“Diamonds are forever”, But not always

• 16 June 2017
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The latest Court proceedings begun by the US Attorney General against arch thief Najib Razak, fellow arch thief Jho Low and all their accomplices, Malaysian and American, make fascinating reading.

Among many other things they prove that Najib, Low and many others stole vast amounts of public money from 1MDB and, in all probability from other Malaysian public funds.

It is inevitable that these civil proceedings, designed to recover the loot, will be followed by criminal proceedings both in the US and, after the arch thief is booted from office or runs away, in Malaysia. And also against dozens, if not hundreds, of his accomplices in political life and in government service (Ministers,Police, Judiciary, Administration etc. etc.)

In a, mostly, male cast of criminal characters set out in the DOJ’s plaint there is one especially interesting female personality. That is, of course, the real Prime Minister, Rosmah Mansor. Compared to her husband her loot was quite small but nevertheless she took over 27 million US dollars worth of diamond jewelry and MYR 5 million worth of gold bangles.

Admittedly she is far from svelte but fitting this jewelry store stock in place must pose some problems. Not least the sheer vulgarity of dressing up as a refugee from a South African mine. “Dripping with diamonds” springs to mind as an appropriate description. Or loaded with loot?