Veteran newsman A Kadir Jasin believes it may be too late for any one member of the 1MDB special task force to sabotage or pervert the investigation.

"They have to play the team game or risk being exposed as renegade," he wrote in his blog.

Kadir ( photo ) also claimed a "former top law officer" told him recently he believes the task force has established more than sufficient evidence to charge those responsible for the crime.

"He said the law on corruption as it applies to public servant is pretty straight forward.

"What he or she earns that is not her salary and allowance raises the spectre of corruption and abuse of power. (Prime Minister) Najib (Abdul Razak) is a public servant.

"He noted that PM has not denied he once had a personal bank account at AmBank, which at one point, held RM2.63 billion," added the ex- New Straits Times group editor in chief.

Zeroing on the police, Kadir said the police's sudden shift of attention from the 1MDB investigation to the allegation of a conspiracy to topple the PM and the role of Xavier Andre Justo had raised concern it was more interested the political rather than criminal aspect of the case.

Justo is the former PetroSaudi International (PSI) executive who has been detained in Thailand for attempting to blackmail his ex-employer.

The Swiss national is also the source of the leak of documents on the PSI-1MDB joint venture which formed the basis of a slew of controversial reports by the Sarawak Report and The Edge .

Suspicion due to Zahid

The suspicion regarding the police, said Kadir, arose out of the fact that among the four members of the task force, the police are the easiest to be influenced because its ultimate boss, Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, is seen as the last few remaining supporters of the prime minister.

"In fact Ahmad Zahid is seen as the man most likely to be promoted should Najib decide to reshuffle the cabinet in the coming days and the most likely casualties are the Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Mohd Yassin and Rural and Regional Development Minister Shafie Apdal," he added.

However, he speculated that while attempts could have been made to force the police to act contrary to the interest of the task force, it did not materialise because the police itself was against such an interference or because the investigation had gone too far to be sabotaged.

"The test to this theory is to see whether the police will work with the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission and Bank Negara to track down and arrest the people wanted by the task force.

"The police are yet to make their own arrest. That could be because the investigations expose abuse of power and corruption rather than crimes that the police are familiar with. The MACC has more expertise in handling abuse of power and corruption cases," he added.

Quoting sources, Kadir claimed that one of the key suspects whom the police "were supposed to hide from the MACC" was handed over to the commission soon after he was located.

"It means that political influence is waning as the noose tightens on the 1MDB perpetrators.

"It might have been too late for any single person, including the prime minister, to divert the direction of the investigations," he added.

Kadir also pointed out that 1MDB is no longer in the political realm and the telltale signs are clear.

Najib's defenders, he said, are reduced to junior spokespersons like BN strategic communications director Abdul Rahman and Sabah state assembly speaker Salleh Said Keruak, former Sarawak journalist Lester Melanyi and NGO head Ramesh Rao.

"The likes of Puad Zarkashi, Musa Sheikh Fadzir and Ahmad Maslan have not been heard from for quite some time while the heavyweights like Hishammuddin Hussein and Nazri Aziz have been largely silent. Or are they preserving their last silver bullets?

"This does not mean that Najib’s propaganda war has come to a halt. The suspension of the Edge group newspapers could be the beginning of kill-the-messengers strategy.

"The attacks can be expected to become more vicious and might even target members of the task force. This could be the hara-kiri act of devotion by Najib's cyber troopers," he added.

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