Najib damaging Malaysia’s rep, says Financial Times

The Financial Times believes the events that have transpired this week point to a growing sense that Datuk Seri Najib Razak has been a disastrous prime minister. – The Malaysian Insider file pic, January 28, 2016.

There is a growing sense that Datuk Seri Najib Razak has been a disastrous prime minister, says the Financial Times (FT) weighing in on the findings of the attorney-general into the RM2.6 billion “political donation” and SRC International.

The daily, it its FT Views column, recounted the events that transpired this week and said the web of allegations and investigations swirling around the prime minister and his affairs were damaging Malaysia’s international reputation and deepening a public trust deficit at home.

“Just 24 hours after the country’s attorney-general found that Najib had no case to answer over a US$680 million sum paid into his personal bank account, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission announced it would seek a review of this ruling.

“Separately, it emerged that Tim Leissner, a senior Goldman Sachs banker and the driving force behind deals with a troubled Malaysian state investment fund, had taken ‘personal leave’ and returned to the US.

“Najib and 1MDB, the state fund with which Goldman Sachs worked, deny they are guilty of any crimes.”

FT said the financial dealings of 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) were pivotal to the country’s future.

“At stake is whether one of Southeast Asia’s leading nations and strategically of the US and European powers in the region, can maintain its equilibrium as a prosperous, free-market democracy that blends an adherence to moderate Islam with an internationally recognised legal system.

“Without a clear accounting of what transpired between Najib and 1MDB, Putrajaya risks reinforcing an impression that its democracy is being shredded by a self-serving Malay elite.

“Najib is already vulnerable to such charges.”

After close to six months of investigations, Attorney-General Tan Sri Mohamed Apandi Ali on Tuesday told a packed press conference at his office in Putrajaya there was “insufficient evidence” to implicate the prime minister.

“Based on facts and evidence, no criminal offences have been committed by the PM in relation to three investigation papers.

“I hereby order the MACC (Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission) to close the investigation papers,” Apandi said.

The three papers are one on the RM2.6 billion donation and two on SRC International which had taken a RM4 billion loan from the Retirement Fund Inc or KWAP.

He also said there was no evidence that Najib abused his power when the Cabinet approved the guarantee for a RM4 billion loan to SRC International Sdn Bhd.

MACC last year opened investigations following reports in The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) and Sarawak Report in July last year alleging that of the RM2.6 billion donation, RM42 million had originated from SRC International, a subsidiary of Najib’s brainchild, 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB).

This was according to documents on the money trail provided by Malaysian investigators, WSJ and Sarawak Report said.

Najib welcomed the decision and said it was "an unnecessary distraction for the country".

- TMI