NAJIB RAZAK PM IN THE CLEAR – WHERE DID IT ALL BEGIN?

Gopal Raj Kumar

WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE ALLEGATIONS AGAINST THE PM

THE 1 MDB AFFAIR

Clearly it is not what the opposition thinks of the Prime Minister of Malaysia or what the scribes at the Malaysian Insider, Bersih, the Malaysian Bar, The Wall Street Journal or even the ABC in Australia has to say about Najib Razak that matters. It is what the facts independent of each of these groups reveal that matters.

No law was ever broken with the receipt of funds into the Prime Minister’s account as alleged by the opposition that the opposition and their allies could cite. The money did not come from 1MDB. Those allegations by critics of government and the Prime Minister in particular have not only failed the opposition but also their constituencies.

In desperation and in a display of abject ignorance of the law and politics, the Malaysian Bar and its allies in the opposition including Bersih went to town with the so called 1MDB affair. They were ably assisted by Claire Rewcastle Brown aided and abetted by elements within the British government to slander and to smear the Prime Minister Najib Razak in the process.

A SHORT RECENT HISTORY OF SAUDI INVOLVEMENT IN MALAYSIA

So much for the opposition’s knowledge of geopolitics and the law. So much for Bersih’s knowledge of the immensely powerful nation of Saudi Arabia and the spread of its tentacles in the region.  One wonders now if the time is now finally right for a fightback, a payback to put behind bars those players in the oppositions campaign of destabilization of the country.

The Saudis have been entrenched in the business and politics of Malaysia since the Tengku Abdul Rahman Malaysia’s first Prime Minister. He welcomed them into Malaysia in exchange for a large personal ‘donation’ (gift) to his personal account by the late King Faisal of Saudi Arabia. Their involvement and their influence in Malaysia has been subtle and largely unnoticed because of the way in which the Saudis prefer to operate; by stealth. Unlike the Chinese, the Saudis are not ostentatious. They are discreet. Very discreet.

Not long after that the Tengku Abdul Rahman was made President of the Islamic Development Bank a bank financed by the Saudis and other oil rich Islamic states. Britain and the US had encouraged that relationship between the Tengku, the Arabs and Faisal but for strategic reasons and not for the spread of Islam.

The Saudi royals have always been captive of the west ever since oil was discovered in the kingdom. Very little of what the Saudis do escapes the eye of the US and British intelligence apparatus. It was the US with Britain and France that after all put the present Saudi royal family and their children where they are.

The Saudis have also been an indirect funder of the many NGO’s operating in Malaysia and in places like Egypt, the former Yugoslavia, the Philippines, Indonesia and the Ukraine.

One merely has to research the Iran Contra Affair to understand the dynamics of the intertwined interests of the US, the UK, Israel, France and Saudi Arabia in order to understand the generosity of a player such as the cashed up Saudi Royal Family in international politics.  That includes channeling money the US and the west is otherwise unable to directly pay to their minions like Bersih and their associates in Malaysia, the Tahrir square rebels in Egypt and the anti Assad forces in Syria.

OTHER RECIPIENTS OF SAUDI MONEY

In short, Bersih, Sisters in Islam, the PKR, PAS, the Christian evangelical churches and yes the Vatican’s representatives in Malaysia through various organizations, donations and alliances are recipients of Saudi money in one form or the other.

Several Sultans of Malaysia have also been recipients of the largess of the Saudi royal family over the years which they have not disclosed. Such gifts require no accounting or disclosure to the Malaysian public but to the consciences of the recipients and to God as it goes.

This has nothing to do with religion or politics per se according to a political analyst from the Brookings Institute. It is all about interests.

Before the 2013 elections we wrote a piece on Wahhabi and radical Islam’s support for PKR and Anwar Ibrahims crusade parading as a democratic alternative to government in Malaysia. The opposition and elements of the Malaysian Bar scoffed at us and poured scorn at our claims.

The BBC report below now sheds light on the facts of the $681 million payment. Notably it also allows the Wall Street Journal to withdraw saving some face in a feeble statement they include quoting a Wall Street Journal source about the affair. Well we can’t expect anything more from the Wall Street Journal.

The below article contains extracts of the BBC’s recent comments and report on the outcome of the Malaysian Attorney General’s decision not to prosecute the Prime Minister of Malaysia (which in any event would have required impeachments proceedings against him first if there was prima facie evidence of any wrong doing as alleged against him).

EXTRACT FROM REUTERS AND THE BBC’S REPORT ON THE $681 PAYMENT TO THE PM

Saudi Arabia’s late King Abdullah personally authorized a $681 million payment to Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, the BBC has reported.

Malaysia’s attorney general revealed on Tuesday that the early-2013 payment, the subject of months of speculation, had come from the Saudi royal family and involved no corruption or improper conduct. Malaysia’s prime minister had previously said that the cash was a private donation from a Middle Eastern donor that he declined to name.

Tuesday’s revelation was the latest twist in a long-running political scandal around Najib and the country’s ailing sovereign wealth fund Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), the advisory board of which the prime minister leads.

On Wednesday the BBC reported that the cash – $620 million of which was returned to the donor a few months later – was paid by Saudi Arabia to Najib to help the prime minister win 2013 elections at a time when the Saudis were worried about the global influence of the Muslim Brotherhood.

At the time, the BBC said, Malaysia’s opposition alliance included the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party, which was loosely inspired by the Muslim Brotherhood.

A “well-placed Saudi source” told the BBC that the payment had been authorized by King Abdullah, and the funds came from his personal wealth as well as state funds.

Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal, which first revealed in July the large payment to Najib’s personal bank account, but said at the time that the cash came via troubled fund 1MDB, reported on Wednesday that the Saudi ministries of foreign affairs and finance had no knowledge of the payment.

And while the BBC wrote that it was not unusual for Saudi Arabia to fund foreign governments in pursuit of its own interests, the WSJ reported that it was told by an unnamed Saudi official that “a royal donation to the personal bank account of a foreign leader would be unprecedented.”

The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, as well as other government agencies outside Malaysia, are still investigating the payment, the WSJ reported. Malaysia’s attorney general said on Tuesday that he had told the country’s own anti-corruption body to drop its probe into the money transfer.

SOME BACKGROUND INTO THE EXTENSIVE REACH OF SAUDI ARABIA

The $681m (£479m) deposited in the bank account of Malaysian PM Najib Razak by Saudi Arabia was to help him win the 2013 elections, a Saudi source says.

The donation was made amid concerns in Riyadh over the growing influence of the Muslim Brotherhood and other forms of Islamic extremism extending to places such as Malaysia.

Anwar Ibrahim and organizations such as Bersih have unwittingly been a party to paving the way for the Brotherhood and other extremists organizations promoting undemocratic and theocratic government’s in the middle east, Malaysia and beyond.

The Muslim Brotherhood with its more sophisticated organizational structures havs been known to successfully penetrate street political groups like the Tahrir Square anti Mubarak coalition; And these street groups much like Bersih, engage in the mayhem they create, they provide a Trojan Horse in the ensuing chaos for other more sinister and extreme radical groups like ISIS (Daesh or the Caliphate) to thrive and muster in their midst.

CLEARING THE PRIME MINISTER- NOLLE PRSEQUEI?

Malaysia’s attorney general has on the face of the evidence before him correctly cleared Prime Minister Najib Razak of any allegation of corruption on 26 January 2016, The AG’s decision follows an intensive investigation into allegations of corruption over receipt of $681 in an account associated with the Prime Minister as has been alleged. In so doing he is confirming and acknowledging that the money was in fact as claimed by the Prime Minister to be a donation from the Saudi royal family.There was no breach of any local laws of Malaysia.

Seeing as nothing illegal had occurred, there was no reason or obligation on the part of the Prime Minister to respond to the many allegations hurled at him as also there was no further reason for the Attorney General to pursue the allegations against the Prime Minister in this regard.

Pressure on the MACC (Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission) to pursue the AG as well as the Prime Minister appears to be bluster, capricious and a red herring considering that the MACC’s investigations on all the ‘evidence’ when held up against the law takes them nowhere.

The MACC is being ill advised either internally or by their external legal advisors if they chose to continue to pursue this affair in light of the best evidence there is available. This being the acknowledgment by the Saudi Royal family of a donation by them on the authorization of king Abdullah to the Malaysian Prime Minister.

There is no law the MACC, the AG or the opposition groups in Malaysia are able to cite that has been broken, let alone broken by the Prime Minister. The MACC’s mandate does not permit them or allow them to persecute any official. They have to act on the basis of the law and the particular legislation that governs their existence, their duties and their powers.

The allegations by Malaysia’s opposition and one of its former prime minister’s Dr. Mahathir Mohamed charged that the Prime Minister had in their view illegally channeled money from the sovereign fund 1MDB to his personal uses. Even if that money came to the Prime Minister via the 1MDB fund, the commingling of these monies with 1MDB monies is what the AG or MACC have to sort out. And in such circumstances the fault lies with whoever paid the money into the account unless any monies taken out of 1MDB (if it is proved to be the case) was taken out without proper accounting procedures being followed in the process. And even then it does not amount to the offence of corruption!

The PAS party one of Malaysia’s coalition of opposition groups which includes Bersih, the Malaysian Bar and Parti Keadilan Rakyat (the Parti of the family of Anwar Ibrahim counts the Brotherhood as a source of their inspiration) raised the allegations against the Prime Minister and continued relentlessly relying on the Wall Street Journal’s report allegedly supporting their allegations.

The Wall Street Journal now suggests otherwise.

IT WAS SAUDI MONEY AND A PERSONAL GIFT

A well-placed Saudi source, on the condition of anonymity, told the BBC the payment was authorised from the very top – from Saudi Arabia’s late King Abdullah – with funds coming from both his personal finances and state funds.

Observers of Saudi Arabia’s politics will no doubt remember the very large amounts in billions given to President El Sisi in Egypt as a reward by the Saudi royals to El Sisi for the overthrow of the democratically elected Brotherhood government 2 years ago.

King Abdullah is also the man seen in the youtube recording of the Organization of Islamic States meeting in which he threatens to “end” Muamar Gadhafi’s reign. Many commentators credit King Abdullah and his hundreds of billions for the eventual over throw and execution of Libyan leader Muammar Gadhafi.

The purpose of the donation was simple, said the Saudi source – it was to help Mr Najib and his coalition win the election, employing a strategic communications team with international experience, focusing on the province of Sarawak, and funding social programmes through party campaigning.

Clare Rewcastle Brown, who has reported extensively on the issue for the Sarawak Report said the claim that the payment to Mr Najib was a Saudi royal donation for political purposes needed to be treated “with considerable caution”.

Notably Rewcastle Brown has apart from toning down her rhetoric in this regard, has not proved any of her assertions and far fetched claims on any issue before. There are allegations that Rewcastle Brown herself has been involved in soliciting and making illicit payments to third parties for improper purposes to set up the Prime Minister of Malaysia.