Open letter to ABC reporter Linton Besser
The Four Corners episode about Malaysia was 45 minutes long, but it didn’t say anything of interest to Malaysians.
Rahim Zainuddin, Free Malaysia Today
Dear Mr Besser,
I must say that when it first came to light that ABC’s Four Corners was going to air “State of Fear: Murder and Money in Malaysia” last Monday, I trembled with anticipation. Your unfortunate arrest seemed only to have added to the intrigue.
First World investigative journalism was finally going to reach the shores of Malaysia, I told myself. And how we needed it.
Let me put it this way. We knew about the “money”. The Wall Street Journal had already told us that it was in the region of US$681 million. We like to call it RM2.6 billion. It’s a Malaysian thing, you see.
You have now told us that the sum was much more – in excess of US$1 billion, out of which you say US$75 million came from a Saudi prince, US$80 million from the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Finance, US$120 million from a British Virgin Islands company and the one that started all the fuss, US$681 million in tranches of US620 million and US$61 million, respectively, from another BVI company.
Unfortunately, you seem to have missed the point.
Najib has said that these were donations from generous Saudi donors. However, everyone else, it seems, claims that these monies belonged to 1MDB. It seems to me that you have concluded, at least in part, that Najib is right.
He has said that these were donations meant for the benefit of his political party, Umno, and not for his personal gain.
Can political donations bypass official channels? Is that tantamount to corruption? You have not convinced me.
