- ...a flood of cash—about $1 billion—that flowed into Mr. Najib’s personal bank account
- As a tight general election approached, Mr. Najib sent hundreds of checks to ruling party politicians to help fund his campaign...
- In all, Mr. Najib wrote more than 500 checks totaling about $400 million
- After the election, Mr. Najib closed his main account at AmBank and sent about $620 million back to the offshore company it came from...
Tuesday, September 6, 2016
WSJ: Najib Razak is still Innocent
The latest WSJ (see link) article gave the clearest details on Najib's personal 1MDB-related accounting:
Friday, January 1, 2016
Najib Razak is Innocent
The latest investigative piece by the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) on 1MDB actually imparts the opposite effect of its original intentions. Instead of exposing the so-called money politics in Malaysia and implicating Najib Razak, the article to some extend absolves the Prime Minister. How ironic!
While admitting Najib's political spending is not illegal in Malaysia, WSJ portrayed the Prime Minister as a leader who would do anything to ensure he and his party stay in power - not unlike any other politicians either in Kuala Lumpur, Penang, Washington or Timbuktu. Election campaign contributions or donations and special-interest lobbying are acceptable in the West. The only major difference, something Malaysia should adopt moving forward, is full transparency.
Najib may have committed a lapse in judgement in his strategy and management of his party's financial machinery. However, given all the prima facie evidence including the transactions and interviews unearthed by the WSJ investigation, Najib deserves the benefit of the doubt to entangle himself, and move on to lead the nation to face what is expected to be another global economic turbulence in 2016.
Yes, I have a change of heart towards Najib. I also respect and have empathy on Tun M's perspective - UMNO is weakening and Tun has a valid concern. Whatever the outcome of 1MDB or continuing Najib's resiliency, UMNO should not be complacent. In fact, one important lesson is throwing money to the haves will not win you the election, to the have-nots maybe.
Related past articles:
While admitting Najib's political spending is not illegal in Malaysia, WSJ portrayed the Prime Minister as a leader who would do anything to ensure he and his party stay in power - not unlike any other politicians either in Kuala Lumpur, Penang, Washington or Timbuktu. Election campaign contributions or donations and special-interest lobbying are acceptable in the West. The only major difference, something Malaysia should adopt moving forward, is full transparency.
Najib may have committed a lapse in judgement in his strategy and management of his party's financial machinery. However, given all the prima facie evidence including the transactions and interviews unearthed by the WSJ investigation, Najib deserves the benefit of the doubt to entangle himself, and move on to lead the nation to face what is expected to be another global economic turbulence in 2016.
Yes, I have a change of heart towards Najib. I also respect and have empathy on Tun M's perspective - UMNO is weakening and Tun has a valid concern. Whatever the outcome of 1MDB or continuing Najib's resiliency, UMNO should not be complacent. In fact, one important lesson is throwing money to the haves will not win you the election, to the have-nots maybe.
Related past articles:
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