Justice calls us to right what is wrong. And the first wrong we have to correct is calling Najib Razak a thief, because he was never charged for theft
On Friday, 31 March 2023, we will hear the verdict from the five judges presiding on the Judicial Review of the RM42 million SRC International Case for decisions the former Prime Minister Najib Razak made when he held office.
We have oftentimes heard on social media comments and posts, “Najib curi”, “Najib sakau duit”, “Dia curi duit rakyat” – basically it all boils down to the allegations that Najib Abdul Razak stole the people’s money and that’s why he was sentenced to be jailed in Kajang Prison for 12 years.
However, whenever we ask to clarify what did he actually steal, none of those who commented or posted these accusations could tell us what is it that he actually ‘stole’. In fact, is he actually a thief?
Let’s get our facts right here.
Najib Was Jailed For 12 Years
On 23 August 2023, Malaysia’s uppermost court jailed the former premier to 12 years in prison with a fine of RM12 million for criminal breach of trust, abuse of power, and money laundering for illegally receiving about USD10 million from SRC International, a former unit of 1MDB. None of the charges involves stealth.
We know now that in other parts of the world, there have been investigations, court cases, charges and judgements made against certain individuals who have allegedly been involved in siphoning out 1MDB funds out of the country. From Singapore to Germany, Switzerland, the United States and even the Cayman Islands, many personalities have been brought to book.
However, the central figure that was involved in all these shenanigans was Low Taek Jho also known as Jho Low, who had masterminded the siphoning of funds from 1MDB using the PM’s name (Najib) and collaborated with the Governor of the Central Bank of Malaysia, Zeti Aziz, to encourage Najib to open personal accounts to receive donation funds from the late King of Saudi Arabia.
As we all know now from the ongoing 1MDB trial, the accounts were managed by a mandate holder, Nik Faisal Nik Ariff, the former 1MDB CEO, with the PM not knowing what was going on with his personal accounts. We now know that because of Najib’s cluelessness about the ins and outs of his personal accounts, he continued to issue cheques to political parties and non-government agencies for CSR activities to the point that the cheques almost bounced if not for Jho Low trying to cover his tracks by getting his associates to deposit cash to cover the shortfall.
If you read the timeline of the 1MDB scandal, you can see that it is a complicated process that spans over many years and many countries. If you read the book Billion Dollar Whale by The Wall Street Journal correspondents Tom Wright and Bradley Hope, you will know that the 1MDB scandal was not Najib’s doing.
YET, THE ONLY PERSON IN THE COUNTRY WHO HAS BEEN CHARGED, TRIED AND JAILED FOR THE 1MDB SCANDAL IS NAJIB RAZAK!
All Points To Jho Low
It all pointed to Jho Low and his string of proxies and cronies who worked together to delude the then premier into thinking that all is well with the Saudi donation to strengthen the Islamic outreach programmes in the country, to help Barisan Nasional win the election then, among other things. More importantly, we have seen from the paper trail that the deposits were actually from the Saudi government and these monies were returned after the election was completed.
Many people refused to believe that the money that was deposited into Najib’s account was from the donation and that it was actually money from SRC-1MDB, despite having documented proof and witnesses in court who testified that they were not aware that Najib was clueless about the deposits and transfers into his personal account. Because of their poor understanding of the matter and their delusional stonewall beliefs, they concluded that Najib should be in jail without questioning why the others named in the charges were never tried.
Now that Najib has served about eight months in Kajang Prison, whether he returns to prison or goes home to be with his family hangs in the balance. But one thing is for sure, he did not steal nor did he mastermind the 1MDB scandal.
One thing you can say he is guilty of, it’s not having better control of his officers and associates to the point that they took advantage of his busy schedule as a PM and that he had placed his ultimate trust in them.
This includes Zeti who has yet to take the witness stand in the 1MDB trial after going on medical leave for an extended period of time. Surely, if one has nothing to hide, one will not hide. – mediahit
