OMG, it was Pakatan and not PAS who received the RM90 million
In short, the RM1 million went to Saifuddin Abdullah and not to Nasharudin Mat Isa. Oh my God, what have Clare, Ambiga and Rafizi done? They have just shot the ball into their own goal! What a mess! So, what is the MACC going to do? Are they going to interrogate, arrest and charge Pakatan Harapan’s Minister of Foreign Affairs? Or are they going to drop this entire RM90 million investigation nonsense and hope the issue will die off soon?
THE CORRIDORS OF POWER
Raja Petra Kamarudin
On 13th April 2017, Clare Rewcastle Brown said she received information from Rafizi Ramli that former prime minister Najib Tun Razak gave PAS RM90 million to bribe that party to leave Pakatan Rakyat. Rafizi, on the other hand, said he received that information from the MACC officer involved in the investigation.
(You can read the two reports by Sarawak Report and Free Malaysia Today dated 13th April 2017 below).
There are two things wrong here. First is the fact that the MACC officer involved in this investigation revealed information to Rafizi. This is a crime under the Official Secrets Act (OSA) and Rafizi (plus the MACC officer) can be jailed for that. Secondly, in Clare Rewcastle Brown’s written statement to the London court, she said that it was Ambiga Sreenevasan who told her that Najib gave PAS RM90 million. So, did Clare lie to the London court?
So who is Clare’s real source after all, Rafizi or Ambiga?
We now have two stories regarding who Clare’s source of information is. One story is it was Rafizi, and another story is it was Ambiga. Rafizi says the MACC told him while Ambiga did not mention who told her. And the MACC officer also did not confirm that he told Rafizi about the RM90 million.
This was what Sarawak Report wrote on 13th April 2017:
Most of these officials are now being retired and it is from this source that Rafizi Ramli has now said he received information that Nasharudin Mat Isa was one of the people to receive wads of cash from Najib, cementing a widespread view that UMNO is seeking to bribe senior figures in the party in order to take control of its agenda and break up the opposition before the next election. –– Sarawak Report
Yes, Nasharudin Mat Isa was allegedly “one of the people to receive wads of cash from Najib”, to quote Sarawak Report.
Sarawak Report said Najib gave Nasharudin Mat Isa millions but the records show it was only RM1 million and it was paid to Pakatan’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Saifuddin Abdullah
According to Malaysia Today’s deep throat within the MACC, the Global Movement of Moderates Foundation (GMM) did, in fact, receive RM1 million. There are banking records and accounts records to prove this. But the RM1 million came from government funds and not from 1MDB, as Clare, Ambiga and Rafizi alleged.
But that is not really the bombshell since the RM1 million is documented and not ‘under-the-table’ and was not from 1MDB (which means there is no money laundering involved). The bombshell is that the RM1 million was paid when Saifuddin Abdullah, Pakatan Harapan’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, was heading GMM.
In short, the RM1 million went to Saifuddin Abdullah and not to Nasharudin Mat Isa. Oh my God, what have Clare, Ambiga and Rafizi done? They have just shot the ball into their own goal! What a mess! So, what is the MACC going to do? Are they going to interrogate, arrest and charge Pakatan Harapan’s Minister of Foreign Affairs? Or are they going to drop this entire RM90 million investigation nonsense and hope the issue will die off soon?
It was Pakatan’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Saifuddin Abdullah and not Nasharudin Mat Isa who received the RM1 million after all
**********************************************
(FMT, 13 April 2017) – Rafizi Ramli today named former PAS deputy president Nasharudin Mat Isa as the PAS leader who had allegedly received 1MDB funds.
This followed Rafizi’s initial claim on April 7 that the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) had traced the flow of funds from 1MDB to an individual close to the PAS leadership.
The PKR vice-president said this was the result of MACC’s investigation into the funds of the state investment arm which had purportedly been transferred into Prime Minister Najib Razak’s accounts.
“On Jan 28, 2017, I met a former senior officer of MACC, who had led the probe on 1MDB,” the Pandan MP told a press conference aired on Facebook live today.
“We shared information and knowledge about 1MDB… and he spoke about how MACC in its investigation, found that some of the amount channeled to the prime minister’s personal account, was then transferred to Nasharudin.”
He also alleged that the former senior MACC officer had spoken of the time Kuala Nerus PAS MP Mohd Khairuddin Aman Razali had met him to inquire about the investigation on 1MDB.
According to Rafizi, the officer had told him everything there is to know about the investigation, but Khairuddin had not said a word about it.
Yesterday, Rafizi said he would lodge a report with MACC after revealing the identity of the person, whom he had earlier called “the bridge between Umno and PAS”.
He had previously said that once he unmasked the recipient of the funds, both Umno and PAS would have to deal with the fallout, especially if the attorney-general decided to close the case, as this would lead to speculation of government interference.
“The PAS leadership at every level will have to check whether they have ever received any form of financial aid or funding as there is a huge possibility that those funds came from the rakyat through 1MDB,” Rafizi had said.
Nasharudin was PAS deputy president from 2005 to 2013. He was sacked from PAS’ governing council in January 2013, but remained a member of the Islamist party.
The party’s late spiritual leader Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat said on Jan 30 that the decision to sack him was due to several factors, including Nasharudin going against the party’s stand and his failure to attend three council meetings in a row.
Subsequent reports noted that the Islamist party had sacked Nasharudin following his participation in Najib’s 2013 visit to Gaza.
Najib himself said PAS had sacked Nasharudin due to its uneasiness over Umno’s success in uniting the Muslims.
On Oct 28, 2015, Nasharudin was appointed CEO of the Global Movement of Moderates Foundation (GMM), replacing Saifuddin Abdullah who vacated the position after quitting Umno to join PKR.
In December, he said his appointment had received the blessings of PAS although he no longer played an active role in the party, and represented neither the Islamist party nor Umno with his position.
He is also chair of the Nassar Foundation, a non-government organisation, a fellow of Yayasan Dakwah Islamiah Malaysia (YADIM) and a member of the Council of Islamic Chinese Relations (CICR).
He was formerly MP for Yan (1999-2004) and Bachok (2008-2013).
************************************************
(Sarawak Report, 13 April 2017) – In the light of PKR spokesman Rafizi Ramli’s revelations today about payments made personally by Najib Razak to the PAS former Deputy Leader and present Chairman of the so-called Global Movement of Moderates, Sarwak Report is re-posting a recent article (below) relating to UMNO’s courtship of PAS.
Nasharudin Mat Isa (see above left with PAS President Hadi and PM Najib) has long been associated as a key figure in the attempts by UMNO to take over PAS, which is politically vital to Najib as he fights haemorrhaging support for his government.
Rafizi has said that he was informed about the payments by a former MACC top official, who was investigating the matter. They were among a string of hand outs made by the Prime Minister from money taken from the 1MDB subsidiary SRC International, which had in turn borrowed the cash from the KWAP civil service pension fund (supposedly for investments in profitable development enterprises).
