Bring the Real Saboteurs Before the Court

A Kadir Jasin

WHO are sabotaging our economy, threatening the security of the country and causing hardship to the rakyat? 

(Datuk Sri) Khairuddin Abu Hassan, his lawyer Matthias Chang Wen Chieh and the people who do not see eye to eye with the Prime Minister, (Datuk Seri Mappadulung Daeng Mattimung Karaeng Sanrobone) Mohd Najib Abdul Razak?

Let's see how our economy is doing.

The Ringgit is down by nearly 20 per cent against the US dollar. The external reserves fell by over US$40 billion. Stock prices are in the dump. Goods and Services Tax (GST), higher highway toll and rising public transport fares are draining the rakyat’s pocket.

Did Khairuddin and Chang caused all of these? Are they Prime Minister and Minister of Finance respectively?

Khairuddin and Chang are not PM and Finance Minister

Who bought end-of-life IPPs from Malaysian companies for RM12 billion in 2012 and sold to a China company for RM9.83 billion? These IPPs could have become national assets for pittance had 1MDB not bought them.

No, not Khairuddin and Chang. They have nothing to do with 1MDB. But Mohd Najib does. He is the power behind the company.

The China company looks like getting a good deal. But when Tenaga Nasional Berhad was forced to rescue Edra’s yet-to-be launched 3B Project, investors panicked. Overnight TNB’s market capitalisation plunged by RM10 billion.

Felda Global Ventures Holdings Berhad had gone into the red and its share prices had been decimated. Who knows Felda could have lost control of the company.

Tun Abdul Razak, the Father of Felda

Even the tourists are not coming despite Tourism Minister, Mohamed Nazri Aziz, cockily telling us that the lower ringgit would bring foreign visitors in droves to the country. Nazri is ominously silence for a fair bit of time now.

Did Khairuddin and Chang caused these too?

What about the Prime Minister? Isn’t he also the Minister of Finance, the chairman international advisory board of 1MDB and the mentor to the LKTP?

Lest we have forgotten, LKTP or the Lembaga Kemajuan Tanah Persekutuan is the original name of Felda (Federal Land Development Authority).

Is Mohd Najib not guilty and not responsible for any of these economic disasters?

Did Khairuddin and Chang caused government debt to balloon, foreign liabilities of the banks to shoot up and Malaysian households to become the most indebted among the big emerging markets?

No, they did not cause these terrible things. Mohd Najib did. I am not accusing him. He admitted it himself.

In a March 11 written parliamentary reply to theSelayang MP, William Leong Jee Keen (PKR), Mohd Najib admitted that Malaysia’s external debt had tripled under him – from RM196 billion in 2003 – when Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad handed power to Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and Mohd Najib became Finance Minister - to RM740 billion in the third quarter of 2014. Never mind the  “new definitions” but debt is debt. (He said it here).

Government debt had hit the ceiling of 55 per cent of the GDP. I am not making up stories. This was what Mohd Najib said in the same reply. Federal Government’s debt stood at RM582 billion or 54.5 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), just 0.5 per cent away from the self-imposed 55 per cent ceiling. Of the total, 97.1 per cent or RM566.1 billion was domestic debt, while the balance of RM16.8 billion or 2.9 per cent was in offshore loans.

In its Nov. 14 issue, the Economist magazine notes: "Malaysia’s banks have lots of foreign liabilities and its households have the highest debt-to-income ratio of any big emerging market; its cushion of foreign-exchange reserves looks thin and its current-account surplus is forecast to shrink."

Our Moral Malady

If we were a morally upright country, the Prime Minister would have resigned voluntarily for causing such a mess and for not denying that he once had RM2.6 billion in his personal accounts.

But morality and conscience appear to be thinly spread in this supposedly “Islamic” country.

The Prime Minister has the penchant for taking his critics to court. He should now take The Economist to court for reporting things that could sabotage our economy?

Were Khairuddin and Chang also responsible for the RM1.5-million fraud at Bukit Aman and the report by the Malaysian Reserve newspaper on Nov 19 that more local firms are likely to post losses due to weak ringgit?

Most people do not anymore have enough money to get by while those who have do not trust the economy. Bank deposits fell despite the interest rates going up.

Did Khairuddin, Chang and the rest of the people who want Mohd Najib ousted cause the ringgit to fall so badly that Bank Negara is forced to accept the US dollar in the inter-bank deposits?

Reports say Bank Negara did that, for the first time, in September in an attempt to try to slow down the ringgit slide. Under Mohd Najib’s watch, the ringgit has become Asia’s worst performing currency. I am not making this up. The Bloomberg news service says it. Mohd Najib should sue Bloomberg.

Khairuddin and Chang and the millions of Malaysians who want Mohd Najib to resign did not cause the political crisis that led to the loss of confidence in the economic management of country.

The culprits are Mohd Najib, his “cari makan” ministers, the 1MDB, his RM2.6-billion “Arab donation”, the arrest and prosecution of his detractors and the perpetuation of the climate of fear.

Then the people he appointed to help him administer the country are making things worse by their ineptitude and disregard for professionalism.

Consider the following:

1. Arul “Azrul” Kanda Kandasany's explanation of 1MDB’s problems and Mohd Najib's answers change all the time and often contradict each other.

2. The Attorney General, (Tan Sri) Mohamed Apandi Ali, gives the impression that he fears nobody and is totally independent. He should prove this by charging the PM. In Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad’s case, he said he left it to the courts. But in the 1MDB’s forex case, when he disagreed Bank Negara’s interpretation of banking laws, he overruled the Governor. The Governor supervises banks and is logically more familiar with banking laws than the AG. Should Mohamed Apandi not let the court decide?

Is Mohamed Apandi really a numero uno and independent?

3. He does not understand why Bar Council snubbed him despite being its treasurer once. Did he realised that he was appointed AG at 65. At that age civil servants retire. Also when he came down from the highest court in the land – Federal Court - to accept the AG post when his predecessor was removed in a suspicious manner, it raised suspicion. For many casual observers, the suspicion was confirmed when he overrode Bank Negara over 1MDB’s forex case.

4. We have read Arul “Azrul” Kanda Kandasamy’s answers to the same questions. Take the infamous case of the 1MDB’s money in the Cayman Island as an example.  Also the PM's reply in Parliament on the purchase of IPPs in which he admitted that 1MDB overpaid. Does the AG not see all these nonsensical replies?

5. Have the police commenced investigation into 1MDB? The AG wants the MACC to complete its investigations on SRC International and the RM2.6-billion donation by December. Why the rush to investigate SRC International and not on the larger 1MDB?

6. The MACC independent. But why is AG interfering? Does he want to declare no further action (NFA) by December so that the PM goes scot-free? Mohd Najib is waiting for AG's final report. AG will confirm 1MDB's account so that there is no need to press the PAC to continue its hearing. Case closed. The new “cari makan” PAC Chairman, (Datuk) Hasan Ariffin, had said he wouldn't call the PM to testify.

Ineptitude Sabotages the Economy

So who sabotages the economy?

Had the government used part of US$44-billion reserves to settle 1MDB’s debts, the ringgit might not have been devalued so badly, the stock market would improve and foreign direct investment (FDI) would flow in. The economy would improve and employment would increase. But that amount was lost trying to protect the ringgit while 1MDB’s financial problems festered.

The AG has to get real and the Hasan must do better than jesting around. But if they think that the people are a herd of buffaloes, they might as well call off the investigations.

Hasan, the new PAC Chairman should stop jesting around

It cheaper and easier to order their paid cyber troopers to spin that there is nothing wrong with1MDB, the RM2.6-billion is not a donation but "zakat" and the economy is in great shape.

Get old-timer (Tan Sri) Sharir Abdul Samad to turn his mantra that there will be a happy ending to the 1MDB saga into a puja. Shahrir was happy to admit that Mohd Najib had given him RM1 million. He should share with the rakyat his RM1-million happiness.

Who sabotaged the country by selling government land cheaply to 1MDB so that 1MDB could sell to Tabung Haji at huge profits?

Who bought the IPPs at above market price and sold to the China Company at what appears to be a discount?

Who caused TNB to suffer an RM10-billion market downgrade?

Who sabotages the confidence in the government and the economy?

The AG is a public prosecutor. He acts on behalf of the public. Did the public want Khairuddin and Chang charged? What about the Prime Minister then?

Already the court had ruled that the AG was wrong in using SOSMA against Khairuddin and Chang.

If indeed, as Mohamed Apandi had said he is making decisions without looking at names instead at the facts of law, he should look at facts that implicate Mohd Najib, Jho Low and their co-conspirators.

Let see if he dares to bring the real saboteurs before the law.

He has a case to answer.

Wallahuaklam.