Yoursay: Najib, it’s way too late to defend yourself

YOURSAY | When you had the opportunity, you refuse to divulge the truth with regards to 1MDB. 

Najib: Why would I greenlight public funds to buy yacht, luxury items?

Anonymous 2293481434643651: Former PM Najib Razak, when you coined in the slogan "Cash is King", it is already a sign and symptom that you are already filthy rich and you think you are untouchable.

You have all the knowledge about what was going on in 1MDB all this while, bearing in mind you are the person who approved whatever transactions, in particular where it involved millions.

You even deny the huge sums of money that were deposited into your personal bank account. Now you are also denying you have no knowledge about the purchase of all those expensive items found in the properties linked to you.

As much as the rakyat want to believe you, unfortunately you have already brought damage to yourself by your own doing.

Apa Nama: Najib, you should not play ignorance as far as this 1MDB fund is concerned. As a PM, you should have done due diligence before committing any fund in any joint ventures.

At least, you had committed malfeasance as far as the Prime Minister’s Office is concerned. Whether you’re guilty or not, it is for the court to decide.

No number of exclusive interviews with any press, local or international, no amount of denials, no amount of press statements, no amount of playing ignorance and no amount of pretentious, will save you, Najib. 

FlabberPro: It is a little too late with all these explanations. When you had that opportunity, you refuse to divulge the truth with regards to 1MDB. In fact, you even OSA-ed it and whoever question you were persecuted.

Although on numerous times you could have made some official statements, you didn't. You allowed silence to reign on your behalf. Because of that, it contributed to your fall. 

Now that you want to come out from the closet, the opportunity has expired. No one would believe a single word you say. Indeed, it is a little too late.

Beman: "Why would I greenlight public funds to buy yacht, luxury items?" The answer is simple. You thought you could get away by doing this.

Oxymoronictendencies: The question, Najib, is not “Why would I greenlight public funds to buy a yacht and other luxury items?”, but rather “Why would you not have convened an urgent, open and transparent investigation when it was clear to the rest of the world that 1MDB had had money pilfered from it on a scale never before seen.

The problem for you, Najib, is that instead of saying “hold on guys, we’ve got a problem, we need to understand exactly how much is missing, how it’s disappeared and who’s responsible!”, you instead said “there is nothing wrong and there is no money missing”.

Abasir: Najib, an innocent man with the power you wielded, if subjected to the same accusations, would have acted decisively to expose the lies.

He would have, for example, invited his accusers to examine the books; he would have ordered the investigation and trial of all those who conspired to implicate him; he would have engaged in open debate with anyone to prove the falsity of the accusations and would have taken every available legal step to prove his innocence and bring his accusers to justice.

Did you even consider doing any of that? No. Because you knew full well the extent of your guilt... and that of the woman.

Clever Voter: Najib is hardly a role model even to thieves and cheats. He is hardly inspiring with his latest stand on 1MDB. Surely pleading ignorance is hardly convincing.

That can't be true with his actions to stop anything that moves with 1MDB to the extent that the previous attorney-general (AG) had to give him a clean sheet and cleared him of any wrongdoings.

If he was innocent, why didn't his government lay claims to assets frozen abroad?

Najib has earned himself a reputation as a serial liar. Next, he will claim to be medically unfit. His rebuttals against the allegations are illogical, weak and disjointed.

Open Mind: Yes, please explain why you tried your best to curb all information pertaining to 1MDB.

Why did you stop investigations into the abuse of funds, especially when it is being pursued by several countries and widely reported, both locally and abroad?

Vijay47: I am not sure that Johnny Depp, Steven Spielberg, or Aristotle Onassis would subscribe to your exquisite theory, Najib, that purchase of a yacht is evidence of being under lunar influences, and as you have not indulged in such pastimes, ergo, you are "just not crazy". 

Since "insanity" seems to be this week’s flavour, your recent statements are cause for concern for your mental wellbeing.

You vehemently deny any knowledge of any of the countless questionable issues surrounding 1MDB of which you are the principal officer, you claim some fetish-like intimacy with numerous persons of Arab origin, and you daintily wave away your wife's diamonds, bags, and baubles as a lady’s mere frivolous distractions. All one billion ringgit’s worth of them?

In defence, you add that “such 1MDB problems did not arise in other organisations”. Isn’t that precisely the point, that it is only your 1MDB the whole world is looking into?

You speak of the need for “a proper investigation”. But when a proper investigation was indeed being carried out, you terminated it. You were the prime minister then, remember?

A final thought, Najib, would any man in his right senses hold interviews to offer the explanations that you do? I believe Freud called it masochism.

Fairplayer: Rule of law should apply... May truth and justice prevail.

Goldee: Perhaps he should swear on the Quran that he did not steal money from 1MDB, like he did in the Altantuya Shaariibuu case, where he swore that he didn’t know the Mongolian woman.

Quo Vadis: Turning in for the night, the few moments before sleep takes over, might a thought be given to how many tins of milk, one necklace, one ring, one collector's handbag could buy?

How about shoplifters who shoplifted milk to feed their babies and faced the full force of the law? - Mkini