Has Saudi Arabia trampled on Malaysia’s sovereign status?

Another scandal by the Wahhabi regime

Another scandal by the Takfiri-promoting Wahhabi regime of the state called Saudi Arabia has come to light with the disclosure that Riyadh transferred billions of ringgit to Malaysia's Prime Minister, Najib Abdur-Razzaq, who has since been issuing conflicting statements to hide the truth, in addition to the lies of his benefactors, who for the past several decades are looting the oil wealth of the long suppressed Shi'a Muslim majority of eastern Arabia, and spending it in the service of American interests, or to promote terrorism. Observers point out that this huge amount of money has been transferred to Najib to suppress the followers of the Ahl al-Bayt of Prophet Mohammad (blessings of God upon him and his progeny), in Malaysia.

The U-turn by Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Adel Al-Jubeir on the 1MDB debacle opens up more cans of wriggling questions. Now stating that the billions of ringgit given to Malaysia’s prime minister was a “donation” and that it indeed came from Saudi Arabia puts Najib Abdur-Razzaq and the nation he leads into an extremely vulnerable spot - let alone the fact that it is indeed insulting, too. Adel’s affirmation that the RM2.6 billion was a “donation and it is a genuine donation with nothing expected in return” not only insults and hurts the dignity of Malaysians but raises several suspicious questions.

The first point is that why would a country give another one such huge and unprecedented billions of ringgit so discreetly and remain tight-lipped when the beans began to spill into the open? What was the Saudi Arabian government’s motive or motivation? Was it a mere act of pure charity and not knowing what to do with their surplus wealth? What have the citizens of Saudi Arabia who belong to the deprived and poorer margins of society got to say about their country giving away such disproportionately huge sums of hard cash to another nation and expecting “nothing in return”? What is so special a cause that deserved the prime minister of Malaysia to be considered out of the millions of fellow humans dotting Mother Earth, dying for want of better healthcare or food for survival? Who went begging for that charity?

The second point is that if the Saudi government chose to give Malaysia all that monstrous sum of money, then who went begging for that charity? Who in Malaysia went asking for help, without the citizens of Malaysia knowing anything in the first place? And, why?

The Saudi Arabian minister can say, “So, as far as we are concerned, the matter is closed.” But Malaysians have not got the answers to their grave and painful concerns. And as long as the answers are not wholly complete and convincing, this case is not closed.

There are several reasons why we cannot dismiss this case so simply with the Saudi government’s about-turn explanation. And Najib better be told, too.

Firstly, this same Saudi foreign minister, the Jewish-looking Adel al-Jubeir, did say that he did not think the RM2.6 billion deposited into Prime Minister Najib’s personal bank accounts was a political donation or that it originated from the Saudi government. Adel held that the money was from an unspecified “investment”.

So why this sudden U-turn, claiming now that it was a “donation” from his government? And if it is indeed a donation, why was it deposited into a personal (and therefore private) bank account of one man who is also the leader of 30 million people?

Is it not logical to ask: Is this not a case of abusing the sovereign status of Malaysia? What right has any nation to secretly dump billions of unprecedented sums of money on another nation and not want the world to smell a whiff of it all? And therefore, the Malaysian prime minister is duty bound and answerable to all Malaysian citizens on why he accepted so much of money so discreetly, without even telling the country that he leads?

If Najib’s supporters counter by saying that it is his own right, then the answer is, better not hold the mantle of nation as prime minister and finance minister. In so far as you are the public servant, you are duty bound to inform the citizens when such monstrously huge sums of money are given your nation by another government. There is no room for hush-hushing. Whether the money was returned to the donor or not is irrelevant.

This time, the game is really over for Najib and his wife Rosmah Mansoor. Not a single foreign entity believes they are innocent. Contrary to what Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak’s band of supporters and bloggers would like to believe, the 1MDB scandal is too messy and too scandalous to go away.

That’s good money considering what they needed to do is to “cut and paste” ready-made comments onto blogs, websites and social media. Najib has to do one thing which his predecessor had failed to do to survive, at least until the next general election. Najib has to stay strong and play dumb –hear no 1MDB, see no 1MDB, speak no 1MDB – for another 2 years until the 14th national election is due in 2018. He has to pull up the thick skin while his critics continue naming and shaming him. Even if his cash-rich party were to lose the next 14th national election in 2018, there’re dozens of dirty tricks Najib could use to ensure BN stays in power, reducing the opposition parties to do nothing but bitching, whining, crying and moaning about cheating. There’re, however, many ways to skin a cat and here’re two methods to bring down Najib Razzaq. The first way is to have majority ethnic-Malays taking to the street demanding his resignation, the same way Icelanders had done to their Prime Minister Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson after his scandal was exposed in the Panama Papers leak.

Squeezing into Najib Razzaq’s family members, the Wall Street Journal has linked the financing of Leonardo DiCaprio movie “Wolf of Wall Street” back to 1MDB, claiming the movie’s US$100 million budget came from a company called Red Granite Pictures, which is led by Riza Aziz, the step-son of the Malaysian prime minister.

After asking for legal assistance over around US$4 billion that may have been misappropriated from 1MDB over 2009-2013, to which the Najib administration has chosen to drag its feet, the Swiss authorities have now turned to Singapore and Luxembourg for “mutual legal assistance” in the matter. Not a single foreign entity believes Najib is innocent.

For now, it’s hard to imagine how the international news media and financial institutions could suddenly make a U-turn and clear PM Najib Razzaq of any misappropriation of funds. When even BN Backbenchers Club deputy chairperson Bung Moktar Radin, traditionally a Najib’s bootlicker and a loose cannon, wants the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) to determine if billions of ringgit had been siphoned from 1MDB to Aabar BVI, this is certainly a sign that BN warlords have started doubting Najib’s leadership. Perhaps this time the game is really over for Najib Razzaq.

Meanwhile, the Malaysian daily, Sarawak Report, carried an article titled "Najib, Rosmah Orchestrate another International Lie".

What the Saudi minister did not say? That was the extent of the diplomatic intervention of Jewish-looking Adel al-Jubeir, we are given to understand. This Saudi minister wasn’t saying anymore, not least because there is little reason for him to know anymore. Therefore, he provided no mention of who had provided the ‘donation’, Saudi or otherwise. Adel al-Jubeir had to say, the donor might have been 1MDB or Donald Trump – one billion dollars, no strings attached. He clearly doesn’t know. So, it seems, this was just another in a long line of staged productions, presumably orchestrated by the usual suspects (with Rosmah Mansor as Chief Producer).

The Saudi Foreign Minister is unlikely to be grateful when the full money trail is finally revealed and his diplomatic intervention is proven to have been misled.

AS/MG