COMMENT | Dear Najib, you should hang your head in shame
So much so that you have the dubious distinction of having committed the largest kleptocracy in the world - US$6.5 billion (RM27.3 billion at current exchange rates) from the Goldman Sachs bonds alone which have government guarantees, and RM4 billion from SRC International. This alone accounted for RM31.3 billion and that’s not the end of it.
You are fortunate - that the revelations from the trial of Goldman Sachs’ Malaysian official Roger Ng is focused more on Ng’s previous boss Tim Leissner’s sexual episodes and escapades instead of the damning evidence he is giving which supports previous reports and testimony of the close links between you and Jho Low.
If Leissner’s testimony has not made you a laughing stock, that case against Tommy Thomas and the Malaysian government for wrongful prosecution is even more ludicrous - nothing more than an attempt to delay your trials, something that’s been part of your strategy all this while.
You took it to new depths of depravation. Why, it may be a novel one in the history of the world.
1. Borrow money - lots of it and repeatedly - from the capital markets for companies you establish and control but are government owned. Issue government guarantees to ensure take-up.
2. Then funnel the money out of the company fraudulently for non-existent projects and into accounts controlled by your associate.
In your case, the main partner in crime was...
COMMENT | Dear Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak, or should I say plainly Dear Malu Apa Bossku, you should be ashamed, very ashamed. More ashamed than anybody else in Malaysia because you allegedly stole or caused to be stolen from this country of ours billions of ringgit, more than anyone else has stolen before or since.
So much so that you have the dubious distinction of having committed the largest kleptocracy in the world - US$6.5 billion (RM27.3 billion at current exchange rates) from the Goldman Sachs bonds alone which have government guarantees, and RM4 billion from SRC International. This alone accounted for RM31.3 billion and that’s not the end of it.
You are fortunate - that the revelations from the trial of Goldman Sachs’ Malaysian official Roger Ng is focused more on Ng’s previous boss Tim Leissner’s sexual episodes and escapades instead of the damning evidence he is giving which supports previous reports and testimony of the close links between you and Jho Low.
If Leissner’s testimony has not made you a laughing stock, that case against Tommy Thomas and the Malaysian government for wrongful prosecution is even more ludicrous - nothing more than an attempt to delay your trials, something that’s been part of your strategy all this while.
Wrongful prosecution indeed - if this was a proper government instead of an Umno one, you will be seeing many more charges pressed against you.
Your record makes you the worst, most destructive prime minister of Malaysia ever, having caused the most amount of damage in the time you had at the top - from 2009 to 2018, nine years.
Yes, even more than the one who reigned for 22 years, and 15 years later in 2018 for 22 months more, because you topped him in the way this country was ripped off of its wealth. While he did it by awarding projects to his cronies who benefited tremendously and disproportionately, you came up with a new modus operandi.
You took it to new depths of depravation. Why, it may be a novel one in the history of the world.
Borrow money - lots of it and repeatedly - from the capital markets for companies you establish and control but are government owned. Issue government guarantees to ensure take-up.
Then funnel the money out of the company fraudulently for non-existent projects and into accounts controlled by your associate.
In your case, the main partner in crime was Jho Low, who subsequently sent billions of ringgit into your accounts in Malaysia.
The US Department of Justice tracing of money flows through electronic and other means from the theft of 1MDB loans indicated that over US$700 million (RM2.94 billion at current exchange rates) was moved to your account from Jho Low’s account.
You set the standard for grand larceny within the political administration, not just for Malaysia but the whole wide world.
Johor campaign
Now you traipse about Johor campaigning for Umno, trying to make yourself a hero by helping win the state elections there. But even if Umno won Johor it would not be because of you but in spite of you, due to a disillusioned electorate clutching at straws.
How could you think otherwise? Do you think Malaysians will support a convicted criminal who most likely would be convicted of many more crimes in the future? If you do, you have not learnt the lesson of GE14.
If you were not stopped by GE14, when a populace fed up with you and your wife’s extravagances and excesses, voted your Umno/BN out of power, one wonders how much more of people’s money you would have caused to be stolen and shared with you.
Even before you were established as a crook by the courts, the public, galvanised by reports and your increasingly high-handed crackdown on fair reporting and dissent, turned against you. Umno obtained just about a third of Malay votes in GE14 - it was because of you, because of your thievery and crooked ways. The non-Malay vote went solidly against you.
When the tide turned against you in GE13, when you lost the popular vote for BN in 2013 although you retained power, you bitterly blamed the Chinese for your loss. You switched your stance to become anti-Chinese and became stridently Malay in your leanings, frequently espousing the Malay hardline on many issues. Even that did not turn the tide in your favour in GE14.
Despite your anti-Chinese stand, you had no issue about handing over control of 1MDB to a then 28-year-old Chinese conman and letting him syphon billions from 2009 until you were pushed out of power in 2018, even in the face of reports emanating from 2013 onwards about serious problems at 1MDB.
You were in cahoots with him. You stole money from the country for him and for yourself. What did you care about the Malays or non-Malays, about Malaysia or anyone else? It’s you, your wife and your co-conspirators who mattered most of all.
This Jho Low went out and bought a billion-ringgit yacht and embarked on a major spending spree of paintings, apartments, payment for celebrity presence at events and god knows what else with 1MDB borrowings. Over US$27 million (RM113 million) was spent on a single necklace for your wife! What an extravagance of public money.
To cover that hole in 1MDB you did a dirty deal with China, overpricing the RM55 billion deal then for the East Coast Rail Link by RM20 billion and entering into a rather dubious contract for a nearly RM10 billion deal for a pipeline to nowhere, costing us a total of RM30 billion. How low can you get? China has subsequently been reported to be harbouring fugitive Jho Low.
Gems and handbags
And then there was that raid that was made at your various residences in May 2018 by the police. A month later, the police disclosed they found an estimated RM900 million to RM1.1 billion worth of valuables.
These included some RM117 million in cash in 26 currencies, 12,000 pieces of jewellery and over 500 designer handbags. Your assertion that these were gifts is simply unbelievable. Surely you know gifts must be reported and surrendered at the very least, not for you to hoard at your various premises.
You brought down Umno once before and you will do it again. Malaysians will get increasingly disgusted by your swagger and your boasting - and will be justifiably worried over the return of a robber to the top echelons of decision making. They will be so sickened by it that they will again turn against the party that permits you to do this so blatantly.
You should hang your head in shame and cry for all you have done against the country. If you are man enough you should take your due punishment and atone in jail for your sins - here and in the hereafter (assuming you believe in that). And then maybe a pardon may be given - here and in the hereafter. What you are doing now only damns you further.
But we all know why you are doing this, don't we? Going around the country, gallivanting like there is no tomorrow to hide your desperation because the cases against you are so watertight. Tomorrow comes but you are trying to avoid that by getting into power and influence. So that you can stop what is rightfully due to you - prison.
You won’t succeed - we Malaysians know way too much about you.
P GUNASEGARAM is an independent writer and consultant. His book, ‘1MDB The Scandal that Brought Down a Government’, was the first to be written on the so-called strategic development company.
The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.
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