Timing is everything. When Sheila Majid tweeted about the high cost of living, she was saying nothing new. Many people who moaned about rising prices before had largely been ignored.
But this time, all hell broke loose.
The day after her tweet, Rizal Mansor, the aide to the self-styled “First Lady of Malaysia” took aim at the singer, and others followed suit.
This Sheila onslaught is Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak's red herring.
First, the distraction. Criticising Sheila was to deflect the rakyat from the real story, which is the announcement by the US attorney-general Jeff Sessions the day before about 1MDB being kleptocracy at its the worst in history.
Second, when Najib paid homage to Donald Trump last September, he was probably hoping that buying Boeing jets and investing EPF money in the US would somehow influence the US president, or the Department of Justice (DOJ), to slow down the investigations into 1MDB. It failed.
Celebrities are very influential people and Sheila may have a powerful message for her fans, but Najib had a more immediate worry: the DOJ.
Najib relied on his foreign advisers, who probably thought that the Washington trip would increase his popularity at home. That too failed.
When the previous US attorney-general Loretta Lynch stepped down, Najib was probably hopeful, perhaps, unaware that the DOJ is largely independent from the office of the American president.
In Malaysia, the Prime Minister's Department (PMD) has its pudgy fingers in every pie - from religion to defending Sabah's eastern seaboard. The heads of the various departments under the PMD cannot belch without Najib knowing about it.
Najib's Washington trip backfired, as evidenced by Sessions' much-reported announcement about 1MDB being the worst kleptocracy, Najib has also failed to halt the DOJ investigation.
At the Global Forum on Asset Recovery in Washington, Sessions said, "Each one of us, whether we are prosecutors, judges or legislators, have a responsibility to pursue for the common good for the people we serve.
“And whilst we have limited jurisdiction, we must recognise that the consequences of our actions are felt around the world.
"You can be sure of this, the US will do our part. And we urge every government to do their part as well."
Sessions (photo) said that America and "all of us" would need to work together, in a cooperative spirit, with our law enforcement forces around the globe, to achieve successes that benefit all of us.
"Nearly half of the US$3.5 billion in corruption proceeds we have restrained is related to just one enforcement action.
“That action was related to a Malaysian sovereign wealth fund known as 1MDB,” he added.
The US attorney-general also alleged that Malaysian officials and their associates – which presumably includes Jho Low – had been on a “lavish spending spree” to buy real estate, artworks, an American music label and a luxury yacht.
Sessions also mentioned the complex series of opaque transactions involving fraudulent shell companies, stressing that 1MDB was "kleptocracy at its worst."
The DOJ would provide justice to the victims of these alleged schemes, and he added that the best evidence were simple things, like bank, flight and telephone records. It has also increased its staffing levels and created two new units dedicated to foreign information requests.
'Prosecutors have the evidence'
Sessions said, "If they are not properly shared between nations, then justice cannot be done or is delayed… It is essential we continue to improve this kind of information sharing... We must do more to expedite mutual legal assistance request... These requests ensure that prosecutors have the evidence they need to bring a criminal to justice."
His remarks must have hit Najib like a bombshell. Hence, the attack on Sheila was necessary, because there is nothing like a good distraction to bury bad news.
But there is more. On Dec 6, PKR's Sivarasa Rasiah, a panel member in the forum called "Anak Muda Cari Jho Low," posited that Malaysia had not requested legal assistance from DOJ, because the FBI had not forwarded information about 1MDB.
The Subang lawmaker also said that Singapore’s investigations alleged that Eric Tan and Jho Low are the same person, and that he had used the alias in his financial dealings. The country, he added, is only doing the bare minimum to apprehend the culprits responsible for 1MDB; and that what it does do is only to protect its reputation as an international financial and banking centre.
Sivarasa also noted that Malaysia has sufficient laws to track down Jho Low and Riza Aziz, with extradition treaties and laws to seize assets, but that these men are allegedly “protected,” largely by China.
Additionally, he claimed that the bulk of 1MDB money is still in American, Swiss and Singaporean banks, and that as much as US$7 billion is allegedly missing from 1MDB.
This is money that was allegedly stolen from the rakyat, while the interests from the money borrowed by 1MDB are being paid from taxpayer money, a burden the people can ill afford.
If any of the above is true, then is it any surprise that they want to distract from Sessions' announcement?
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