1MDB spin doctors take M’sia as a nation of fools

Are the people at 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) for real? Or are they a bunch of super-rich kids who have enough expensive toys that one cannot think of any suitable presents to give them for their next birthdays?

Or do they have a special gizmo called One-Em-Dee-Bee which they keep under their beds and take it out occasionally to play with to humour lesser mortals like us when and if they decide?

Or do they have a modern-day Aladdin’s lamp whereupon rubbing it, a genie appears and says: “Master, your wish is my command”? The genie then goes on to process a stirring statement which it believes will appease the state, which it verily believes is a nation of fools?

Whatever said and however described, 1MDB’s latest comments in its on-going spat with DAP lawmaker Tony Pua make citizens puke and debunk the theory that “the days of the government knows best is over”. No, the politicians still know best and their diktat remains the order of the day. We, the earthly people of the land have to absorb every word and figure they churn out as if they are being delivered by the Almighty who has descended on Mother Earth.

Yesterday, the company issued yet another statement with no names or identities of those behind it. However, it must be admitted that this is accepted in journalistic practice. But on an important issue like this, wouldn’t the big boys want to face professional journalists instead of maintaining anonymity and avoiding questions?

The key phrase in its statement is “economic sabotage” - supposedly the cause of all the woes of the company and the country. But wasn’t it the same phrase which was used to arrest two innocent journalists who had the gall and gumption to pursue the truth in the 1MDB case?

Weren’t they subsequently vindicated when the whole world watched the drama being played out, thanks to the US Department of Justice (DOJ) and financial regulators all over the globe? Weren’t these nameless people who hid and continue to hide and issued statements identified by name and listed on various indictments on bankers and agents?

Anyone with common sense can succeed with the self-proclaimed 1MDB’s business model - obtain assets or be gifted with assets at a fraction of the price and re-sell them in the open market for a hefty profit. If you are given land worth RM2,000 per square foot (psf) at a discounted price of RM100 psf, unless your stupidity has hit the bottom, you’ll become a millionaire or billionaire overnight, depending on the size of the plot. You don’t need Einstein or people of his brains to come up with such money-making prowess. Where did these assets originate? From us, the taxpayers.

In the past, we have been bombarded with technical and legal jargon like “offence predicate” and the like. For a change, in simple language and with matching figures, and without couching it with any jargon or gobbledygook, please tell us:

• How much did 1MDB take in loans and the purposes for which they were used;
• How much has been repaid;
• How much interest has been incurred;
• The amounts outstanding; and,
• Other financial commitments and obligations.

The answers to these questions will at least be a consolation that the ordinary rakyat knows how much he and his children will have to contribute to the follies of a few.

Pin-drop silence

The people at 1MDB, pray tell us something: did you genuinely believe that Aabar Investments PJS Ltd (BVI) and Aabar Investment PJS (Aabar) were the one and the same entity which was part of the International Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC)? Didn’t someone spot this?

In May this year, didn’t Finance Minister II Johari Abdul Ghani disclose the existence of a letter confirming that Aabar Investments PJS Ltd (BVI) is a subsidiary of IPIC?

Why wasn’t this pleaded in the arbitration process with IPIC in London? We came back empty-handed, heads bowed and agreeing to repay a loan twice for the same principal amount which 1MDB never saw?

Putrajaya jumps every time negative newsabout  the country appears in Singaporean media. The High Commission and Wisma Putra will invariably want their pound of flesh and issue statements “condemning foreign media” and “outside interference”.

In October last year, Singaporean media reported that its central bank shut down two Swiss banks in what was then described as “in its biggest crackdown on alleged money-laundering activities connected with Malaysian sovereign fund 1MDB.”

There was hardly whimper from Putrajaya - clearly, an acceptance of the truth. Subsequently, it was widely reported that “Yeo Jiawei, a former banker serving the longest jail term in Singapore’s probes linked to 1Malaysia Development Bhd, admitted to money laundering.” There was pin-drop silence.

Why wasn’t someone thumping his chest and saying: “There is no such thing. Our 1MDB is super-clean”?

Are they still maintaining everything is hunky-dory in 1MDB? What about the sordid details in the voluminous reports from the DOJ? What about the exploits of Low Taek Jho, or Jho Low, and his cahoots in US casinos; the purchase of luxury apartments in New York; financing movie-making, etc?  They all came directly or indirectly from one source - 1MDB. Does 1MDB have anything to say about the seizures or those who have been named in the DOJ documents?

This will certainly take time as a long list of consultants, advisers, counsellors and specialists with degrees in rocket science have to be assembled to come up with answers in a statement format. But there’s one simple question that can be answered immediately – did the Auntie living down the road in Putrajaya receive those pink diamonds worth RM120 million?

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R NADESWARAN says freedom of expression allows and encourages journalists to bite into all the ills that afflict our country. Comments: citizen.nades22@gmail.com.- Mkini