No vindication for Najib yet, we’re not that gullible

PM’s aide: Hold Dr M responsible, Western media must apologise

Res Ipsa: Please hold your horses, PM Najib Razak’s aide Tengku Sharifuddin Tengku Ahmad.

First and foremost, if there was no expose from Sarawak Report and Wall Street Journal on the monies in the personal accounts of the PM, there will be no Arabian tale today, let alone the involvement of the Saudi foreign minister and his inconsistent statements.

Initially, the expose was only on the RM2.6 billion and after the initial denials by Najib, as more documentary evidence was unveiled, only then did he admit to receiving the monies but claimed that it was a donation from the Saudis.

Now, we understand that more than RM4 billion found its way into Najib’s accounts. To date, there has been an eerie silence from him on the source, utilisation and whereabouts of the remaining RM1.4 billion.

Perhaps, he is still in the midst of cooking up a new tale to contain the matter. Whatever said, the Western media are more than ready to take on Najib in whichever jurisdiction he chooses.

Indeed, why would they want to apologise when they are more than ready to see Najib in court?

Odin Tajué: Two points I would like to proffer here.

Point 1: This aide of Najib’s is but a drowning man desperately clutching at not even a piece of straw still in good condition but a rotting one.

Being reasonable people, we would like to grant Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Al-Jubeir the benefit of doubt and consider his confirmation that the so-called donation to Najib was genuine and nothing was expected in return.

But we would not simply because the reasons that we have heard all this time regarding the transfer of the ±US$681 million to Najib’s personal bank accounts were not only varying but that they defied logic. They were all nothing more than an insult to our intelligence.

Furthermore, there is this big problem that only two months ago, he (Al-Jubeir) was saying something completely different to The New York Times. Being a foreign minister, he would have known at that time all about the donation, if it was really one.

Point 2: It is inconceivable that the Western media would willy-nilly accept stories and publish them without first checking their veracity, high probability of authenticity, or, at the very least, plausibility. This is implied by the above-mentioned aide.

Most of those more than 50 agencies and purveyors of news that have published articles on the 1MDB scandal and the personages involved are long-established, big organisations. They would not want to injure their hard-earned reputation. Their journalists are invariably well-educated people, and only those with long experience would be assigned to handle projects of the magnitude and stature of the said scandal.

I shall be very blunt and say here that many Westerners do not have a high regard of Asians, especially not of those whose reputation is less than flattering. The personages reported to have been involved with the scandal cannot be described as ones who would command respect and, by extension, attract an apology from the Western media.

Or, for that matter, any media organisations worthy to be described as such.

Pemerhati: Tengku Sharifuddin, previously the Saudi foreign minister said that it was an investment. Then we read that Najib went to Saudi Arabia. That investment has now suddenly become a donation as indicated by the following news reports.

The New York Times report dated Feb 5, 2016 states, “In Saudi Arabia, Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir said… he did not think that the money had come from the Saudi government or that it was a political donation.”

“It is a private Saudi citizen, I believe, and the funds went to an investment in Malaysia,” he said.

On April 15, Bernama reports, “Adel Al-Jubeir today admitted that the donation to Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak indeed came from Saudi Arabia.”

“We are aware of the donation and it is a genuine donation with nothing expected in return,” Adel said.

It looks like this Saudi minister is just like some of the Malaysian ministers who blatantly lie and tell different stories at different times and thus his credibility is zero.

Anonymous 1890491455255851: If this was truly what it is being claimed, why so much secrecy around it and the many different stories?

And how can the PM of a country take such huge amounts of money from another government and not be open and transparent about it?

Anonymous #21828131: The Saudi foreign minister has stirred the hornet’s nest by directly challenging the credibility of all foreign investigating agencies.

Do expect these entities to release forensic details of all transactions that were conducted by Goodstar and Aabar BVI to bring closure to this grand corruption, international money laundering and criminal breach of trust.

Pahatian: In the beginning, the word ‘donation’ was never mentioned even by the beneficiary himself until some bright spark came out with the donation idea. From then on, it was donation here, there and everywhere.

But then it was credited into the PM’s personal accounts and no other person knew about it, not even the DPM then or any member of the Umno supreme council which the donation was meant for.

If Sarawak Report and WSJ hadn’t expose the money trail, everyone would still be in the dark. Muhyiddin Yassin would still be the DPM and Abdul Gani Patail the attorney-general. The unused donation would not have been returned, or was it returned?

So Mr PM’s Aide, why must the foreign media apologise? There is no need for all these. You just tell your boss to sue Sarawak Report or WSJ or ABC or anyone for that matter, after which no one will dare to mention about the donation or 1MDB.

Toman: Very well, Mr Prime Minister. Now that you have the lifeline, let’s sue the daylight out of The Wall Street Journal. Please don’t disappoint us. Make the long-suffering Malaysians proud.

Anonymous_4031c: Tengku Sarifuddin is right. Wisma Putra and the AG’s Chambers should respectively and immediately write to the various foreign governments, their media and law enforcement agencies of the latest disclosure by Saudi Arabia to at least clear the good name of our PM and demand an apology.

It’s these foreign elements that have been feeding and leading the ignorant Malaysians to the path of falsehood. Thank goodness our PM’s supporters stood by him and never once doubted the donation to him.

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