Attention shifts to why Rosmah ring was imported and was a crony involved?

PKR Rembau chief Badrul Hisham Shaharin is worried and wants the authories to continue probing the RM24million diamond ring that has been speculated to be belong to First Lady Rosmah Mansor.

While he feels vindicated by the Customs Department's confirmation that the controversial ring improted from New York's Jacob and Co existed, he fears that if unchecked, Prime Minister Najib Razak's wife may burden the country with her excessive spending.

"Her extravagance and arrogance that we see is damaging the country and Rosmah can say anything just like Imelda Marcos who did not care for the people. And in the end, the biggest contributor to Marcos' downfall was Imelda," he told Selangor TV.

Uproar upon confirmation the ring was real

Badrul clarified that he was not the one who accused her of buying the ring, but had merely made the report to the Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission to highlight to them the emergence of such information.

"Regarding the ring, I did not make any accusation, but I only revealed a few documents on 8 July which proves the entry of an RM24.45 million diamond ring with the name Rosmah Mansor as the receiver. So I raised the issue and ask for Rosmah or any other party to state the truth."

Indeed, if the Najib administration had hoped to lay to rest the matter, they could well be mistaken. There is now doubt as to whether the ring was really returned to the importer. Furthermore, until the parties that imported it from Jacob & Co clarified their purpose in bringing in the ring, speculation would continue to rage on.

It must be noted that it was clearly stated in the Customs print-out that the ring was brought in by one Jeremy Beh Sin Tee for inspection by one Datin Paduka Seri Rosmah Mansor.

In confirming the existence of the ring, Nazri Aziz, the minister in the PM's Department, had been sparing in his information to Parliament.

"The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Comission (MACC) has referred the matter to the JKDM and JKDM has confirmed that there was no such purchase of the ring. After a few days, the ring was returned to the company which owns it," Nazri said in a written reply to DAP MP for Segambut, Lim Lip Eng on Tuesday.

Two possibilities

Speculation is now rife as to the manner in which the ring was "returned" and was it really sent back to New York as Nazri claimed. Furthermore, what was the ring doing in Malaysia and what was Rosmah's role in it? And why? Was she interested to buy the ring or had someone offered to buy the ring for her?

These are valid questions for Malaysians to raise as she plays an influential role in her husband's government. Already the first couple is dogged by a mountain of corruption scandals and abuse of power.

In Malaysia, big business has long been intertwined with politics, with cronies locked in a feudalistic system of political patronage in exchange for government deals and lucrative contracts.

Among the hottest talk in the coffeeshops are now two scenarios - one that the ring was a gift from her daughter's mother-in-law Maira Nazarbayev, who is speculated to have links with the Russian mafia, and two, that it was a gift from a Malaysian Chinese tycoon.