COMMENT When the 1Malaysia Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak was campaigning in Penang, and South Korean artist Psy of "Gangnam Style" fame made a special performance, there was initially an issue about payment.

A certain corporate person was said to be funding the Psy concert, but till today, no one knows who this generous donor is, who was willing to throw at least a million ringgit for a night’s concert when we still have a lot of street people without proper shelter and food in the country.

Psy’s performance was never cheap, but easily cost a couple of millions, for which Penangites were indeed grateful, albeit they did the right thing - by saying “No!” - to Najib’s question on whether they would vote for Barisan Nasional.

They had to say it three times, yet Najib failed to grasp the sentiments on the ground prior to 2013 general election. This was how unsavvy Najib was, according to now-jailed then-opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim in one of his ceramahs.

After all, the Penangites were attending a Psy performance, not an election campaign. In the first place, the two should never mix at all! I had always wondered who was the election campaigner in Penang who had brought the two together.

The payment came, albeit slightly later. No one suspected anything, until recently, when we also read that Malaysian billionaire Jho Low had invited Psy to his birthday bash. Psy was said to be one of his personal friends.

We also read during the 2013 general election that Jho Low was the real election campaigner (forget about Penang BN and Gerakan chief Teng Chang Yeow) behind Barisan Nasional in Penang, his home state.

What a coincidence! Could Low have been the one "generous corporate sponsor" who also funded the Psy concert?

Represented Saudi royal family

We know that the youthful Low was involved in 1MDB right from its inception.

We are told that he had even attended a 1MDB meeting, representing a royal family in the Middle East.

It is a great achievement for a young man like him, because he has gained the trust of a royal family in the Middle East, although (on the contrary) we know that Low has been splashing his money away on alcohol, which is considered "haram" to most Muslims.

Therefore, we would like to ask Low this question, “Which royal family was he representing?”

Was it the family of King Abdullah II of Jordan? Or, King Salman of Saudi Arabia or his relative 90-year-old King Abdullah? Or, was it Sheikh Mohammed, the emir of Dubai?

On what basis was Low, being a Malaysian himself, picked to represent the royal family? Was Low’s capacity as an "adviser" to 1MDB a conflict of interest with the royal family whom he represented?

Why did the royal family not have anyone within its own circle of trust to attend the meeting? Are we learning something about the royal families in the Middle East that they would rather have someone else to represent their investment interests than their own family members?

We will not expect the royal family concerned to address this public concern in this lifetime. All these questions can only be answered by Low, being a Malaysian himself; therefore, for the parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) not to call Low to testify is a big mistake.

I find it surprising that the PAC was giving the excuse that Low may not attend the PAC even if he were to be called. This is a lame excuse for anyone to make, what’s more, a committee that is supposed to represent public interest!

Attempts should be made in the first place by the PAC to invite Low to appear before the PAC, before even suggesting that Low may not even turn up. Who knows if Low would be willing to tell us which royal family he was representing!

If Low had taken time to attend the 1MDB meeting, he should not shy away from making another trip to his homeland to appear before the PAC.

What is Jho Low’s role?

Often, we read about shopping sprees by Rosmah Mansor and there appears to be a corporate sponsor behind these big purchases.

I am asking: “Aren’t the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle coming together now?”

If you put the pieces together, does it not appear to suggest that Low was the one who got Psy to come to Penang and paid for the concert as well?

I don’t have all the answers, and unless Low returns to give his testimony voluntarily to the Public Accounts Committee, we won’t know the answers.

What we can only do is to speculate based on the news we read every day. Our guesses may be only right for 50 percent of the questions, but no one can blame us for making all the speculations until the truth comes to the forefront.

Low’s role has become clearer to some of us lately when we learnt from Sarawak Report that the now-wanted man and former 1MDB executive Casey Tang had allegedly lied to the state-owned fund’s board that PetroSaudi International was owned by the then-King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia in 2009.

However, investigation carried out by Sarawak Report showed that, far from being a company owned by King Abdullah, PetroSaudi was “an entirely private company with a very limited capital base, which was one of a set of shell ventures set up by a youthful Prince Turki and his pal Tarek Obaid in the hope of cashing in on their royal connections”.

Does that ring a bell? Youthful! Probably the same age as our friend Jho Low, too? According to Malaysiakini , “1MDB's deal with PetroSaudi had been under the spotlight as it was reportedly used as a front to siphon more than US$1 billion from the former into Good Star Ltd, which is owned by Penang-born billionaire Jho Low, who is close to Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak’s family.”

From the same article, we also read, “Concurrently, RM2.6 billion had been discovered in Najib's personal bank accounts.” Didn’t we learn that the money had come from a generous donor (or Arab prince) from the Middle East?

Goodness me, someone please tell me, what is Jho Low’s role in this entire 1MDB episode? I may be wrong, but it appears to me that Jho Low is being used by certain powers for their political ends.

After all, tell me, what is the definition of money-laundering? Why are we interested in this entire scandal involving 1MDB, if not for its implications on all of us? Someone has suggested that I look into this website to understand how the number of zeroes affect each of us.

STEPHEN NG is an ordinary citizen with an avid interest in following political developments in the country since 2008.