Najib deals with instant karma for harassing Suaram

It’s pay-back time as Najib Razak is now being investigated for huge sums of money found in his personal bank accounts.

COMMENT

By Kua Kia Soong

It’s amazing how quickly ‘instant karma’ has caught up with Prime Minister Najib Razak after his attempt in 2012/13 to demonise Suaram as a “foreign agent” by unleashing no less than six government agencies, including Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM), to investigate Suaram for among other things, money laundering. Bear in mind that Suaram has only five staff and an annual budget of around RM300,000. It was clear to all that it was Suaram’s application to the Paris courts to enquire into suspected corruption in the Scorpene deal that had led to the Najib government going berserk and launching the subsequent witch-hunt against the NGO.

Needless to say, the year-long investigation produced not a shred of evidence against Suaram. The rigorous CCM (Companies Commission of Malaysia) investigations included many days of one-on-one questioning with at least 20 people, including former Suaram staff that had left years ago. Even the Registrar of Societies got in on the act and they were made a laughing stock when their Wikipedia source of information meant that even the departed Fan Yew Teng was summoned to their office to make a statement!

Did BNM uncover any whiff of money laundering by Suaram? They certainly did not. But did they protest that it was beyond their remit to waste time on a tiny NGO like Suaram? They did not. I am surprised that all the Harvard-trained economists in BNM did not protest against the preposterous presumption in government circles that there could be such a possibility. But BNM did not say a word.

Nevertheless, the well-oiled propagandists in the mainstream press continued to spin merrily for the same idiotic thinking in government. They had to pay for their indiscretion when the New Straits Times was made to make the “mother of editorial apologies” to Suaram after we sued their pants off.

What is ironic is the fact that all the crap that Najib piled on Suaram only recently has so quickly hit the fan and splattered all over him…

Who has been money laundering then?

There are now several on-going international probes on entities related to 1 Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) and the alleged transfers of USD700 million into Najib’s personal bank accounts. The 1MDB fund is dogged by controversies revolving around its hefty USD11 billion debt and missing funds.

What has Bank Negara Malaysia to say then?

If BNM was prepared to investigate Suaram for money laundering and if the NGO was indeed a “foreign agent” (Well, they didn’t protest against the Government’s order!), why didn’t they alert the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) or the police since they must have known that more than RM2 billion was sitting in the prime minister’s personal bank account. If they didn’t know, they are guilty of gruesome negligence.

If BNM could be bothered with a tiny NGO like Suaram, surely the onus is on the central bank to report Najib’s RM2.6 billion to the appropriate authorities for an investigation to be launched immediately.

Who is a “foreign agent” now?

It was only after The Wall Street Journal exposed the scandal of the RM2.6 billion that Najib made the claim that it was a Middle Eastern “family” who had donated the largesse, adding that the donation was for the Barisan Nasional and Umno’s 13th general election fund.

Newly minted Deputy Prime Minister, Zahid added that they were helping Barisan Nasional because of “the government’s commitment to counter terrorism” and “to maintain Malaysia’s status as a Sunni country”. He, however, refused to reveal the donors’ identity nor did he explain why Najib had not disclosed this humongous donation earlier.

Imagine what would have happened if it had been discovered during Najib’s 2012/2013 “siege of Suaram” that a million ringgit from a foreign “family” had been deposited in the personal bank account of the NGO’s director.

So remember all those who are racist, corrupt and oppressors: “Instant Karma’s gonna get you. Gonna knock you right on the head…”

Dr Kua Kia Soong is adviser to Suaram, a human rights group.