, the national investigatory and enforcement institutions and the media in Malaysia.

Al Jazeera’s programme reminded Malaysians of other 1MDB “chickens coming home to boost”, in particular the opening of Najib’s trial for the first series of his 42 corruption, embezzlement and money-laundering charges next Tuesday, which is now uncertain because of Najib’s application of a stay of his scheduled hearing on seven charges over the SRC International Sdn. Bhd and the infamous Najib interview with Al Jazeera last October when Najib lost his cool several times and finally walked out of the interview.

Watching again Najib’s walkout interview with Al Jazeera, one is again reminded of the shock when Najib said the IMDB scandal must be investigated to find out where the money disappeared to, and that such investigation must not stop at Jho Low, but to “Get others involved as well because there are other international figures who probably are involved”.

Was Najib referring to the bankers of Goldman Sachs, which recently apologised publicly to the people of Malaysia for the 1MDB scandal, as Goldman Sachs was the underwriter and arranger of three bonds that raised US$6.5 billion for 1MDB and was responsible for the theft of billions of dollars of 1MDB?

It is not enough for Goldman Sachs to apologise to the people of Malaysia for the 1MDB scandal or for the former Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein to stand to lose up to US$14.245 million (RM58.3 million) in bonuses over the 1MDB imbroglio, as Goldman Sachs must be prepared to pay for its sins and to make billions of dollars of reparation to Malaysia for the theft and fraud in the 1MDB scandal.

The question which cries out for answer was how Najib could claim ignorance and innocence right up to the 14th General Election when in July 2016, the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) initiated its largest kleptocratic litigation to forfeit US$1.7 billion out of US$4.5 billion 1MDB-linked assets in the United States, United Kingdom and Switzerland, and provided the detailed money trail of the world’s greatest heist?

Najib would have continued to cover-up the 1MDB scandal, aided and abetted by his Cabinet, Parliament, Judiciary, the national institutions of investigation and enforcement as well as the media, if Najib’s dream had come through in the 14th General Election – not only to continue as Prime Minister but to return to Parliament with the Barisan Nasional recapturing two-thirds parliamentary majority!

The nation is still waiting for the untold story of how the Ministers and leaders of UMNO/MCA/Gerakan/MIC/BN, as well as the major institutions of state, had betrayed Malaysia in aiding and abetting Najib in the cover-up of the 1MDB scandal until the historic decision of the voters in the 14th General Election exactly nine months ago on May 9, 2018 effecting a democratic and peaceful transition of power.

There were some silver linings, however, like the US$2 million given by the Edge Media Group chairperson Tong Kooi Ong to what Al Jazeera has described as “the accidental hero” of the 1MDB scandal, the Swiss 1MDB whistleblower Xavier Andre Justo.

From his recent interviews, Najib is beginning to accept that his legacy includes the monstrous 1MDB scandal and the infamy of transforming Malaysia into a global kleptocracy, but his claim to be completely in the dark about it is just hilarious and incredible, as if he did not know what the world knows that his wife, Datin Rosmah Mansor and son-in-law Reza Aziz had benefited to the tune of tens of millions of dollars from 1MDB.

Did Najib launch any investigation into the 1MDB scandal between the period between of the US DOJ litigation and the 14th General Election if Najib was really in the dark about what was happening in 1MDB scandal?

Not only Najib did not do so – he went into an offensive and unleased his hounds of propagandists in the Cabinet and the cybersphere to attack critics and whistleblowers of the 1MDB scandal, and up till today, not a single of these culprits – including Najib’s Ministers in UMNO, MCA and Barisan Nasional - who betrayed the nation had shown any remorse or contrition for their treachery to the nation.

What would have happened to Malaysia and the 1MDB scandal if Najib had won the 14th General Election and continued as Prime Minister of Malaysia?

More 1MDB chickens would come home to roost in the coming months.