Pressure mounts as allegations of the illicit transfer of USD700 million come to light
The practice of publishing and sharing of unverified information with anonymous sources leads to a culture of trial by media that will only stand to weaken Malaysia as a whole.
Kamie Mohamad
Recent reports of USD700 million being transferred from 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) into the personal accounts of the acting Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak were run by whistle blower blog Sarawak Report and the Wall Street Journal (WSJ).
The Prime Minister has for many months been the target of a long slated campaign to unseat him as the leader of the country led by the Ex Prime Minister Tun Mohamad Mahathir. Rallying support despite heavy criticism, Najib Razak had recently successfully moved the party Supreme Council meeting to after the General elections which is estimated to take place in 2018. This is a move that many view as having solidified the Prime Minister’s position within the party, until at least the next general election.
These fresh allegations come at a time when Prime Minister Najib Razak has appeared his strongest. He had made unpopular economic policy decisions to improve upon a possible downgrade by Moody’s ratings. The policies took the form of the introduction of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) and rationalization of the country’s oil subsidies. The economic policies had recently resulted in an improvement in rating from negative to stable by Moody’s ratings.
The allegations of the movement of $700 million into a personal account belonging to the Prime Minister has yet to be publicly verified. At time of writing, the press has presented no clear source for the allegations other than reference to “Malaysian investigators”.
Sarawak Report had recently come under fire after allegations of tampered emails had come to light following the arrest of an ex-petrosaudi director for blackmail and extortion in Thailand.
Following these developments, the Edge media Group which had published extensive reports based on the emails obtained from Sarawak Report made a statement indicating that they would no longer refer to the tampered emails.
Many hold the view that the current blitz by opposition held media is to divert attention from the pressing investigation that is taking place at the Edge Media Group as well as the Thai-Malaysian investigation of the Swedish National Xavier Andre Justo, accused of tampering with emails that were used in a previous Expose by Whistle Blower site Sarawak Report.
Many question why the alleged documents held by Malaysian investigators have not been revealed to the public. Sarawak Report and WSJ have gone to great lengths to create graphics to explain the alleged transfer of funds from 1MDB to Najib Razak’s personal account however have thus far omitted to reveal the actual documents.
As it stands no documents proving the transfer of $700 million took place have been made available to the public for verification. Many hold the view that WSJ and Sarawak Report should reveal the alleged documents to the public if they are to make such sweeping statements. Both portals have cited the ambiguous source of “Malaysian investigators”.
1MDB is a major issue of public interest that needs to be addressed however the practice of publishing and sharing of unverified information with anonymous sources leads to a culture of trial by media that will only stand to weaken Malaysia as a whole.
If the world’s leading news providers accept ambiguous sources as standard practice then I fear that journalism as a profession has reached a new low.
Only one thing is clear at this point, this will be the end of Najib Razak or the end of Sarawak Report.
