Zeti, silence on RM2.6b is no longer an option

‘Najib spoke to Bank Negara governor, got permission to bring in RM2.6b’

Commentable: Department of Special Affairs (Jasa) director-general Mohd Puad Zarkashi, you are storytelling to a bunch of students whom you treat as seven-year-olds in primary 1.

With the help of hindsight, are you trying to make right a terrible wrong by cooking up a tale? I’ll be surprised if people don’t challenge you to put all you have said in a statutory declaration (SD), just so that later it can be used against you when the truth emerges.

I could think of a few offences that’s awaiting, making false SD, complicity to cover-up one or more crimes, subverting the course of justice, to name a few. Dare to throw the gauntlet and go all the way?

Oh, if the meeting did take place as you claimed, and PM Najib Razak had Bank Negara’s approval, why didn’t other Umno leaders like the then DPM Muhyiddin Yassin and vice-president Shafie Apdal had any knowledge about it?

Many other questions are also left unanswered, like why didn’t Najib himself explained immediately after the expose? Why didn’t Bank Negara do so?

Why his stepson, Riza Aziz, had so much money to buy so many luxury properties? Why not return the SRC monies? Care to tell us more stories, Puad?

Aries46: Puad can redeem himself if he can show us the money trail for the Saudi royal donation and the Bank Negara documents that he claimed Najib to have filed for its approval.

And if he can get then Bank Negara governor Zeti Akthar Aziz to concur that she gave the green light for the transaction, that would be the icing on the cake.

Negarawan: “In the meeting, Puad said Najib admitted to receiving the money and claimed he had discussed the matter with then Bank Negara governor Zeti Akthar Aziz and even received the central bank’s approval to bring in the money.”

If indeed Zeti had approved the transfer into Najib’s personal account instead of Umno’s account, then she would have been complicit in the scandal.

Zeti should come out to clarify whether there is any truth to Puad’s claims. This has a significant impact on her reputation as former head of Bank Negara.

Anonymous 122461436161429: And the lies and spins continue. The new Bank Negara governor is facing his first test. He can come out and end this and say that Bank Negara never gave any such consent.

But I am betting he is going to say something like it was before his time, or he doesn’t know what happened between Najib and Zeti.

What does Bank Negara’s stand say to the rest of the world? It says they are willing to allegedly bend the rules.

Shunyata: You claim that what The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) publishes are fabrications of the truth and hold little weight, yet a meeting with the PM was held with such immediacy based on its allegations.

If the meeting was indeed held, why was the then DPM in the dark about the RM2.6 billion? Was he left out of the meeting, and if yes, why?

If the money was meant to fight Islamic State (IS), why the bulk of it was returned? Up till yesterday, there was still news of Malaysians being nabbed for their links to Islamic militancy.

If Zeti is not complicit in the RM2.6 billion, she had better speak up and stop the highly inconsistent BN spokespersons from tarnishing her good image.

Anonymous 29051438068738: Further to Shunyata, if political donations from local and foreign sources are nothing to be shy about and, what more, legal in every way under Malaysian law, why was it not publicly admitted to from the get go?

And why did the alleged money launderer conceal the “legitimate donation” in his accounts from his own Supreme Council of lackeys until the unexpected exposure?

And why didn’t Zeti immediately inform the unceremoniously sacked attorney-general Abdul Gani Patail and the rest of the disbanded “investigating team” that she, as head of Bank Negara, had formally approved of the money coming in?

Pemerhati: The date on which the ‘681 American pies’ (i.e. US$681 million or RM2.6 billion) were allegedly delivered to Najib by Jho Low was March 2013 and the date on which IS was formed was June 2014.

These two dates are obtained from Malaysiakini and Wikipedia. The Malaysiakini report on April 19, 2016 says, “Global investigators believe it was from Tanore that US$681 million was transferred to Malaysian Prime Minister Najib’s accounts in AmBank in March 2013, according to people familiar with the investigations.”

The Wikipedia report says, “On 29 June 2014, ISIL announced the establishment of a worldwide caliphate. Al-Baghdadi was named its caliph, to be known as ‘Caliph Ibrahim’, and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant was renamed the Islamic State (IS).”

Thus the story that the Saudi king sent the money so that it could be used to combat the IS was a blatant lie as the Islamic State only came into being more than a year after Najib got the RM2.6 billion.

Anonymous 2415891461978791: At this stage anyone’s personal opinion, based on which sources they trust, is just an opinion.

But the whole dirty business will be revealed by bank records outside the reach of Malaysian authorities, and one way or another by Christmas I’m sure, we’ll have a very clear picture of what happened to the missing six billion dollars.

I expect those who think there is no money missing and no money stolen will get a surprise. But we’ll see. It is completely beyond the control of anyone in Malaysia, which is surely a good thing.

Let us hope any funds improperly taken can be recovered in the end, and in the meantime, enjoy the bizarre reality show playing out every week in the world press.

CQ Muar: Zeti, the rakyat held you in high esteem during your term as Bank Negara governor. Now that you have retired, we hope your conscience is clear regarding the transfer of Najib’s RM2.6 billion.

We hope this isn’t a case of “you scratch my back and I yours”. We hope you will continue to earn our respect by revealing the truth.

Kangkung: The plot thickens as they try very hard to exonerate Najib. And of course, Zeti will be tight-lipped.

What a tangled web that Puad Zarkashi weaves

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