TELL THE TRUTH, ZAHID. YOU DIDN'T DARE ASK FBI IF THEY WERE PROBING NAJIB FOR KLEPTOCRACY

Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister, Datuk Seri Zahid Hamidi had an interesting encounter in his current visit to the United States.

In a report from Washington earlier today, Bernama quoted Zahid as saying thatthe issue of 1MDB was not a major focus of a probe by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

Ahmad Zahid, who is on a working visit to the administrative centre of the United States said 1MDB was not raised at all during his meeting with US Secretary of State John Kerry and also in discussions with senior FBI officers.

He told Malaysian journalists in Washington:

"Nothing on 1MDB was raised by the FBI or John Kerry or any party that I met when I was in Washington.

“(1MDB) is not a big issue to them at all.

“"Maybe the issue is big as it is shouted about in the country (Malaysia) because in our country it is used as a political issue."

Zahid had said nothing new, for he had not rebutted the New York Times report of Sept. 22 that a US federal grand jury is examining allegations of corruption involving Najib and people close to him under the Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative 2010.

Was Zahid afraid to ask FBI whether Najib is being investigated by the US Department of Justice under the Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative 2010 for fear of an affirmative answer?

Since Zahid had met with John Kerry as well as the deputy director of FBI, Mark F Giuliano and senior officials of FBI, it is neither satisfactory nor acceptable for Zahid to take the passive attitude so that he could say that “not even a word mentioned on 1MDB” after his meeting with US and FBI officials.

Zahid should explain why he did not ask point-blank whether the New York Times report on Sept. 22 that Najib was being investigated by the US Department of Justice under the Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative 2010, so that there could be a straightforward denial by the US Department that Najib was being investigated by the US authorities as to whether he is a kleptocrat.

Lim Kit Siang is DAP Adviser