BOMBSHELL – NAJIB & JHO LOW’S TOP SECRETS HACKED: DEADLY DETAILS OF 1MDB’S WORLD RECORD-BREAKING THEFT UP FOR GRABS AFTER DELOITTE & KPMG HACKED BY ‘SOPHISTICATED’ MYSTERY GROUP

The Guardian has reported:

One of the world’s “big four” accountancy firms has been targeted by a sophisticated hack that compromised the confidential emails and plans of some of its blue-chip clients, the Guardian can reveal.


Deloitte, which is registered in London and has its global headquarters in New York, was the victim of a cybersecurity attack that went unnoticed for months.

One of the largest private firms in the US, which reported a record $37bn (£27.3bn) revenue last year, Deloitte provides auditing, tax consultancy and high-end cybersecurity advice to some of the world’s biggest banks, multinational companies, media enterprises, pharmaceutical firms and government agencies.

The Guardian understands Deloitte clients across all of these sectors had material in the company email system that was breached. The companies include household names as well as US government departments.

Delloite’s other clients include Malaysia’s !MDB. All that the firm learnt of 1MDB’s world record breaking theft  is probably now in the hands of the hackers, ready to be deployed at will.

References

DOJ info would have impacted 1 MDB audit, Deloitte says-Deloitte admits it missed billions in fraudulent transactions-Msian partnership might take international firm the way of Arthur Andersen

Looks  like Deloitte will join KPMG:

Is KPMG International being “EnRoned”? : Fallout from Malaysia’s 1 MDB scandal may cost KPMG USD 10 billion

DOJ info would have impacted audit, Deloitte says
37 comments     Published Today 11:57 am     Updated Today 12:57 pm



Deloitte Malaysia said its audit of 1MDB in 2013 and 2014 would have been impacted if it had known at that time the information contained in the United States Department of Justice’s (DOJ) lawsuits to seize 1MDB-linked assets.
As such, 1MDB’s 2013 and 2014 financial statements, which the auditing firm signed off on March 28, 2014 and Nov 5, 2014, “should no longer be relied upon”, it said in a statement.

“The complaint (filed by DOJ) contains information, which, if known at the time of the 2013 and 2014 audits of 1MDB, would have impacted the financial statements and affected the audit reports and, accordingly, those audit reports issued by Deloitte Malaysia dated March 28, 2014 and Nov 5, 2014 respectively in connection with the 2013 and 2014 financial statements of 1MDB should no longer be relied upon,” Deloitte said in a statement.

This comes after 1MDB announced that Deloitte is quitting as 1MDB’s auditor, making it the third audit firm to part ways with 1MDB since its inception in 2009.

Deloitte notified 1MDB of its intention to quit in February, the state investment said in a statement yesterday.
Deloitte remains 1MDB auditor until a replacement is appointed, 1MDB said.

1MDB’s accounts from 2010 to 2012 were audited by KPMG, but the firm’s services were terminated in December 2013.
According to the Public Accounts Committee report on 1MDB, KPMG was fired after it refused to sign off on the accounts without details of investments worth US$2.32 billion.

KPMG signed off on the accounts after Abu Dhabi’s International Petroleum Investment Compny guaranteed an investment, the PAC report said.

The Wall Street Journal reported another audit firm Ernst & Young was fired in 2010 for raising similar questions.
The DOJ is seeking to seize more than US$1 billion of assets it said were purchased using funds siphoned from 1MDB.
The 1MDB board yesterday said it is confident of no wrongdoing.

However, it is taking precautionary measures by discounting its 2013 and 2014 financial statements until the DOJ lawsuits have been dealt with in court.

– http://realpolitikasia.blogspot.my

THE KURDISH VOTE FOR INDEPENDENCE

More Middle East Rock and Roll : The first Kurdish Republic Votes On Independence 25th September 2017
I have written about Kurdistan before. I wrote that they will be declaring independence soon. That is what is happening right now.  This analysis is from the Soufan Center.


THE KURDISH VOTE FOR INDEPENDENCE

• On September 25, Iraqi Kurds will vote in a highly significant referendum on Kurdish independence.

• The semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan wants to become the first self-sustaining Kurdish nation, with serious regional repercussions.

• Syria, Iran and Turkey have denounced the vote, and even allies in Washington have urged delay.

• Especially for Turkey, the 'Kurdish issue' influences domestic and foreign policy decisions to an unstable degree.

On September 25, millions of Iraqi Kurds will vote in a referendum to establish an independent Kurdish nation.

The outcome of the vote in favor of the measure is not in question; the outcome of what follows is. Of the countless issues bedeviling Iraq and the region, the long simmering Kurdish question may have both the longest reach and most lasting consequences.

The degree of concern can be found in strongly-worded warnings from Ankara   to Baghdad.

Meanwhile, the U.S., which has had very good relations with Iraqi Kurdistan, now finds itself once again in the uncomfortable position of pressuring one of its true regional allies against independence.

Saying ‘the time is not right’, Washington has hoped the vote would be delayed, while Kurdish leaders believe the time will never be more right than it is  right now.

Once the votes are counted, the process of establishing some path towards an independent Kurdistan will begin, with massive challenges ahead.

Baghdad has stated it will not recognize any results of the referendum, calling the vote an illegal attempt to break up Iraq. Relations between Irbil and Baghdad have never been good but are now are their lowest, with the semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan now essentially out of the Iraqi union in all but name.

The oil-rich and relatively diverse city of Kirkuk is among the most combustible issues between Baghdad and Irbil, with each saying it belongs to them. The Kurds have been running Kirkuk since 2014, when Iraqi military forces fled after fighting with the Islamic State.


By including Kirkuk  in the referendum, Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) President Massoud Barzani sent a clear signal to Baghdad that the Kurds intend to keep those recent and very much still-disputed gains. There is a very real possibility of armed conflict between Kurdish peshmerga and Iraqi military or Shi’a militias over Kirkuk.


To the north, it is difficult to overstate the depth of Turkish concern as it relates to the Kurds. For Ankara, Kurdish independence on its southern border would be a flashpoint among its own sizable Kurdish population. The Erdogan government views every action in Syria and Iraq through a Kurdish lens, and has put troops into the Syrian civil war to prevent further Kurdish territorial gains there. On September 23, the Turkish Parliament renewed a bill that would allow for Turkish military intervention in Iraq for ‘national security threats’ that has already been used in Syria. Ankara has also been very explicit in its warnings over the referendum’s wider impact, with Defense Minister Nurettin Canikli saying it could collapse the fragile balance in the region.


The U.S. has pressured the Kurds to at least delay the vote, putting it in the uncomfortable position of siding with Turkey and Iran at least on this one issue. The U.S. in general supports Kurdish independence but balks at the actual consequences of such a move, worried it would increase sectarian fighting in the region, and lead to major confrontations with Turkey and Iran, both of whom have poor to abysmal relations with their respective large Kurdish populations. Kurdish leaders have held off similar votes and declarations for years, trusting that the U.S. and others would guarantee a formal pathway for Kurdish independence in exchange for a more gradual timeline. The September 25 vote shows that the issue has, for Iraqi Kurds, taken on a momentum larger than any regional concerns about what comes next.


My comments :  There are  about 45 million Kurdish people living throughout the Middle East in  Iraq, Turkey, Iran, Syria and Central Asia.  That is a lot of Kurdish people.  That is problem Number 1.

Problem Number 2 is they  inhabit a contiguous area spanning adjacent parts of southeastern Turkey 20 million (Northern Kurdistan), 12 million in northwestern Iran (Eastern Kurdistan), 9 million in northern Iraq (Southern Kurdistan), and 4 million in northern Syria  (Western Kurdistan).

The Kurds are culturally, historically and linguistically classified as belonging to the Iranian peoples (Wikipedia).

This map here shows Iraqi Kurdistan which will declare its independence soon. There are 9 million Kurds in northern Iraq. 

 
The next map here shows where the rest of the 45 million Kurds are located in adjacent, contiguous lands stretching across Turkey, Syria, Iraq, Iran and Turkmenistan.

You can see the problem. Once the 9 million Kurds in Iraq declare independence, surely the 20 million Kurds in Turkey and the 12 million Kurds in Iran will also think of joining up. 

My strongest advice is instead of any ideas of union, they form a loose confederation first with an economic union, unrestricted movement of people and businesses.  But I am getting carried away.

The Turks, Iraqis, Iranians and Syrians are all against the formation of an independent Kurdistan anywhere in the world.  It is most likely that the Turks and Iranians will undertake some sort of punitive action against the Kurds.

This will be a very big mistake.  A quarter of Turkey (20 million) are Kurdish  (out of 80 million people).

Even Malaysia has at least one Kurd in Kuching, Sarawak. 

Nonetheless for a very long time the Arabs, Persians, Kurds and too many of the people of the Middle East have never been good at thinking with the head on their shoulders.

The soalan cepu mas is, if an independent Kurdish republic is proclaimed, where the Kurds are largely Sunni Muslims (like Saladdin the Great who was a Kurd) and war breaks out between Kurdistan and say Turkey or Iraq, then who will our kampong boys support?

Kita nak hantar pesawat TUDM ke negeri yang mana satu? As the stomach churns.
Posted by Syed Akbar Ali

Kurdish Vote Won’t Spark A Sustained Oil Price Rally

Kurdistan
Turkey and Iraq have stepped up the pressure on Kurdistan after the semi-autonomous region of Iraq voted for independence. Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan threatened to block Kurdish oil exports through Turkish territory, while Baghdad called for an international boycott of Kurdish oil sales.

The Kurdish people appeared to have voted overwhelmingly for independence on Monday, pending final results. But the Kurdish Regional Government has said that the vote, which won’t be recognized internationally, will be a starting point for negotiations with Baghdad, and not the culmination of real independence.

Turkey’s President called the referendum “illegal, null, and void,” and threatened to shut down exports through the pipeline that runs from Kurdistan to the Turkish Mediterranean port of Ceyhan. “Let’s see where they are going to drain off the petrol — we control the valve,” he said. “Once you turn off the valve, it will be over.”

The referendum was also opposed by Iran, as well as the United States, which argued that it would destabilize the region.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said on Sunday that all foreign countries should not purchase oil from Kurdistan, arguing that the sales are illegal if not conducted under the auspices of the Iraqi central government. Iraq “asks the neighboring countries and the countries of the world to deal exclusively with the federal government of Iraq in regards to entry posts and oil,” a statement from the Prime Minister’s office said.
Related: Aston Martin CEO: UK Fossil Fuel Ban “Meaningless”

Kurdistan produces just over 600,000 bpd, or about 15 percent of Iraq’s total output. Most contentiously are the oil fields around disputed areas in Kirkuk, which the Kurds took control of in 2014 when ISIS burst onto the scene and rapidly seized swathes of territory from the Iraqi government. “The Iraqi government is not going to stand still and watch Kirkuk’s integration into Kurdistan, and the mobilization that we’re seeing is an Iraqi effort to reassert control over the contested territory,” Ayham Kamel, director of the Middle East and North Africa at Eurasia Group, said in a Bloomberg interview. Ethnic clashes “might become a pretext for much wider mobilization,” he added.

Kurdistan is largely at the mercy of its much more powerful neighbors. The bulk of the region’s finances come from oil exports, much of which go through a pipeline across Turkey to the Mediterranean. If Turkey takes draconian action to shut down Kurdish oil exports, it would cripple the Kurdish economy.

“If this boycott call proves successful, a good 500,000 fewer barrels of crude oil per day would reach the market,” Commerzbank said in a note. The threat of the boycott, as well as the possible shuttering of oil flows through Turkey, led to a significant increase in crude prices, which touched two-year highs on Monday. Brent rose above $58 per barrel, the highest price in more than two years, although prices fell back slightly on Tuesday.

A more serious scenario would be some sort of military clash between Kurdistan and its neighbors. Turkey conducted military exercises along its border with Kurdistan, and Turkish President Erdogan ominously warned that “we may arrive one night, suddenly.”

Kurdish President Massoud Barzani called for calm and diplomatic negotiations, but on Tuesday the Iraqi government ruled out talks. “Barzani is playing a dangerous game of poker,” Anthony Skinner, a director with U.K.-based forecasting company Verisk Maplecroft, told Bloomberg by email. “He is counting on Turkey, Iran and the U.S. not being able to sustain a united stance on pressuring the KRG.”

The gamble is risky, but if the Kurds can stave off retaliation, there is an upside. Because any clash would be a lop-sided affair, given the lack of international support for formal Kurdish independence, military hostilities are unlikely. Turkey could shut down the pipeline that carries Kurdish oil, but Ankara also benefits from tariffs it receives for allowing those shipments to proceed. Baghdad has much less influence, so if Turkey declines to follow through on its threats, the independence vote could give the Kurdish government some leverage with Baghdad in negotiations over revenue sharing, a longstanding grievance that has not been addressed. The Iraqi government has tried for years to halt Kurdish oil exports, but to no avail.

Related: As OPEC Compliance Peaks, Can The Drawdowns Continue?

The Kurdish government also recently resolved some outstanding issues with energy companies operating within its borders, restructuring debts and sending payments to some drillers. Rosneft just announced plans to invest $1 billion in Kurdistan to build a natural gas pipeline, a move that comes on the heels of hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of loans to the Kurdish government earlier this year, to be paid back by future oil sales. The recent deals bolster Kurdistan’s energy outlook.

In short, the belligerent rhetoric surrounding the independence vote between Kurdistan and its neighbors could have already peaked. That might mean that the case for higher crude oil prices will need to come from elsewhere; oil bulls cannot base their bets on supply disruptions from Kurdistan.

By Nick Cunningham of Oilprice.com

LEAVE JOHOR, GO TO AFGHANISTAN’: IN SHOW OF LEADERSHIP PUTTING NAJIB TO SHAME, JOHOR SULTAN WARNS ‘MUSLIMS ONLY’ LAUNDRETTE OWNER, DEMANDS APOLOGY FOR CREATING RACIAL ANGST

Politics | September 27, 2017 by | 0 Comments

JOHOR BARU: The Sultan of Johor, Sultan Ibrahim Ibni Almarhum Sultan Iskandar, has ordered the controversial Muslim-only launderette in Muar to immediately stop its discriminatory practice or risk being shut down by him.

“I cannot accept this nonsense. This is Johor, which belongs to Bangsa Johor and it belongs to all races and faiths. This is a progressive, modern and moderate state.


“This is not a Taliban state and as the Head of Islam in Johor, I find this action to be totally unacceptable as this is extremist in nature,” he said.

His Majesty said he also ordered the state Islamic religious affairs committee chairman Abdul Mutalip Abd Rahim, the religious council and the district council to investigate the matter.

The Sultan added that he had also spoken to Mufti Johor Datuk Mohd Tahrir Samsudin as well as state exco for religion Abd Mutalip Abd Rahim over the matter.

“I want the owner to apologise to me and the people of Johor. He has made Johoreans very angry and embarrassed because this is not the Johor we want.

“The owner has gone against the vision of a united, harmonious, moderate and tolerant Johor. If he still insists on carrying on the Muslim-only practice, he can leave Johor. I suggest he set up shop in Afghanistan. His thinking is sick and goes against everything that Johor stands for.”

His Majesty, who was visibly upset, said he and his family members were “deeply appalled” by the action of the launderette owner, saying if this was not stopped, it would lead to more narrow-minded actions in the name of Islam.

Pictures of the launderette went viral last week when it was reported that it had a sign saying that only Muslims were allowed to use its machines.

DON’T TRY TO BE CLEVER, SAME GOES FOR OTHER RACES

He said the owner had first put up his Muslim-only notices and after the issue became controversial, the owner put up a new sign to say it was “Muslim-friendly.”

“Don’t try to be clever. It’s still the same. The owner needs to have his brains cleaned up.

“I want to put a stop to such extremism. Extremism has no place in my state. We take pride in being Bangsa Johor and I want to know where the owner of this launderette learn his Islam? Islam teaches the faithful to be tolerant and respect other people and faiths,” he said at Istana Bukit Serene here yesterday,



On Monday, Johor Prince Tunku Idris Sultan Ibrahim expressed dismay over the launderette’s move, asked: “Is this for real? I’m appalled” in his Instagram.

The Sultan said the mosques in Johor were open to non-Muslims, for example, as long as they were properly dressed and he could not imagine non-Muslims being banned from entering the mosques, saying he was concerned over rising religious extremism.

“I wonder where this launderette owner washes his clothes when he is overseas? Is he saying only the clothes of Muslims are clean and those of non-Muslims are unclean? That’s what he means, I believe.

“From now on, I am directing the state executive council and all the councils to insist that any business owners who carry out such blatant discriminatory practices should have their licences revoked. Don’t mess around with your narrow-minded religious prejudices.”

His Majesty added that he could not keep quiet on the issue, as if this was allowed to go unnoticed, “then next we will have taxis for only Muslims or non-Muslims.”

He said he also did not want other races to carry out similar actions.

ANN

Operation Photo-Op Moved With Utmost Stealth!

14 September 2017 12 comments
Unlike the US visit to the White House, Najib’s team managed to keep his UK leg of Operation Photo-Op strictly under wraps, in order to avoid the inevitable advance press criticism had it been known about.

The visit to Downing Street had been made, the key photos taken and Malaysia’s scandal-tainted PM whisked back to the airport with military precision all before any pesky journalists had been alerted!

All so that Najib could have the prized pics splashed all over Malaysian media, together with the single message that he has been trying to spin throughout the trip, which is that he cannot have been identified as a crook by the US Department of Justice after all, because of course these democratic leaders would never have welcomed him if that was true.

Indeed, to take the matter further, his PR writers are now claiming ‘proof’ that the whole 1MDB affair – pink diamonds, yachts, Hollywood movies, Vegas casinos, masterpieces, mansions and all the rest – is just cooked up lies, concocted by foreign spies and conspirators in league with the FBI.

Too bad that this ludicrous narrative, which ignores mounds of evidence, has coincided with the latest news to be issued from the United States Federal Court as Najib headed mid-air from the US to UK.

Judge Dale Fischer, who has been presiding over the civil case to sequestrate assets procured with money stolen from 1MDB in the California Central Court, gave his response to the US prosecutors’ application to freeze that case, to enable them to get on with their central criminal enquiries.

The judge has readily granted the application, meaning that all the seized assets will go into the deep freeze for as long as it takes for the investigators to complete their higly complex global criminal investigations into 1MDB officials and various named individuals, includnig Najib’s step-son Riza Aziz and alleged accomplice Jho Low.

The way the evidence already looks Najib himself is more likely to eventually find his name added to this list as a key orchestrator and beneficiary of the plot to steal billions from Malaysia’s public coffers and then launder the money through the United States.

Judge Fischer fully supported the request to withold any further informaiton that might enable the criminals to cover their tracks or intimidate witnesses and granted an indefinate stay of the case, meaning there is no question of the US ditching the 1MDB case any time soon:

Expand text
So much for 1MDB being a cooked up story and so much for all the Malaysian spin that has attempted to suggest the stay on the civil case meant the FBI were dropping their enquiries.

Arrived by 5pm for a meeting that appears to have been no longer than the chat with Donald Trump
Arrived by 5pm for a meeting that appears to have been no longer than the chat with Donald Trump

It leaves PM Theresa May as exposed at President Trump for having played along with Najib’s blatant attempt to misrepresent the facts to his own electorate through Operation Photo-Op.

Who were the high paid lobbyists for this stage of the operation?  Perhaps it was merely Najib’s tame and reliable government connected business contacts linked to the Battersea Power Staion Project, who fixed this meet and greet. Huge sums have already been ‘exported’ into that from the Employee Provident Fund.  Such interests still owe Najib big.

On the other hand, it may emerge that lobbyists have once more smoothed the way and made a packet in the process.

In which case were fighter jets again the lure to bring Mrs May to the other side of the cosy fireplace?  For years Najib has led various European nations a merry dance pretending that he is about to choose from whom to buy a fleet of brand new aircraft. In truth he can’t afford a second hand, twin propeller bi-plane at the moment, but if he has conned Trump he will be buying 58 Boeings, why not keep May on the hook over fighter aircraft too?

Ought she be chastised more for being immoral of more for being stupid will be the question for Malaysians to consider, because one thing that is becoming pretty clear is that Operation Photo-Op is pulling the wool over nobody’s eyes back home, even though that is where its targeted.

Where Did The Real Saudi Money Go? Commentary

15 September 2017 39 comments


The billions stolen from 1MDB have tended to over-shadow other very substantial sums of money that DID go into Najib’s personal account from Saudi Arabia.

These secret payments undoubtedly formed the basis for Najib’s decision to label all his incomings as a ‘Saudi Royal donation’, trading off the discomfort and likely silence of a country, which has been accused of funnelling large tranches of its oil wealth into developing client nations and promoting its particular brand of extremist ideology across the Muslim world.

Secret US$80,000,000 was paid to Najib
It was the ABC Four Corners programme which gained access to a full insight of Najib’s so-called ‘Mr’ Account at AmBank, back in March last year.  What they found were not only the payments from Jho Low companies like Tanore Finance (BVI) and Blackstone Asia (BVI) amounting to a billion dollars, but also substantial receipts from the Saudi Arabian Finance Ministry.

Two whopping payments in 2011 came to US$80 million:
Four Corner's findings on Najib's account
ABC Four Corner’s findings on Najib’s account

Given this enormous and undisclosed bung by the Government of Saudi Arabia into the private account of Malaysia’s Prime Minister, it is perhaps not surprising that when confronted by Malaysian cameras (with Anifa Aman, Malaysia’s Foreign Minister, at his shoulder) the embarrassed Saudi Foreign Minister mumbled a willingness to accept Najib’s stories about a ‘Saudi Royal donor’, something he had earlier denied, before declaring the “matter closed”.

So, leaving the billion dollars from 1MDB aside, what did the PM spend this particular US$80 million from Saudi Arabia on?  Surely, no one believes that Saudi Arabia’s Finance Ministry was handing Najib so much undisclosed cash without a specific purpose?

Spreading Saudi’s Sectarian Agenda?
It is widely acknowledged that Saudi has been building up its influence throughout the Muslim world by dispensing secretive sums to develop supportive infrastructures within client states – using oil money to expand their specific brand of religious authoritarianism.

What used to be regarded as an isolated and extremst fringe of the Muslim world, the Wahabist sect, is now spreading its tentacles far and wide thanks to these millions poured into religious training, teaching jobs and tarfiz schools, where the converted promote the ideas taught at Saudi universities and places of learning.

This Saudi agenda and the support of rigorous rote learning (considered brain-washing by most non-participants) has been frequently identified as a key source of the growing intolerance and extremism seen to be causing instability throughout the Muslim world.  Malaysia’s own firebrand PAS Islamic Party President, Hadi Awang, who is known for his desire to establish an Islamic State and Hudud law in Malaysia, was himself trained and educated over in Saudi Arabia.

Hadi is now recognised as having come far closer to Najib and UMNO, as Malaysian government support for religious schools has increased in recent years. So, was the further promotion of Saudi style Islamic teaching, the expansion of ‘independent’ religious schools and jobs for religious teachers the purpose of this secret budget provided for Najib Razak by the Saudi Finance Ministry?

If not, how was that whopping sum of money (the equivalent of RM335 million) spent?

Certainly, quite apart from any other possible fuding, Najib has started making large and unprecedented government donations to private religious institutions in recent years, despite growing concerns that they are poorly monitored. The Prime Minister, who loves to posture as a ‘moderate’ abroad, has also proved willing and enthusiastic towards welcoming the Islamic extremist agenda of a retreat from civil governance in favour of Hudud religious law – Saudi-style.

So, again, it is time to hear how did the secret US$80 million provided by this foreign power straight into Najib’s bank account get spent?  If the Prime Minister has been using the money to curry domestic politial favour with a segment of the population he wishes to bring over from the opposition to bolster BN, whilst at the same time permitting insiduous and secret influence mongering by a foreign power, Malaysians have a right to know.

If, to the contrary, the money went towards non-political causes, public education, care for the elderly, hospitals, orphanages, refugees or some such cause then this is the time to bring out the distribution details.

Najib’s own party, which has since Independence held its own policies and ideals, supposedly free from foreign agendas, also have a right to know how he spent this money, since party officials have long made clear they had no idea that Najib had been receiving all this undisclosed cash, until ABC Australia’s Four Corners programme told them so.

Operation Selangor?

• 18 September 2017
 
• 10 comments

Najib is plainly becoming desperate. The problem is money: his cash reserves are frozen abroad; the coffers of the GLCs have been denuded by earlier squandering; the ringgit is over 4 to the dollar compared to 3 to the dollar before 1MDB and Petronas is simply not delivering the previous levels of profits.

Najib Needs Notes For Votes

Najib needs money now for the upcoming election, which he plans to fight in the same way he always has. He wants first to throw a ‘feel-good’ wad of money at the nation in the form of some sort of ‘bonus payment’ (as if it was a personal gift from him) then to announce the election in the after-glow.

During that election he wants to be able to hand out more notes for votes on the understanding that if those bribed electors ‘cheat’ and vote for the opposition instead, the government will have ways of knowing and punishing them.

The nation may have rumbled him and everyone knows and despises the way he bribes folk with a portion of their own stolen money, but Najib plainy reckons that cash is cash and he can continue to get away with it. His problem is he just doesn’t have any more stolen cash to spend.

Rich Pickings In Royal Selangor

Which is why UMNO’s eyes appear to have greedily now focused on Selangor. This wealthy and well-managed opposition state has rejected the Najib approach to financial management (i.e. steal whatever public funds you can) and it continues to have large sums in its bank accounts.

This is public money, of course, which ought only ever be spent on things that have been agreed are for the public good – amenities, investments and also savings for the unpredictable future.  PKR’s Azmin Ali has presided over these coffers in the interests of the people of Selangor, who know they have benefitted from this stewardship and are more than likely to vote back an opposition state government at the coming election.

Political Coup That Flopped?

However, it has emerged this weekend that Najib had bought into a plan that amounted to a flagrant political heist that would have allowed him to lay his hands on all that cash – he was planning to snatch Selangor from under the noses of the chosen government in advance of that election, so that he could secure the keys to the coffers!

So much for his constant complaining about ‘conspiracies to unseat democratically elected governments’.

There in his mind’s eye must have glittered more diamonds for Rosie, with the election bought and paid for.  He could even have started putting in those orders for Trump’s promised Boeing jets!

The people of Selangor might have indeed voted back new opposition leaders at the next election, but those leaders would have found the bank accounts wiped clean.

That there was such a plan is compelling. On Sunday, Malaysia was placed on tenter-hooks by Najib’s sudden promise of a major public announcement to be held within hours at his party head-quarters, with all senior bigwigs summoned back to attend from across the country.

There was no doubt but this was planned as something big, the game-changer that Najib plainly yearns to sweep away his troubles. But, when the curtain was lifted on the event, out shuffled just one wizened has-been from the Selangor scene, discredited long ago after being caught with bags of cash entering Australia.

By coming back to UMNO the cash carrying and deceitful Mat Taib (he is said to have lied that he didn’t speak English to the Aussie police) was certainly returning to his true spiritual home after a long journey around various other parties. However, his crestfallen comrades could barely conceal their disappointment that he had failed in the end to bring the keys to Selangor with him, in the form of a mass defection which had apparently been promised.

The planned coup represents a classic Malaysian manoeuvre, although it would cause gasps and probably lynchings in any other genuine democratic country.  Eight PKR ‘frogs’ were believed by UMNO bosses to have agreed to be presumably rewarded to cross sides with Matt Taib and join the 12 UMNO state representatives.

These in the end never leapt.  However, together with the 13 PAS members, presumed also to be under instructions to switch by Najib’s new best friends in that party’s leadership, this would have given UMNO the majority it needs to get its hands back on the state and crucially the keys to the safes holding all the money.

With one daring move the Prime Minister, who seems to live from one throw of the dice to the next, had hoped to reverse his fortunes and grab control of this last well of money left after his years of disastrous mismanagement of Malaysia’s finances.

Wishful Thinking?

Whether any of the expectations of these plotters were genuinely realistic will eventually emerge.  If any of the planned frogs had really seriously toyed with the idea of leaping right before the election, they must have been only too painfully aware of the anger they would have faced from the voters who put them in power in the first place.

Would the likely consequences of such perfidy have been worth any rewards on offer?  A sensible person would think not, which was doubtless why only one figure, who had nothing to lose, in the end came shuffling out to face the flash bulbs yesterday afternoon, in one of the biggest anti-climaxes in Malaysian political history.

It leaves Najib, once again mortified and without the cash he had greedily being eyeing.  It also leaves PAS awkwardly exposed as a factor that UMNO clearly considers not as an opposition party (which PAS still claims to be) but as a fully fledged ally ready to join with them in BN coalitions as and when the need arises.

Doubtless the fishing will continue as Najib’s lawless henchmen work to secure the next election.  However, his targets are being wisely advised to continue to steer clear of a man who has plainly lost his touch!