KUALA LUMPUR - All eyes are on the response of Prime Minister Najib Razak and his wife Rosmah Mansor to an embarrassing request from the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), which wants to question Najib over his role in the 1MDB corruption debacle as well a massive RM2.6 billion discovered in his personal bank accounts.
The 62-year-old Najib is next up to be interviewed by the MACC, which had recorded the statements of notorious businessman Low Taek Jho (better known as Jho Low) and SRC International director Suboh Md Yassin over the weekend.
"Najib will surely go. This is a chance for him to grandstand and show to the Umno general assembly that he is 'clean' and has nothing to hide. His supporters will rush to praise him, his critics should fear a great big 'sandiwara' (show)," a political observer told Malaysia Chronicle.
"The question is what will MACC do - will they pull their punches and what happens if they find reasonable cause to charge Najib. Who will arrest him, when the new Attorney General is said to be his loyalist?"
Waiting for Najib's green light
Najib has denied allegations of wrongdoing but heavy suspicion dogs him after he took controversial action to sack his deputy Muhyiddin Yassin from the Cabinet and Attorney General Gani Patail, who was said to have been preparing a charge sheet for the PM's arrest.
MACC deputy chief commissioner Mohd Shukri Abdull said his officers had travelled overseas to meet Suboh and Low and are now waiting for the green light to grill Najib.
"I haven't read the statements. They (officers) just came back. The statements were taken overseas. I don't want to say where. It was done yesterday and two days ago," the Star reported Mohd Shukri as telling reporters Tuesday.
"Now we are waiting for PM's statement. We have sent a notice to the PM's Office and we are waiting for him to respond."
Mohd Shukri declined to divulge further on the statements.
Corruption trail
According to Bernama, on November 12, MACC chief commissioner Abu Kassim Mohamed said the commission had contacted the Prime Minister's Office over the matter. He said MACC was waiting for a date to interview Najib on the issues related to the investigation.
On the same day, Najib said he would give a statement to MACC after the new Attorney-General Mohamed Apandi Ali told him that he was required to give a statement to the commission in connection with the issue on political fund, so that investigations can be completed as soon as possible.
On November 20, the MACC recorded SRC's managing director Nik Faisal Ariff Kamil's statement for its investigations into the company.
Nik Faisal, Suboh and Low were named in August by the commission as people they wanted to question regarding alleged misuse of funds in SRC.
SRC was a subsidiary of 1Malaysia Developmen Berhad (1MDB) until it was taken over by the Finance Ministry in February 2012 via a non-cash dividend transaction worth RM1mil. - Malaysia Chronicle
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.