18 Apr 2024, 18:45 Kuching
18 Apr 2024, 11:45 London
The Court of Appeal is set to deliver its verdict tomorrow on Najib Abdul Razak’s appeal to quash his conviction and sentencing in the RM42 million SRC International case.
In a unanimous decision today, the three-person bench chaired by judge Abdul Karim Abdul Jalil dismissed the former prime minister’s application to adduce fresh evidence in the appeal…
Karim said that Najib’s application failed to fulfil the requirement under Section 61 of the Courts of Judicature Act that any such additional evidence is not only relevant to the case but that it was not available during the criminal trial and was capable of creating reasonable doubt in the prosecution’s case.
Are his record bouts of exposure to Covid 19 to blame? Najib’s flash lawyer seems to have lost his touch. He almost appears to be acting desperately.
Today, after a particularly astonishing display of contempt as he and his client simply failed to turn up to hear their own application (for another delay) at the KL court, Shafee once again blamed the bug.
He had been asking for an umpteenth, eleventh hour delay on the ruling due tomorrow on Najib’s already inordinately delayed appeal against his SRC conviction, based on what he described as the discovery of ‘new evidence’.
However, as his own submissions have shown, this evidence turned out to be a year old, during which time he had failed to introduce his arguments as the ruling was delayed in other ways. The ‘evidence’ was also irrelevant to the question of Najib’s own guilt.
All this the judges pointed out as they rejected Shafee’s application, having finally located the missing duo and dragged them into a zoom session of the court on the threat of incarceration of his client.
Which leaves one wondering if Najib’s accident prone advocate is running out of tricks and foundering?
One should not presume so. Theatrics are Shafee’s style and his bag of tricks is deep and wide and packed with the most persuasive ammo. What’s more, Najib has remained placid over his fate since the day he was charged, telling all who care to listen that he will not face punishment for his actions.
It appears Rosamah is no longer playing safe in Singapore!
*updated
The people of Sarawak need to make the right choice in the 12th state election to maintain good relations between the state and federal governments, said Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob.
According to him, good ties are important to facilitate dealings between the two governments especially in implementing development for Sarawak residents.
Taking the example of the Second Sungai Yong Bridge costing RM12.6 million located about 15km from Kapit, Ismail Sabri said it would not be implemented if the two governments have a different focus…
“Sarawak Chief Minister Abang Jo (Abang Johari Openg) is my friend. As such, I hope the people would not make the wrong decision, for many more [projects] which need to be approved may not be implemented if the state administration is different from the central government,”
In a genuine democracy a politician making such a threat would be booed out of office.
Yet this bigoted prime minister who has crafted a budget that almost exclusively caters purely for Malays has openly seen fit to threaten the people of Sarawak that he will direct none of their own oil money towards developing their state unless they vote for his allies – the plunderers from GPS.
What better statement to sum up the reality of the relationship UMNO has maintained, not as equal partners with the supposedly independent Borneo states that have made West Malaysia rich, but as plundering colonialist bullies?
Rosmah Mansor, the wife of ex-premier Najib Abdul Razak, has not returned from Singapore to attend her Court of Appeal hearing despite the High Court having issued an order for her to return on or before Nov 21.
Prosecutor Gopal Sri Ram asked the Appeals Court judges to issue an arrest warrant, but they made a unanimous decision to withhold the warrant after hearing from her lawyer Jagjit Singh that it was “an oversight”, and he takes full responsibility for her absence.
It has emerged that Rosmah Mansor has done a flit, in that by some “oversight” she has failed to return from Singapore by November 21st (ie two weeks ago). This was the date stated by the court when she was granted special dispensation to receive back her passport in the middle of her corruption trials.
Just the sort of thing one forgets, of course …. not just for a day, but for 12 whole days, even to the extent of failing to fly back after a court hearing was called to demand her return.
One thing other Malaysians are never allowed to forget, on the other hand, is that for some reason this shopaholic who acquired diamonds worth hundreds of millions out of 1MDB’s stolen money and is presently on trial for a massive theft from funds meant for Sarawak schoolchildren, has been endlessly indulged by the justice system along with her family who are all also up to their neck in kleptocracy allegations.
Bets are off that Rosmah will only return after the present UMNO government has proven it can force the Appeal Court judges to release her multi-billion thieving husband from his convictions also and get all his further charges dropped mid-trial. She would be unwise to do so (hence the disgrace of allowing a passport to a flight risk such as her).
Meanwhile, the Malaysian courts and forces of order are in full throttle to achieve and arrest of the editor of this site from abroad on peculiar charges of ‘criminal libel’ that do not exist in the jurisdiction where she lives.
This in the middle of a protracted parallel dispute over the same complaint of civil libel against the editor for having reported a claim by Jho Low that he had the opportunity of meeting the Sultan of Terengganu, thanks to an introduction from a female member of his family whom he proudly counted as an acquaintance.
Compare the two sets of sins and consider where Malaysia’s forces of law and order might best concentrate their efforts?
Of course, were it to be the case that the present UMNO regime is putting pressure on the courts, as has been claimed by the ex-PM Mahiaddin Yassin, the issuing of charges and warrants against the journalist who exposed Najib’s and Rosmah’s alleged crimes rather than enforcing rulings against this couple.
Banker Nazir Abdul Razak and a group of 54 other prominent individuals have urged Yang di-Pertuan Agong Sultan Abdullah Ahmad Shah and the Conference of Rulers to endorse the setting up of a non-partisan platform to propose reforms amidst the challenges faced by the country.
In a letter, Nazir said successive prime ministers have come into power promising substantial reforms, but these promises often give way to racial and religious overtones and little change is ultimately achieved.
In addition, he said parliamentarians often fail to address structural issues because they often prioritise short-term interests and their own election.
Therefore, he said, a deliberative platform – which he proposed should be named the “Better Malaysia Assembly” – would be a better approach to push reforms….
The assembly will deliberate on issues of nationhood and institutional reforms, including matters such as the electoral system, political funding, federal-state relations, role of institutions, affirmative action and education.
It would identify specific policies and legislative changes that are required, which Nazir estimated would take 18 to 24 months of deliberation behind closed doors to reach a consensus.
And how does Najib’s brother propose to implement these proposed reforms to be arrived at behind closed doors before being endorsed by royalty?
Should these self-appointed members of the establishment (who have dominated the country for the past 60 years and therefore own this mess) just issue these secretively negotiated solutions, dreamed up by the most privileged panjandrums of the nation, by Royal Decree and simply abolish the role of Parliament in the process?
It seems these are exactly the lines along which Najib’s brother happens to be thinking as he haughtily dismisses the suitability of elected representatives (i.e. politicians) to manage the nation.
Some cheek given that he comes from the family who has messed things up in recent years not least by over-centralising power, neutering the nation’s institutions and treating parliament like a class of children during the very limited period it has been allowed to sit.
The purpose of this steady erosion of democracy over very many years of UMNO party political dictatorship? The desire to loot without oversight by the elected representatives of the people, whom this major beneficiary of all that corruption now seeks to blame for the consequences of this destruction of democracy by his own greedy social elite.
With more crowning irony, Nazir seeks to use the record of the past two years as some kind of proof of the failings of parliamentary democracy. Yet it is exactly throughout this period that Parliament and democracy have been suspended by his establishment pals, leaving the country to be ruled by the King and his Counsel and puppet PMs.
The reforms that are needed in Malaysia are these:
a) a return to the rule of law – this needs no blue sky thinking on the part of Nazir Razak. The rules are there, you just need to start implementing them, instead of giving continual passes to privileged individuals like his brother and his gang of crooks.
b) The above needs a restoration of a parliament with teeth to punish the plutocratic oligarchs who have grabbed the levers of power to enrich themselves. (his own brother being the most glaring example)
c) To achieve this you must place the selection of the Speaker of Parliament back in the hands of the appropriate body i.e. Parliament not the PM.
The rest of the necessary reforms will follow from the above, if the meddling of corrupt establishment power-mongers can be kept at bay.
On the other hand, if the overbearing individuals who have controlled the country behind the scenes for decades, are put in charge via this proposed self-selected ’eminent persons group’ endorsed by royal figures, Malaysia will merely be looking at more of the same and worse.
A foreigner was sentenced to a year in jail after being found guilty by the Lahad Datu magistrates’ court for the illegal possession of a Malaysian identity card and using it to obtain two doses of the Covid-19 vaccine.
The woman, who was not identified, was charged under Regulation 25(1)(e) of the National Registration Regulations 1990 (Amendment 2007) for deliberately having another person’s identity card and falsely using it as her own on two occasions.
There can be few countries on earth where a woman would be sent to jail for seeking to become vaccinated from Covid.
Her crime? To be a foreigner stuck in Malaysia for whatever reason and thus unable to receive a vaccine except by using someone else’s ID card.
Would the Sabah judge have preferred her to continue as a potential spreader of the disease instead?
Malaysia, has plenty of doses of vaccine and has expressed a willingness to make sure all people in the country (whether foreign or not) should be protected for their own benefit and others. That has been the attitude of all sensible governments with supplies of Covid vaccine everywhere.
The scandal is why was this woman obliged to resort to subterfuge to get her vaccine in the first place? It is those responsible for her dilemma who should be jailed, not just for threatening her health but everybody else’s.
The police found no element of “vote-buying” in a food and cash handout event for the elderly people that is being aired in a viral video.
In a statement today, Malacca Criminal Investigation Department chief Azlan Abu said the event has nothing to do with the forthcoming Malacca state election.
“The image was uploaded yesterday by several Facebook accounts, showing food packages together with RM50 cash (being handed out to the elderly people).
“Image caption alleged that it happened in Malacca while some commented that there was a political element in the programme, which was meant to gain votes,” Azlan said.
“The investigation by Malacca police showed that the event was not meant to affect the ballots. No party symbol nor element was found in the video,” he said….
The two-minute-17-seconds video clip that made the rounds on social media shows dozens of elderly people queuing up for their share of food packages and an RM50 cash handout.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qY1Q-W63V08
Bunga Raya Businesspersons and Residential Association head Leong Cheng Fah believes that the event took place in Pudu, Kuala Lumpur.
“I have checked with many activists and were told that this is an annual charity event in Pudu, in which food and cash are handed out on the road,” Leong was quoted as saying.
So, the Malacca police have investigated this shocking incident and have done little to explain what people can see with their own eyes. This is because their denials and assurances leave so much unsaid.
If the event had nothing to do with the Malacca election then where did the event take place and who is it that is handing out money to ‘elderly residents’? The speculation of a community voice in Malacca is inadequate on this matter.
If there is some regular charitable event where money is handed out to random folk on a regular basis then surely people would know about it?
What people do know about is the pernicious endemic practice of electoral bribery in Malaysia where money is handed out for votes before elections!
More to the point why are these ‘beneficiaries of charity’ plainly handing over their IC cards on receipt of their goodies? We can see what is going on with our own eyes in this video. This is of concern because of the practice of taking IC cards to prevent people voting or worse, to enable others to vote on their behalf.
Will the same folk have been told that after the election they will be able to collect back their IC card and another RM50? If so, it will be a practice that everyone in Malaysia is aware of.
So, if this is not the case will the Malacca police now provide more details about where this charitable incident took place, who was responsible for it and where their money came from so that Malaysians can find out more about what is going on with this highly peculiar set of circumstances?
It seems the forces of law in Malaysia would prefer distractions like issuing ‘Wanted’ posters for innocent foreign observers of the mess Malaysia now is in instead!
The cabinet has decided to send Water and Environment Minister Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man to the 26th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP26) in Glasgow, Scotland.
He will also ratify for Malaysia two declarations to protect the environment, which have already been signed by more than 100 countries.
Putrajaya had been noticeably absent during the first two days of COP26, which was attended by major world leaders.
Tuan Ibrahim’s ministry in a statement today said the minister will sit in the high-level segment of COP26 on Nov 9 and 10 and will deliver a national statement.
During his visit, he will ratify the Glasgow Leaders’ Declaration on Forest and Land Use, which pledges to halt and reverse deforestation and land degradation by 2030.
Apart from up-grading to a gas guzzling Vellfire (luxury cars being clearly a priority for the clerics of PAS at this time of Covid related financial hardship) one wonders what if anything the cleric cum politician Tuan Ibrahim cares or knows about the environment?
What we do know is that Malaysia under the present coup government stubbornly ignored this eleventh hour major international conference on tackling the global climate crisis throughout the first week, not even sending a minister to attend, let alone a head of government.
Despite intense lobbying by more responsible governments it has been observed that Malaysia has so far also even failed to sign up to the extremely tame commitment to cease logging in ten years time.
Now, it appears, the UMNO/PAS coup mongers in KL have belatedly looked up from their efforts to grab as much from the public purse as possible to realise it all looks rather bad. Perhaps the diary secretary at Tuan’s eco-ministry had forgotten to mark the conference in?
So, they must have asked themselves, who is the ‘environment’ chap they can possibly send to catch up with events and lead on Malaysia’s own ‘policy agenda’ on the matter? As we are now of course reminded, this particular juicy portfolio has gone to the number two at PAS, an Islamic scholar from Pahang whose party has mainly shown itself preoccupied with implementing backward and sadistic punishments against non-conformists.
Before he rushes off to represent Malaysia at this long-planned event therefore, it would be nice if Tuan Ibrahim could demonstrate that he at least understands the science behind climate change, let alone how the consequences (such as flooding) are presently affecting great swathes of Malaysia itself and threaten hunger and a collapse of farming in the very near future for the next generation in his home state.
Statements such as the one reported below offer slender grounds for confidence:
The government will carry out carbon trading carefully so that such activities do not affect the country’s greenhouse gas emissions commitment, said Environment and Water Minister Datuk Seri Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man. [Malay Mail]
Does he understand a word of the PR gobbledygook contained in the statements (see below) uttered from his government’s newly minted ‘Malaysian Climate Change Action Council (MyCAC)’. If so, could he translate the waffle into a meaningful statement on Malaysia’s plans for action?
Another approach is the development of a “green recovery plan” agenda such as the “Green New Deal” so that Malaysia will become a hub in the field of green economy, services and technology, and will foster green lifestyles in all walks of life through the concept of planetary health towards holistic sustainable development, he [Tuan Ibrahim] said.
One other approach is the strengthening of the country’s climate change governance through the involvement of all stakeholders, and the implementation of various programmes to drive the climate change agenda by mobilising manpower resources and financial allocations, he [Tuan Ibrahim] said.
That all this and more is reported to be achieved by MyCAC through just two meetings a year is the strongest indication as to the actual level of the present Malaysian government’s actual commitment towards restraining the greedy resource extraction that has destroyed one of the most abundant natural environments on the planet in just half the lifetime of Tuan Ibrahim (essentially the period of his political career).
As environment minister there is little evidence he has shown any interest in the matters in his portfolio. Indeed, as opposition politicians had pointed out, at the major global launch of COP last week he was still back in Malaysia harping on about one of his party’s long-standing obsessions, namely alcohol, instead.
Likewise, as an active politician over many years in Pahang he has presided apparently uncaring over the devastating destruction of his state, through greedy timber extraction and mining and plantation grabs that have profited his party and ruling elites at the expense of the poorest rural and indigenous communities.
Most of Pahang’s once valuable natural resources (which could have been profitably sustained for the people of the state) now lie in ruins and vast numbers of species have been wiped out across Malaysia before they could even be recorded and their potential properties identified. Just for quick profits for a privileged elite.
Erosion and flooding and deadly pollution in Pahang and elsewhere have been the consequence of the wholesale replacement of natural forests with monoculture oil palm plantations and careless industry. Wildlife has all but disappeared in just a few years and the indigenous people’s protests have fallen on deaf ‘religious’ ears as their suffering increases.
Tuan Ibrahim either fails to understand how on present trends these consequences will get exponentially worse for the coming generation or unethically he fails to care.
Meanwhile, no expense is clearly to be spared on Tuan Ibrahim’s fancy transportation so doubtless he will be assigned first class airline seats to Glasgow, where he is now belatedly going to sign the ‘Zero Deforestation Deal’ that represents just the tiniest commitment to tackling the behaviour of Tuan Ibrahim’s own state government over the past many years.
One thing this veteran politician cum religious leader does probably understand is that after 2030 it will not be him who is around to have to worry about implementing it.
Bribing electors comes under Voter Fraud – Penalty One Year In Jail
What further shame can the leadership of Malaysia’s fractious Coup Coalition heap upon its people?
Here is the former Prime Minister, Mahiaddin, whose campaign has just been fined together with his rival Najib Razak after the pair of these dirty old men took their electioneering into the Malacca market places at a risk to public health and contrary to their own laws.
So, what is he doing now? According to our own eyes he is handing a RM50* note to a passing voter – described as being a poor old man who is seeking cheap food stuffs. This is a crime on the part of the former prime minister known as electoral bribery and it comes under voter fraud, which in the UK at least would land him with a year in jail.
Perhaps ‘Moo’ has an excuse? Is he paying the motorcyclist for an illegal lift on the back of his bike or for some goods he brought to market?
In which case, how does he explain his crew of assistants one of whom is rifling through to extract another RM50 from a bundle that he appears to be clutching in a plastic holder and the other who is taking apparent notes on the identity of the recipient of this election ‘goody’?
Malaysians ought to take note that these handouts by their appallingly corrupt and embarrassing politicians are not the personal donations of the likes of Muhyiddin, pulled from their own pockets thanks to their fat salaries, but invariably stolen public money filtered into their party machinery for this very purpose amongst many others.
If Moo wishes to correct Sarawak Report on that assumption, then he can do so . Is it fake note handed out for fun? Can he trace the money to his private accounts? In either case, there is a hygiene matter. Once again this two faced PM who kept his people under a pointless and ineffective lockdown for several months is breaking his own rules and threatening public health by handing out grubby notes to people in a market place.
If Malaysia’s corrupted authorities won’t take action the people of Malacca ought – on polling day.
[*Or is this a mere cheapskate RM5 note to buy a vote? Moo is an old guy, BN’s Awang Tengah can tell him how prices have risen.]
Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim has demanded the government explain several “off-budget” expenditures while debating Budget 2022 in the Dewan Rakyat today.
He named several projects, including the nationwide 5G rollout, the possible revival of the High-Speed Rail (HSR) project and attempts to privatise the Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport in Subang, Selangor.
Citing 1MDB which incurred RM32.3 billion in debts to the government, he said the public may be forced to foot the bill for these projects.
“The government has said these off-budget (projects) would not involve government allocation, but in the end, they may go back to the government.
It was Anwar who first raised the alarm on the original 1MDB farrago and its suspicious nature way back before the perpetrator of that theft, Najib and his UMNO party, framed him and then forced the overturn of a verdict of innocence on those trumped up charges.
Now the guilty men are back, not by popular demand but thanks to a corrupted over-turning of the elected government with the primary purpose of evading the genuine charges laid against them.
However, close on the heels of that motive has been the natural determination of a highly corrupted band of mafia politicians to once again make as much money as they possibly can whilst their hands are back on the levers of power.
For this Malaysians have sadly to thank their Agong, who chose not once but twice to assist this return to office by siding with the corrupted parties who lost GE14 and appointing secondary figures to lead the country instead of the person chosen by the electorate on the winning mandate at the head of the largest coalition, namely Anwar. The Agong is the Sultan to Najib’s home state and his family has done ‘good business’ under UMNO, hence an inevitable and very unfortunate perception of self-interest pervades this perverse employment of his powers of appointment.
Gracefully accepting the opposition role, Anwar and PH are now striving to abide by the Agong’s own requests (presently directed from his extended London holiday base) to work with his chosen party on the budget. However, once a thief as the saying goes. The Red Flags emanating from UMNO’s present budget finances (advised as they are by arch-kleptocrat Najib himself) bear all the same hallmarks of the original MO (modus operandi).
Except, this time the sums are even greater. 1MDB had only filched some $2 billion dollars (RM8.5 billion) within its first two years. However in the same time frame, Anwar warns us, 5G/5MDB (5 Malaysia Digital Blueprint) has already squandered a projected RM18 – RM28 billion on a project that market experts seem agreed is doomed to failure.
Like 1MDB the UMNO government backed project is being presented as ‘off budget’ (and therefore conveniently kept from scrutiny by MPs) but Anwar rightly warns that like 1MDB this project and its ‘losses’ will ultimately be laid at the door of the taxpayer once more. Same politicians, same financial expert (Najib) same MO.
And this is, of course, not the only vast extra expense that has bloated the cost of the budget by RM100 billion in unexplained and unscrutinised ‘off-budget expenditures’. There are a multitude of similar huge projects presented as ‘private enterprise’ but which are in fact the playthings of politicians at the public’s expense. Railway lines to nowhere, frigates which have never floated, grand infrastructure that crumbles before it is built – all excuses to lose money? Of course, they are. Leopards don’t change their spots.
Expect Najib, once he has persuaded his Sultan/Agong into pardoning his thefts (which would appear to be his plain objective) to swiftly set about his other favourite tactic… the jailing of the opposition leaders who raise awareness about the corrupt practices of himself and the UMNO party.
Pekan MP Najib Abdul Razak stressed that the withdrawal of Malaysia’s review application on Pulau Batu Puteh in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) should be investigated.
According to the former prime minister, the country had acquired at least three new pieces of evidence on the matter which led the cabinet at that time to appeal the decision on Pulau Batu Puteh.
“I am very dismayed why the seventh prime minister cancelled our appeal to ICJ as if we have purportedly accepted the decision of ICJ as final but there is a clause in the statute of ICJ that we can appeal with new evidence.
When the UMNO Conman isn’t flouting Covid rules by campaigning under false pretences he finds distractions to posture over. A top favourite for him and his party is the continual harassment of local Chinese citizens and allies, whilst they themselves are diving into the pocket of China itself.
Hence the latest decision to dig up a matter that has been already settled under international law in order to set up a squabble with Singapore. Yet, at the same time, day after day this government is failing to stand up to the harassment of Malaysia’s own Petronas by aggressive Chinese military vessels as it seeks to go about rightful exploration in Malaysia’s domestic waters. Not a squeak has there been on this from Najib nor from UMNO.
Thus, whilst Najib seeks to blame party boy Jho Low for his own gross corruption and to vilify Malaysian Chinese who have lived peacefully for generations in places like Malacca he has proven himself to be at the same time the secret agent of the Chinese state.
To wit, stealing from his own country whilst prime minister and funnelling the cash through Chinese state front companies placed himself and his country into the controlling palm of his creditors who had thus compromised him totally.
What better foreign agents than a corrupted prime minister and corrupted political party who have sold out their own people in return for the services of a foreign power?
