BERSIH 2.0: Najib must come clean, go on leave

The NGO wants all findings on allegations against the Prime Minister in the Wall Street Journal to be made public.

KUALA LUMPUR: BERSIH 2.0, the NGO for clean, fair and free elections, has demanded that Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak make public his bank account details, in particular clarify if the AmBank accounts existed in his name and, if so, show the transaction details for the dates in question.

“The bank accounts, including that of his spouse and children, should be frozen as well.”

The NGO also wants Najib to take leave as the Prime Minister and Minister of Finance and from all other public offices he holds pending investigations by the authorities concerned on the allegations against him in a Wall Street Journal report last Friday.

“All findings on the investigations by Bank Negara, Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), the Police, and the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on 1MDB and related companies should be made public in the fastest time possible,” said BERSIH 2.0 in a statement.

BERSIH 2.0 was also calling upon Malaysians to firmly demand institutional reforms for good governance and democracy to put a stop to prime ministerial corruption, as Najib’s leadership was increasingly untenable with the latest expose of the alleged transfer of RM 2.6 billion into his personal banking accounts. “Najib is not the first prime minister to be implicated in corruption, abuse or mismanagement of public funds. Unless institutional reforms take place, he will not be the last.”

When prime ministers get off scot-free for squandering billions, it added, there was no way the people can stop ministers and senior civil servants from also squandering millions, as revealed in the Auditor-General’s Report every year. “Such ‘leadership by example’ of the worst form must be put to an end.”

Institutional reforms are needed, stressed BERSIH 2.0, for good governance and democracy was needed to root out the three main causes of prime ministerial corruption: the near-impossibility of losing elections; power concentration and unaccountability of the executive; and the suppression of political dissent.

Briefly, the NGO wants to make electoral defeats of corrupt politicians more probable; break power concentration and unaccountability of the Executive; and protect political dissent

BERSIH 2.0 laments that corruption, right from the prime minister to senior government servants, has taken a toll on the economy by eating up funds for education, healthcare and public works, cutting subsidies vital to support the bottom 40 per cent of households. The imposition of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) has caused both inflation and economic slowdown.”

The NGO also warned the people against former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad who was now in the forefront of demanding Najib’s exit. “Mahathir has allegedly squandered an estimated RM100 billion on financial scandals during his 22-year rule,” it reminded. “The allegation made by former journalist Barry Wain in his book ‘Malaysian Maverick: Mahathir Mohamad in Turbulent Times’ was neither challenged in court nor even effectively refuted.”

One of Mahathir’s latest financial scandals, the Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) land deal, lamented the NGO, cost Malaysians RM12 billion, about a quarter of the amount in Najib’s own RM42 billion 1MDB scandal. “Any new prime minister produced by intra-Umno and inter-party horse-trading dominated by Mahathir may soon create his own 1MDB or PKFZ.”