‘FINAL RITES’ FOR NAJIB & ROSMAH: WORLD ON WATCH AS MALAYSIA SLIDES TOWARDS EMERGENCY RULE – U.S. TO SANCTION NAJIB IF HE PLAYS DIRTY & CLINGS TO POWER

Nicolas Maduro effectively proclaims himself a new dictator of Venezuela after he held a controversial election to create the National Constituent Assembly (ANC), a constitutional assembly that would grant his party sweeping power. The Venezuelan president staged an election where only his supporters voted as the opposition boycotted the illegitimate election.

Before the election, Mr. Maduro stacked the country’s Supreme Court with loyalists to prevent his own impeachment. He is expected to also stack the ANC with his supporters, which would enable Dictator Maduro to rewrite the country’s constitution. That spells the end of freedom of expression, forcing the United States to make its move.

On Monday, the U.S. Treasury Department slapped sanctions on Maduro regime, alleging that the Venezuela’s president has attempted to undermine democracy and the rule of law in his country. After the U.S. sanctions, Mexico, Colombia and Panama followed with their own sanctions against Dictator Maduro while Brazil, Canada and Guatemala denounced the vote.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said those who participate in the illegitimate assembly could face “future U.S. sanctions for their role in undermining democratic processes and institutions in Venezuela.” With the U.S. sanctions, Nicolas Maduro joins a very exclusive club which include Robert Mugabe (Zimbabwe), Bashar al-Assad (Syria) and Kim Jong-un (North Korea).

Latest by 24 August 2018, the world could see another dictator to be added to the exclusive club. Malaysia’s Prime Minister Najib Razak is facing a critical 14th nationwide election, which will have to happen on or before 24 August 2018. Of course, he could call for a snap election anytime now. But the extremely corrupt Najib could face a defeat.

Najib’s corruption scandal is so massive and legendary that the U.S. Department of Justice acknowledges lawsuits filed to seize assets that it said were the result of US$4.5 billion that was misappropriated from 1MDB (1Malaysia Development Bhd), a fund set up by Najib Razak himself in 2009, represents the largest action brought under the Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative.

Although the political situation between Venezuela and Malaysia is slightly different, the fundamental problem is the same. Both Nicolas Maduro and Najib Razak are super corrupted. Like Mr. Maduro, Mr. Najib has also stacked the country’s Supreme Court with loyalists. Heck, Najib has even done something which Maduro was unable to do.

Venezuela’s last man standing in the Judicial Pillar is the Attorney General Luisa Ortega, who has criticized Sunday’s illegitimate election but is expected to lose her job once Maduro fully takes over the country – illegally. In Malaysia, however, Najib had replaced the country’s attorney general with a friendly and loyalist Mohamed Apandi Ali, who was caught dancing happily with Najib’s warlords.

Singapore had prosecuted and jailed bankers and crooks found guilty of stealing and siphoning money originated from 1MDB. Swiss Attorney General has evidence that at least US$800 million from 1MDB have been misappropriated and even called Najib Razak’s 1MDB nothing but a “Ponzi Scheme“. But all those are insignificant to what the U.S.-DOJ found in their investigation.

Not only the U.S.-DOJ found more than US$4.5 billion money had been stolen from 1MDB, the U.S. Justice Department has also established that the “wife of ‘MALAYSIAN OFFICIAL 1‘, allegedly Rosmah Mansor” had purchased a US$27 million 22-carat pink diamond necklace using money siphoned from 1MDB. Sure, to the ordinary and ignorant Malaysian folks, this piece of information is insignificant.

The investigation brought under the Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative against Najib’s 1MDB corruption and money laundering will be proven to be very useful at a later stage. That stage is when the Malaysian prime minister loses the coming general election, but refuses to give way and plays dirty to cling to power – by declaring state of emergency.

Mahathir Mohamad, supposedly the evil-turned-saviour, has pre-emptively warned that his protégé-turned-evil Prime Minister Najib Razak might not even hold the next general elections, claiming that Najib could declare state of emergency even if there was none and suspend the constitution. Such option is absolutely valid if military intelligence confirmed Najib will lose power.

As a former prime minister for 22-year, if Mahathir believes Najib is capable of deploying such dirty tactic, chances are high that the prime minister would do it. Even if Najib were nice enough to hold an election, he still could declare state of emergency “after” he lost the election in order to cling to power. When that happens, he’s no different from Venezuela’s Dictator Maduro.

What is stopping Najib from declaring the state of emergency now, and not later (after a general election), is the risk of attracting the attention of the U.S. Unlike socialist Venezuela, Najib regime still wants to project the image that democracy is still alive in the country. That’s why he had flown 6,347-km from Kuala Lumpur to Riyadh – hoped but failed – to meet with President Trump.

Earlier in May, the White House invited Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and Thailand Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha to meet President Trump. Even Rodrigo Duterte, the Philippines president who called President Barack Obama a “son of a whore” and told him to “go to hell”, received his invitation. However, Malaysia’s Prime Minister Najib Razak was excluded.

In fact, to borrow a naughty phrase from Anthony Scaramucci, the White House’s communications director who survived only 10 days in office before being asked to resign by new chief of staff, retired Gen. John Kelly, Najib Razak desperately wants to “suck the c***” of President Donald Trump. The son of Razak desperately needs the blessing of the U.S. president.

But why would Najib desperately need Trump’s endorsement to the extent that he’s willing to suck the American president’s c***, despite Trump wouldn’t touch Najib with a ten-foot pole, let alone let him sucks his c***? The answer – Mr. Najib doesn’t want Trump administration to slap him with sanctions for attempting to undermine democracy and the rule of law.

So far, the U.S. doesn’t really care about Najib regime’s corruption, as long as the country practices democracy. But declaring state of emergency will change everything. The last time the country plunged into emergency rule was during 1969’s racial riots – coincidently architected by Najib’s own father – second Prime Minister Abdul Razak Hussein.

If Najib declared state of emergency, of which he wanted to but couldn’t, it would be hard for the Trump administration to close one-eye and justify that Malaysia is still a democratic country. Still, the U.S. needs more justifications to slap sanctions on Najib son of Razak before declaring the end of freedom of expression in a supposedly democratic Malaysia.

That’s when the U.S. Department of Justice’s investigation into Najib’s corruption scandal under the Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative comes handy. Trump administration could easily tell all and sundry that not only democracy and the rule of law are dead under Dictator Najib, the U.S. also sanctions him for stealing and laundering more than US$4.5 billion of taxpayers’ money.

Now, do you understand the brilliant tactical move behind the investigation papers brought to the attention of U.S.-DOJ by Mahathir? It wasn’t merely to cry, whine and bitch about Najib and his band of crooks’ thievery. It was also to build a case so that Najib regime could be brought down by America, since Mahathir knew it wasn’t possible for Malaysian corrupted Judicial System to prosecute the prime minister.

What is needed now is for the voters to perform their duty – vote out Najib’s coalition Barisan Nasional in droves. Let Mahathir, the oppositions and the U.S. do their job when Najib Razak declares state of emergency. It’s a blessing that the U.S. President Donald Trump hasn’t agreed to a meeting with Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak – for now.

– http://www.financetwitter.com