26 Apr 2024, 12:11 Kuching
26 Apr 2024, 05:11 London
Najib Abdul Razak is applying for leave at the Court of Appeal to temporarily release his passport so that he could fly to Singapore to be with his daughter, who is expected to give birth there.
The former prime minister’s counsel Nur Syahirah Hanapiah today confirmed that they filed the application at the Court of Appeal recently.
“That is correct,” the lawyer said when contacted by Malaysiakini today…..
Earlier this morning, the Kuala Lumpur High Court allowed a similar application for Najib’s wife, Rosmah Mansor, for temporary access to her passport, so she could be in Singapore and give mental and moral support to Nooryana Najwa.
After failing to flee straight after the election (as they were stopped by angry crowds) the couple now seem set to get away thanks to the new coup government.
After months during which every image of Rosmah Mansour would have served well to illustrate a fairy tale involving a wicked witch, the ex-PM’s wife presented a picture today of benign, gleeful elation.
She looked like someone who has just broken out of jail – or the very near threat of it. Which most in Malaysia are pretty sure is now indeed the case.
The reason? Unlike most small time crooks, who languish on remand behind bars for months and years in Malaysia, this woman who stands accused of stealing millions from Sarawak schoolchildren has been offered her passport to travel out of the country on a specious excuse.
Apparently, again unlike other Malaysians, her daughter must give birth in Singapore and her mother must be there. For this reason the court has returned Rosmah’s passport – and interrupted her criminal trial to boot.
Many will conclude that this was the reason that the UMNO/PN coup took place in the first place. Since the return to power of this scandal torn political party (by overturning the democratic vote) all the charged kleptocrats from amongst its ranks have one by one managed to get their prosecutions dropped, delayed or frozen.
By this very same afternoon the convicted Najib had himself put in his own petition to the court on the exact same grounds. He too must be in Singapore to hold his daughter’s hand as she produces her second child – passport please, now that we have the precedent!
After all, Najib has already seen his appeal put on permafrost (in the very manner that the former PM Mahiaddin openly predicted that the judiciary could be influenced). As everyone knows a similar petition exists for Najib’s ex-deputy, Zahid Hamidi, whose ‘bad neck’ can only be attended to in Germany, despite the jaw-dropping list of charges he is facing in Malaysia.
Call Malaysians cynics, but they only expect to see these fellows back from their foreign trips if the decline of law and order under UMNO descends even further – to the extent that such crony criminals would feel secure to swan around free despite the devastating crimes they stand accused of.
This they know is entirely possible, because if these two birds fly the coup it will leave the present majority of five government even more exposed than it already is – MOU or no MOU. Therefore, citizens should prepare for dozens more charges to be dropped whilst these brave MPs are waiting it out in hospitals abroad, in order that they can return to vote free men!
Romen Bose worked as a Political Communications Consultant for former Malaysian Premier Najib Razak for six years and was a close confidante to decision makers in the upper echelon of the country’s political elite.
Romen was present during the major controversies that hit the Najib Razak administration, witnessing first-hand how the country’s leadership reacted to the disappearance of MH370 and the step by step actions of its topmost officials, as well as classified covert actions taken to retrieve the remains of Malaysian victims following the shooting down of MH17.
In Final Reckoning, the author gives a blow-by-blow account of how the 1MDB scandal rocked the Government and the attempts by the country’s top politicians and their advisers to contain and explain it away. Through numerous conversations with key players and his presence at various top secret meetings following the global investigations into the scandal, Romen pieces together for the first time how a sitting Prime Minister became the unwitting patsy of a mastermind who had managed to pull off the single biggest con of the century. In doing so, Romen tells the story of an ultimately futile scramble to try and preserve a crumbling political legacy that had long been out of step with the realities of a new Malaysia.
Payment from 1MDB stolen money of RM655,000 to author Roman Bose
It is a wise maxim to declare one’s interest in matters of opinion, should one have one. In this case the author Romen Bose who has chosen to write this upcoming promoted book about Najib Razak and his nemesis of 1MDB had himself worked for the disgraced ex-PM as his ‘media warfare’ and ‘monitoring expert’ for several years, pushing the BN government spin against factual reporting by the likes of Sarawak Report and the rest of the world media.
For this act of deception he was highly paid and with stolen money from the very heist he claims to give the inside story about.
MACC documents citing the distribution of stolen 1MDB money from Najib’s personal KL accounts show that the convicted felon ex-prime minister paid Romen Bose RM 655,000 out of that stolen loot.
So, when he advertises his upcoming book as an account as to how “a sitting Prime Minister became the unwitting patsy of a mastermind” over this “Con of the Century” readers are advised to take his version of events with a very large pinch of salt.
After all, Najib is back in the money and Bose is clearly back earning it in the same capacity as communications cheerleader he was in before.
Penguin ought to be ashamed of publishing such propaganda when the same outfit quivered in fear to publish books by the likes of Sarawak Report who exposed the criminality in the first place.
So much for the publishing industry’s contribution to free speech and promotion of the truth in the 21st century.
Awang Tenga (who is also Second Minister of Urban Development and Natural Resources) reminded NCR landowners not to be greedy when asking for their land to be surveyed.
“Please, do not make false claims over the boundaries just because you wanted to have a bigger size of land when the perimeter surveyed carried out”(sic)
“If the proof of land is authentic, the authority will have not problem to approve but sometimes, there are some people who are greedy and want their land to be surveyed beyond the original boundary”, he pointed out.
Pot bellied Awang Tengah is famous in Sarawak as the personification of personal greed and kleptocratic politics.
No one need be in doubt as to how his political position has acquired him great wealth (despite years on a modest ministerial salary which precludes him dealing in business or indulging in conflicts of interest). After all, he boasts one of the largest houses in Kuching.
Tengah has been caught on camera walking through the market place handing out RM50 note bribes to stall holders and he has been the subject of a massive legal action accusing him of conspiracy to defraud over RM285 million which he has yet to settle.
He is notorious in one of the most notoriously corrupt regimes in the world, so for him to dare accuse the impoverished native people he has cheated of being greedy as they fight for the recognition of their lands is beneath contempt.
For years his government has raped the resources of their lands in the name of modernisation, progress and development and left the Dayak amongst the poorest and most backward people on the planet, despite the vast natural wealth of the lands wrested from their control.
As their lives have become harder with their lands stripped bare around them and their waters polluted, Awang and his pals have got fatter and richer…. and richer. Make your conclusions as to who has the right to lecture others on greed.
Former prime minister Muhyiddin Yassin today revealed he had been told that much of the furniture in Seri Perdana had been removed as it was claimed to be owned by Najib Razak.
“Based on the report I received, the Prime Minister’s Department also recommended the purchase of furniture as much of the furniture assets in Seri Perdana which were claimed to be owned by the sixth prime minister had been removed,” Muhyiddin, who served 17 months at the top office, said in a statement calling for the details of repair works at the prime minister’s official residence to be made public.
Yesterday, Najib questioned the RM38.5 million spent by the government to carry out repair and renovation works at the sprawling complex in Putrajaya.
Taking a swipe at Muhyiddin, Najib also said the building was still in good condition when he left it in May 2018, adding that the RM38.5 million bill was not justified during the time of the pandemic.
So nice to know that the ideological allies in PN (the ideology being greed) are so happily united on the subject of their serial pillaging of public property.
They are agreed, from their own testimony, that they belong to a cabal of thieves, whilst blaming each other for misdeeds.
Najib has queried the outrageous sum spent by Mahiaddin on doing up his prime ministerial quarters (clearly these men’s wives are designed to go on shopping trips together) – specifically a shocking RM38.5 million ‘touch up’ job whilst thousands hungered during Covid.
And ‘Moo’ has riposted that the spend was needed because Najib walked off with most of the furniture before he dived out the place having lost the election in 2018.
Somehow PH survived the intervening period under these Spartan conditions, leading one to assume the elderly Dr Mahathir depends on less luxurious surroundings to perform his duties.
What all this squabbling and bickering yet again reveals is that what unites these ‘allies’ together in PN is merely their thirst for the spoils of office and their expert abuse of power.
They are like hyenas who have joined in a pack to hunt down their prey (namely the Malaysia’s public assets) but who then snarl and turn on one another as they seek to gnaw the last piece of flesh from bones they have already all but stripped bare.
Umno secretary general Datuk Ahmad Maslan has been acquitted and discharged of his money laundering and giving false statements to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) charges.
High Court judge Datuk Ahmad Shahrir Mohd Salleh made the decision today after the prosecution told the court that they had withdrawn the charges against the former deputy finance minister.
The law firm representing Ahmad, Messrs Shahrul Hamidi & Haziq, issued a statement about its client’s acquittal.
It said the prosecution had withdrawn the charges against the accused as he had paid a RM1.1 million compound.
Ahmad Maslan’s strutting behaviour mimics that of a man who has been vindicated of false accusations! There is none of the humble shame of a man forced to pay a fine of over a million, but who has thankfully escaped the lock up.
Maslan is acting joyful and triumphant as if he were a man who had to fight to save his good name. Perhaps, nay doubtless, he will start to portray himself as exactly that.
He isn’t innocent, as everyone knows. He has merely been let off by a government that is based wholly on corrupt practice, comprised of parties united only by a corrupt agenda.
Everyone now from the top to bottom in the PN coalition is motivated by a desire for personal gain in in many cases a desire to get off the hook over their previous corruption and misdeeds.
One by one they are letting themselves off. That’s the deal.
Meanwhile, the people at the bottom suffer in myriad ways oppressed by further restrictions against their freedoms disguised as ‘Covid’ measures, but as much designed to silence their dissent.
PN are now raping the country. Just to provide the bigger picture as this latest small fry escapes his penalty, Malaysia has the national humiliation of going into the global Climate Conference COP next month as one of the countries with the worst deforestation records on the planet and yet the logging continues.
Through his own Instagram page this heir to the sultanate of Johor has chosen to express his love and concern for his people in an interesting way – by posting video highlights of his recent holiday.
Owing to the ravages of Covid most Malaysians aren’t getting holidays at the moment, but the ‘Crown Prince’ is evidently willing to give them a vicarious glimpse of what a nice time he can have instead. This is no snap-shot: it is a lingering, glossy, professional film job, set to music with areal shots and snappy edits.
It was good of the CP to think of his people in this way. He plainly wants them to know how much he appreciates the fine life he lives off the lands they share – a life that the vast majority of his ‘subjects’ could never experience given the unfortunate poverty of most of his social underlings in this well resourced state.
Some might call this showing off and a wee bit tacky for a man who presumably considers himself part of the global royal elite (most inherited monarchies tend to play down the ostentation for reasons that barely need a mention here). However young Johor clearly reckons he knows what his people enjoy to see: he kicks off his holiday video with a full martial display as casually dressed he brushes past the salutes of smart uniformed guards and ascends his gold painted private jet.
We are given a peek inside, just so we can see how grand it is? Forget five to a row, think five servers per passenger and to hell with the carbon footprint.
Cut to the holiday island arrival. The prince descends from his luxurious trip in his swimming trunks, exposing a physique that can only be described as well fed. How happy his subjects must feel given such opportunity to view their highness in the fullness of his hefty health, all funded by the taxes on their hard work.
Hard work is not what the Prince now treats his fan club to, of course. Although all that posing in front of posh beach mansions, at pool bars, 6 star suites, the decks of yachts, spas and loungers was probably a bit of an effort, which they can thank him for.
It was clearly all done to let his subjects know that he really loves indulging in trashy luxury symbols and wants them to have the second hand pleasure of watching him at it.
It is the sort of well-worn fantasy stuff that snootier circles would describe as ‘poor people’s porn’ (most people with wealth, relevance and taste enjoy more subtle pleasures). However, the caring crown prince is not too proud to dish it out in dollops to stoke the fantasies of those left hungry, tired and brow-beaten back at home, for whom a few moments of carefree leisure and luxury would indeed be a pleasure to enjoy.
He gave them fodder for their dreams, which for them will never of course come true. How kind of him. It ought to make them happier to pay their taxes next time round.
Funnily enough, the same Crown Prince reportedly caused some consternation not long ago uttering a view in a KL social club “I can’t stand to be around all these poor people” before he left. He must been feeling so sorry for them.
The former premier finally spoke about his comeback aspirations in an interview with Reuters, indicating that he intends to defend his seat in Pekan.
The intriguing part was his claim that he would find a way to get around the fact that he may be disqualified from contesting given the string of corruption charges against him.
Najib has been around long enough to know the election rules. He is appealing a conviction on one of his 1MDB related cases as well as fighting a devastating bankruptcy order, either of which could mess up hopes of a comeback…
However, an Umno insider noticed that Najib has been meeting up with more Umno division heads in the last month or so.
“Yes, it’s true, Najib wants to come back as Umno president. The intention is there,” said a division leader who attended one of the meetings. “He wants our opinion on whether there is still support for him,” said the division leader.”
Najib told them he is not interested in becoming the prime minister again but wants to rebuild the party.
As Najib well knows he is the perfect person to represent UMNO is just about every way. And, as a man with nothing to lose and everything to gain he is more motivated, relentless and ruthlessly determined than all his colleagues to snatch the prize.
As they say jail or jackpot!
And he reflects his party to a tee. This is a man who is only too happy to preach humble morality and pretend to holiness, whilst committing almost every sin known to man and swearing on the holy book that he has done no wrong.
UMNO well knows how to manage suckers (aka the poor electorate in their constituencies). If they can’t be bribed with small change you hammer them with oppressive law suits – alternatively they conveniently just disappear (thanks to the Gods). Najib has seen it all.
He is also a man with inherited status rather than tested merit, which perfectly matches a party that is structured around connections, favouritism and the fortune of birth or marriage.
He is also one of the few remaining UMNO leaders presently in a position to satisfy the values and aspirations of the rank and file officials of the party – namely their thirst for unearned cash. This ability has been marvellously enhanced following the return to him of the horde of unexplained income confiscated from his premises back in 2018 by the now UMNO dominated government.
Small wonder that UMNO leaders are now fast repairing to his door (clutching empty carrier bags?) and bearing promises to further his ambitious cause.
Najib has become a global emblem of graft, lazy opportunism, exploitation of the weak and educationally neglected as well as the international poster boy for crass and blatant abuse of power and office – the most famous kleptocrat on Planet Earth.
So, on what possible grounds can it be denied that he is the perfect individual to return to lead the degenerate and corrupted UMNO party of Malaysia?
Ismail should appoint him directly (subject to the suitable fee, which can doubtless be loaned by China in return for a surrender of the requisite segments of the country’s remaining economic infrastructure and resource base).
Malaysia was of the position that the Australia-UK-US (Aukus) deal might be a catalyst to a regional arms race.
“It may also provoke other powers to be more aggressive in the region, especially in the South China Sea,” said the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO).
The PMO said Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob had informed his Australian counterpart, Scott Morrison, of Malaysia’s position during a telephone call yesterday.
The PMO said Malaysia held to the Asean declaration in 1971 that the region was to be a Zone of Peace, Freedom, and Neutrality (Zopfan).
Aukus was concluded yesterday and will see the three countries exchanging technology and intelligence.
However, the most important part of the deal involved the UK and US arming Australia with the means to produce nuclear-powered attack submarines.
Following in Najib’s path (of turning a blind eye to China’s incursion into Malaysia’s territorial waters) the new PM Ismail Sabri is proving himself to be in the same mould as his party predecessor when it comes to handling foreign affairs.
He has even re-appointed Najib’s cousin Hishamuddin Hussein back into the job of Defence Minister to restore a relationship that bailed out the 1MDB imbroglio and kept quiet in the face of insult followed by insult to Malaysia’s independence.
After all cash is cash and China is generous to decision makers in strategic places. One can always leave one’s country and live in Dubai if you’ve sold it down the river.
As for Australia’s controversial choice of submarine defences to counter militarisation in the region. Malaysia can certainly testify to the effectiveness of the French variety in NOT escalating any arms race.
Hishamuddin’s arsenal of Scorpenes can’t even leave port above the water let alone below it. according to general perceptions. No one need feel threatened into buying so much as a water pistol to fend off those multi-billion ringgit toys. Meanwhile, the kickbacks on that deal to Najib and his allies are well-documented in the French courts themselves.
Whether this laughable defence will ‘keep the peace’ for Malaysia, rather than laying it open for a peaceful takeover, is another matter.
Australia is entitled to see things differently and to decide to defend itself with submarines that can be relied upon to do a proper job of it.
“The recent political developments have not affected the government’s determination to ensure that appropriate actions are taken against all individuals or entities involved, directly or indirectly, in the global 1MDB scheme,” he said.
The ministry said the settlement will conclude the civil suit filed on July 6 against KPMG, which will expedite the payment of monies to fulfil 1MDB’s outstanding obligations, and save the court’s time and public resources.
It said this settlement will not affect or compromise the government’s claims against individuals like Jho Low and other parties related thereto, and who are still being actively pursued in relation to the 1MDB financial scandal.
The Finance Ministry concluded the statement by thanking the Attorney-General’s Chambers and all the regulatory bodies and enforcement agencies for their efforts in achieving this settlement.
The unelected royal pal, finance minister Zafrul, has been assiduous together with various PN lawyers in getting as much money as he can out of easy local targets over 1MDB.
More embarrassing but larger entities responsible, such as the royal family of Abu Dhabi, have meanwhile been let off the hook. However, billions have been garnered from the efforts of the United States and others to return the stolen money to Malaysia.
Less clear has been what has actually happened to such deliciously accessible dollops of hard currency, which were supposed to go straight back into paying off 1MDB’s terrifying debts. There has been no report on the matter thanks to the convenient (and unnecessary) shutting down of parliament and all forms of public oversight and scrutiny since PN grabbed office.
Any bets that the debts remain exactly as they were and growing and the money now unaccounted for? Zafrul owes the country a full and proper audit of how this returned money has been employed.
Meanwhile, should this fellow have the slightest manners, there are further thanks he owes besides those he made to the officers regarding the cave in by KPMG Malaysia, namely to this site.
So far, Sarawak Report, which was the first to publish the facts on KPMG’s failings over 1MDB, its dodgy accounting on the matter and indeed the whole scandal of 1MDB has yet to receive a word of thanks from anyone in this PN government who have been so happy to grab the billions returned as a result of our reports.
To the contrary, for years all these characters accused us of lying as we reported 1MDB…. right up to the day the money started coming back and they snatched office to receive it.
Zaifrul’s PN allies, such as the chief crook in the story Najib Razak, swan around KL and Parliament, convicted but still key members of the coup regime. They have even appointed Najib as a key economic advisor … seemingly to educate Zaifrul on how to steal more and raise more debts.
By contrast, Sarawak Report, has made do with a series of arrest warrants, civil suits by public figures, slurs and lies. We take it as a badge of honour as the Datuks of PN grab for the dirty money and let each other off their jail sentences.
Deputy Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture Malaysia YB Dato ‘ Sri Dr. Santhara celebrates the arrival of Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, Chairman of the National Rehabilitation CouncilThose in the framework to Langkawi to monitor the Reopening of Langkawi Tourism Sector.In addition, YB Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin will also hold a private holiday session with industrial players involved in the tourism sector in Langkawi. [translation – Edward Santhara Facebook page]
The ex-PN prime minister now appointed PN 2.0 “National Recovery Chairman’ seems determined to start as he plans to continue, with a holiday trip to Langkawi.
After all, the mess from which the country needs to recover is largely the product of his own prime ministership, which was distinguished mainly by his indolent inactivity in the job and failure to demonstrate the least concern for anything beyond his narrow circle and interests.
Greeted by the new Tourism Minister himself at the airport, the grovelling ex-PKR frogman and member for New Zealand, Edmund Santara, the visit was also entirely in keeping with PN’s double standards on everything.
No one else can go on holiday in Malaysia under the present gruelling SOP situation, so how fitting that the man tasked with making things better should flag up tourism as a way forward in order to enjoy an inaugural holiday for one (plus pampered family seen in the background) rather than doing his urgent job.
Did they re-open a 5 star hotel just for him? Without a doubt.
Equally fitting that he was met by a party-hopping millionaire businessman MP whose treachery was critical to PN’s seizure of power in the first place by overturning an elected government. Mahiaddin has piously together with his successor belatedly deplored party-hopping and agreed to implement a ban on the practice as a ‘key reform’ in return for budget support (which they absolutely do care about) from the opposition.
This will lock in hoppers like Santara, so win win!
When such ‘reforms’ can be accepted as concessions by the opposition, Mahiaddin probably considers himself entitled to think they will accept his holiday/ongoing convalescence as a serious stab at addressing the desperate problems facing the country.
Malaysians can at least conclude that the less this man does in any capacity the better and that the longer both he and Santara live it up on holiday at the public expense in Langkawi the less damage they will do elsewhere.
