Najib Razak PM in the Clear – Where did it all begin?
Gopal Raj Kumar
WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE ALLEGATIONS AGAINST THE PM
THE 1 MDB AFFAIR
Clearly it is not what the opposition thinks of the Prime Minister of Malaysia or what the scribes at the Malaysian Insider, Bersih, the Malaysian Bar, The Wall Street Journal or even the ABC in Australia has to say about Najib Razak that matters. It is what the facts independent of each of these groups reveal that matters.
No law was ever broken with the receipt of funds into the Prime Minister’s account as alleged by the opposition that the opposition and their allies could cite. The money did not come from 1MDB. Those allegations by critics of government and the Prime Minister in particular have not only failed the opposition but also their constituencies.
In desperation and in a display of abject ignorance of the law and politics, the Malaysian Bar and its allies in the opposition including Bersih went to town with the so called 1MDB affair. They were ably assisted by Clare Rewcastle Brown aided and abetted by elements within the British government to slander and to smear the Prime Minister Najib Razak in the process.
A SHORT RECENT HISTORY OF SAUDI INVOLVEMENT IN MALAYSIA
So much for the opposition’s knowledge of geopolitics and the law. So much for Bersih’s knowledge of the immensely powerful nation of Saudi Arabia and the spread of its tentacles in the region. One wonders now if the time is now finally right for a fightback, a payback to put behind bars those players in the oppositions campaign of destabilization of the country.
The Saudis have been entrenched in the business and politics of Malaysia since the Tunku Abdul Rahman Malaysia’s first Prime Minister. He welcomed them into Malaysia in exchange for a large personal ‘donation’ (gift) to his personal account by the late King Faisal of Saudi Arabia. Their involvement and their influence in Malaysia has been subtle and largely unnoticed because of the way in which the Saudis prefer to operate; by stealth. Unlike the Chinese, the Saudis are not ostentatious. They are discreet. Very discreet.
Not long after that Tunku Abdul Rahman was made President of the Islamic Development Bank a bank financed by the Saudis and other oil rich Islamic states. Britain and the US had encouraged that relationship between the Tunku, the Arabs and Faisal but for strategic reasons and not for the spread of Islam.
The Saudi royals have always been captive of the west ever since oil was discovered in the kingdom. Very little of what the Saudis do escapes the eye of the US and British intelligence apparatus. It was the US with Britain and France that after all put the present Saudi royal family and their children where they are.
The Saudis have also been an indirect funder of the many NGO’s operating in Malaysia and in places like Egypt, the former Yugoslavia, the Philippines, Indonesia and the Ukraine.
One merely has to research the Iran Contra Affair to understand the dynamics of the intertwined interests of the US, the UK, Israel, France and Saudi Arabia in order to understand the generosity of a player such as the cashed up Saudi Royal Family in international politics. That includes channeling money the US and the west is otherwise unable to directly pay to their minions like Bersih and their associates in Malaysia, the Tahrir square rebels in Egypt and the anti Assad forces in Syria.
OTHER RECIPIENTS OF SAUDI MONEY
In short, Bersih, Sisters in Islam, the PKR, PAS, the Christian evangelical churches and yes the Vatican’s representatives in Malaysia through various organisations, donations and alliances are recipients of Saudi money in one form or the other.
Several Sultans of Malaysia have also been recipients of the largess of the Saudi royal family over the years which they have not disclosed. Such gifts require no accounting or disclosure to the Malaysian public but to the consciences of the recipients and to God as it goes.
This has nothing to do with religion or politics per se according to a political analyst from the Brookings Institute. It is all about interests.
Before the 2013 elections we wrote a piece on Wahhabi and radical Islam’s support for PKR’s and Anwar Ibrahim’s crusade parading as a democratic alternative to government in Malaysia. The opposition and elements of the Malaysian Bar scoffed at us and poured scorn at our claims.
The BBC report below now sheds light on the facts of the $681 million payment. Notably it also allows the Wall Street Journal to withdraw saving some face in a feeble statement they include quoting a Wall Street Journal source about the affair. Well we can’t expect anything more from the Wall Street Journal.
The below article contains extracts of the BBC’s recent comments and report on the outcome of the Malaysian Attorney General’s decision not to prosecute the Prime Minister of Malaysia (which in any event would have required impeachments proceedings against him first if there was prima facie evidence of any wrong doing as alleged against him).
EXTRACT FROM REUTERS AND THE BBC’S REPORT ON THE $681 PAYMENT TO THE PM
Saudi Arabia’s late King Abdullah personally authorised a $681 million payment to Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, the BBC has reported.
Malaysia’s attorney general revealed on Tuesday that the early-2013 payment, the subject of months of speculation, had come from the Saudi royal family and involved no corruption or improper conduct. Malaysia’s prime minister had previously said that the cash was a private donation from a Middle Eastern donor that he declined to name.
Tuesday’s revelation was the latest twist in a long-running political scandal around Najib and the country’s ailing sovereign wealth fund Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), the advisory board of which the prime minister leads.
On Wednesday the BBC reported that the cash – $620 million of which was returned to the donor a few months later – was paid by Saudi Arabia to Najib to help the prime minister win 2013 elections at a time when the Saudis were worried about the global influence of the Muslim Brotherhood.
At the time, the BBC said, Malaysia’s opposition alliance included the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party, which was loosely inspired by the Muslim Brotherhood.
A “well-placed Saudi source” told the BBC that the payment had been authorized by King Abdullah, and the funds came from his personal wealth as well as state funds.
Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal, which first revealed in July the large payment to Najib’s personal bank account, but said at the time that the cash came via troubled fund 1MDB, reported on Wednesday that the Saudi ministries of foreign affairs and finance had no knowledge of the payment.
And while the BBC wrote that it was not unusual for Saudi Arabia to fund foreign governments in pursuit of its own interests, the WSJ reported that it was told by an unnamed Saudi official that “a royal donation to the personal bank account of a foreign leader would be unprecedented.”
The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, as well as other government agencies outside Malaysia, are still investigating the payment, the WSJ reported. Malaysia’s attorney general said on Tuesday that he had told the country’s own anti-corruption body to drop its probe into the money transfer.
SOME BACKGROUND INTO THE EXTENSIVE REACH OF SAUDI ARABIA
The $681m (£479m) deposited in the bank account of Malaysian PM Najib Razak by Saudi Arabia was to help him win the 2013 elections, a Saudi source says.
The donation was made amid concerns in Riyadh over the growing influence of the Muslim Brotherhood and other forms of Islamic extremism extending to places such as Malaysia.
Anwar Ibrahim and organisations such as Bersih have unwittingly been a party to paving the way for the Brotherhood and other extremists organisations promoting undemocratic and theocratic government’s in the middle east, Malaysia and beyond.
The Muslim Brotherhood with its more sophisticated organisational structures have been known to successfully penetrate street political groups like the Tahrir Square anti Mubarak coalition; And these street groups much like Bersih, engage in the mayhem they create, they provide a Trojan Horse in the ensuing chaos for other more sinister and extreme radical groups like ISIS (Daesh or the Caliphate) to thrive and muster in their midst.
