Oh, to be a fly on the wall of the Cabinet Office, in Putrajaya, or the boardroom of 1MDB.
What was their reaction to the latest US investigation into 1MDB? What moves are they contemplating, next? Flight or fright? Stay to clear one’s name, or secure a deal with the prosecutors?
The US officials from The Department of Justice (DOJ)  refused to name the person whom they called “Malaysian Official 1â€.
Surely they got it wrong. In keeping with the “1Malaysia†branding exercise, and “1MDBâ€, shouldn’t the Americans have rewritten it as “1MalaysianOfficial†(1MO)?
SEVERAL CLUES WERE GIVEN.
The DOJ alleged that US$731 million was siphoned from 1MDB into a bank account owned by “Malaysian Official 1â€.
It cannot be “The Chosen Oneâ€, because he denied that money had been deposited into his personal bank account.
In 1996, the former Chief Justice (CJ) of Malaysia, Abdul Hamid Mohamad told the Court of Appeal that Muslims never lie, and “The Chosen One†is Muslim.
The DOJ described someone who was a “high-ranking official in the Malaysian government, who held a position of authority in 1MDBâ€.
In Malaysia, everyone wants to be known as important and high-ranking, so “The Chosen One†is one of several hundred people who fit the bill.
GOOD MUSLIMS DO NOT GAMBLE.
Among the things the DOJ mentioned was that taxpayers’ money settled gambling debts in Las Vegas. So, whose debts were settled with this money? Oh dear! Was it Lim Guan Eng’s?
Three luxury properties were mentioned in the lawsuit. No Malaysian taxpayer will ever savour the view from this Los Angeles hilltop perch, the comfort of the luxury home in London, or the opulence of the New York apartment.
The purchase of these homes, reminds us of the purchase of properties, by FELDA and MARA worldwide. Who benefits? The Felda settlers? Mara students? Or a few individuals in positions of authority?
Did the paintings, by Monet or Van Gogh, grace any Malaysian museum, for the Malaysian rakyat to appreciate their beauty?
Not a chance!
Who took charge of the Bombardier jet? Why are so many jets being purchased, by the ruling elite? If only the money had been used to improve the Malaysian public transport systems.
For years, the 1MDB saga plagued Malaysians.
People have been arrested and imprisoned for daring to ask searching questions. The authorities cannot pull the wool over our eyes any longer. Not that the rakyat believed the lies of Umno-Baru.
These people stole from the taxpayer, to fund their corrupt lifestyles. They criss-crossed the world in private jets, shopped, lived in luxury homes, mingled with celebrities, and yachted around the Mediterranean, in the playgrounds of the world’s billionaires.
Back home, we sweltered in the heat, almost drowned in Kelantan’s worst floods or lived in tents because houses had been swept away by the floodwaters.
They treated our money as if it were their own.
When Mustapha Kamil, the former Group Editor of the New Straits Times resigned, last May, he said that he had struggled with his conscience and the journalists’ code, in the quest for the truth.
His woes fell on deaf ears. There was no exodus of journalists from the mainstream media, because at the end of the day, “periuk nasiâ€, is more important than the search for the truth.
If Mustapha, and the other journalists, had allowed their conscience to flourish and take root, earlier, perhaps, he with his team of journalists, and his paper, could have won the nomination for the Pulitzer Prize.
You see, Â the 1MDB saga did not materialise overnight.
In the end, Malaysians are failed by the people of Malaysia. The Cabinet, the police force, the judiciary, the MACC, the civil servants, the MPs, the PM and the journalists, should have served the rakyat, but they were all derelict in the discharge of their duty.
A few key individuals could have made a difference, and improved the nation, but fear, personal interests and greed consumed them all, just as greed consumed “Malaysian Official 1â€.
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