PRIME MINISTER’S PRESS SECRETARY STATEMENT: WALL STREET JOURNAL’S LIES PROVEN

1.      Today, the Wall Street Journal’s false allegations against Malaysia have been proven to be lies yet again, this time by the Monetary Authority of Singapore.

2.      Yesterday the WSJ alleged that Goldman Sachs wired $3 billion in proceeds of a 1MDB bond issuance to BSI Bank in Singapore, and that some of these funds were later transferred to the Prime Minister. Today, the Monetary Authority of Singapore stated that “No bank in Singapore received the $3 billion wire transfer from Goldman Sachs in relation to the bond issuance for 1MDB”.

3.      Despite the gravity of their allegations, the WSJ gave no evidence at all to support their claims – as is now standard process in their Malaysia reporting. In a cowardly tactic to avoid being sued, the WSJ attributes all its allegations to anonymous sources, such as “People familiar with the matter” and unnamed “Investigators”. These sources may or may not exist, or could just be proxies of Tun Mahathir Mohamad and his failed Anti Najib Campaign. Malaysians have no way of knowing, as the WSJ refuse to name a single source.

4.      Every week more of the WSJ’s allegations and anonymous sources are proven to be lies. Such as the WSJ alleging that the Prime Minister was not interviewed by Malaysian investigators, when he was interviewed for multiple hours on 5th December 2015. Or the WSJ’s multiple reports that the Prime Minister had appointed Tan Sri Irwan Serigar Abdullah to be the new Governor of Bank Negara Malaysia, when this was entirely false.

5.      It is now clear that the WSJ has abandoned all pretence at independent reporting on Malaysia. By presenting the unverified lies of the Government’s opponents as facts, the WSJ have become their willing tool – in their openly declared campaign to unseat a democratically elected government, using 1MDB as an excuse. It should be investigated why the WSJ are publishing so many proven lies about one country; and why an international newspaper is taking sides in Malaysia’s internal affairs.

DATUK SERI TENGKU SARIFFUDDIN
PRESS SECRETARY TO THE PRIME MINISTER