Mahathir’s feeble attempt at reviving the dead 1MDB issue

By MT Webmaster Last updated Jun 21, 2017

This second DoJ press announcement is a wayang kulit or magic show to make Malaysians look at this latest brouhaha instead of looking at Pakatan Harapan and notice that the opposition coalition is about to disintegrate, like what happened to Pakatan Rakyat two years ago. This is called a weapon of mass distraction (WMD) and has been proven to be very effective when you need people to look the other way.

THE CORRIDORS OF POWER

Raja Petra Kamarudin

“The Justice Department announced today the filing of civil forfeiture complaints seeking the forfeiture and recovery of approximately $540 million in assets associated with an international conspiracy to launder funds misappropriated from a Malaysian sovereign wealth fund. Combined with civil forfeiture complaints filed in July 2016, seeking more than $1 billion, and civil forfeiture complaints filed last week seeking approximately $100 million in assets, this case represents the largest action brought under the Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative. Assets now subject to forfeiture in this case total almost $1.7 billion,” said the DoJ in a press release yesterday.

READ MORE HERE:

DoJ press release, 15 June 2017

Verified Complaint for Forfeiture

The announcement was made by Acting Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Blanco, Acting U.S. Attorney Sandra R. Brown of the Central District of California, Assistant Director Stephen E. Richardson of the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division, and Deputy Chief Don Fort of the IRS-Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI).

Mahathir is trying to revive the now dead 1MDB issue to distract Malaysians from the problems Pakatan Harapan is facing that may see it go the way of Pakatan Rakyat two years ago

This is actually round two of DoJ’s first announcement, which was made in July last year, and is Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s latest and feeble attempt at reviving the now dead 1MDB issue and try to keep the matter alive until the next general election. Mahathir realises he has nothing left with which to attack Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak so he is revisiting the 1MDB issue hoping that he can bring the issue back to life and continue to use it against Najib.

When the DoJ attack was first launched in July last year, Mahathir put Tun Daim Zainuddin and Kadir Jasin in charge of the publicity campaign. That was exactly a year after the July 2015 coup when Najib was supposed to have been ousted from office. Unfortunately, Kadir bungled the publicity campaign and the July 2016 DoJ attack fell flat and went nowhere, wasting millions and a whole year’s worth of work.

Cynthia arranged PKR’s funding from Soros, lied that France had issued a warrant of arrest for Najib, and is behind the latest DoJ action as well

After that Mahathir asked Cynthia Gabriel, Matthias Chang, Sivarasa Rasiah and Clare Rewcastle Brown to take over. Sivarasa is Anwar’s lawyer (who filed yesterday’s court action regarding the RM9.5 million Najib is alleged to have paid Muhammad Shafee Abdullah) while Cynthia is the link with the United States. In 1999, Cynthia organised PKR’s funding and she arranged for George Soros to come out with the money to finance PKR’s 1999 general election campaign. So the United States is practically her playing field.

The Verified Complaint for Forfeiture (READ HERE) was actually drafted by Sivarasa and Matthias, after which Cynthia handed it to Sandra Brown, the Acting U.S. Attorney of the Central District of California. Sandra is the same person who was involved in last year’s exercise as well. A week ago copies of this document was given to Mahathir and Clare. Hence everyone had been properly primed for yesterday’s attack. When he received the documents, Mahathir commented, “Kali ini kita habiskan Najib.”

Sandra Brown works for the ANC in the US while Clare Brown is their UK agent

Yesterday’s event was well orchestrated and they took their time preparing everything to make sure they do not blunder again like back in July 2016. With the current turmoil in the United States, and with rogue elements within the DoJ working against the President, the ANC (Anti-Najib Campaign) knew the situation was ripe for exploitation. If they want to revive last July’s DoJ matter then they have to move now before President Donald Trump cleans out the DoJ and gets rid of the rouge elements.

Mahathir and the ANC know this action is not really going to go anywhere. What they have is merely yet another press announcement by the DoJ, the second one in 11 months, plus 250 pages of ‘details’. But then they do not really care whether the legal action is going to succeed because this is not about going to court. The purpose of this action is to win the next general election. So as long as they can make waves in Malaysia that is all that matters even if they do not really have a leg to stand on.

The ANC knows that voters from the Malay heartland do not care or do not understand what happens in a US court. The voters from the Malay heartland are not going to be swayed by what the US court says. The fact that this is a civil action and not a criminal action is not even understood by the voters in the Malay heartland. All Mahathir needs to say is, “Amerika telah ambil tindakan makhamah terhadap Najib,” without even explaining that nowhere in those 250 pages is Najib implicated in any crime.

In fact, the DoJ did not even contact Malaysia or request Malaysia’s help. The DoJ realises that since this is a civil action and not a criminal action they would find it awkward to talk to Malaysia. Since the matter involves something that happened on US soil, and since it is a civil action and not criminal action, then what business will it be of Malaysia?

Legal brains who have scrutinised DoJ’s documents say that the suit is flawed and is not really of substance. They are of the opinion it is similar to what they did to Hillary Clinton just three days before the presidential election, which saw her lose the contest. In short, it is more political than legal but since the target is politics then this would meet that objective.

The allegations itself are recycled from last year and do not contain anything new. Many of the allegations are extremely personal and unnecessary and a gratuitous reference to certain matters which are only relevant to political manipulation.

These are serious violations of DoJ’s own rules by certain prosecutors from California whose motivation goes well beyond the objective of seizing assets in this civil seizure action. DoJ’s act seems to have been engineered to execute maximum political ramifications to Malaysia’s domestic politics with intentions to adversely affect the government.

Just like in DoJ’s first press announcement in July last year, this second announcement is going to go nowhere as well. And just before the next general election they will come out with a third press announcement just to make sure. Malaysians are not bright enough to ask if a crime has been committed, and if they really have evidence of that crime, then why not go for criminal action instead of this very weak civil action, which even a first-year law student can contest?

Well, the answer is simple. It is because the objective is political and is an attempt to sway the voters. Secondly, it is an exercise to distract Malaysians from the fact that Pakatan Harapan is in a mess and is facing the danger of breaking up. PKR is not happy with PPBM pushing for Mahathir as Prime Minister while PPBM is not happy that PKR will not accept Mahathir. And many within DAP are not happy that Mahathir, with only one Parliament seat, is calling the shots when DAP has 38 seats and is expected to win at least 50 seats in the next general election.