Yesterday we wrote a paragraph in the previous article:

The Attorney General chosen specifically by Najib more than 6 months ago has returned the investigation papers to the MACC. 

Malaysians have long concluded that the anti-corruption laws will be thrown aside and be made inapplicable to this particular public servant who was voted by ordinary Malaysians to be a prime minister.

Given the fact that the AG has done his job as well, and confirmed the suspicions of Malaysians that he will throw away the case by usurping the role of judge and jury, we all can conclude that the conspiracy to white-wash the prime minister under the eyes of the law is nearing its end.

There were so many holes in the AG’s statement this morning that any thinking Malaysians are baffled with its audacity in trying to de-criminalise the prime minister.

For instance, the AG did not say who the ‘donor’ was or why did the AG say Najib Razak only used USD61 million when in the recent Umno General Assembly, he claimed he has used all of USD681 million (RM2.6 billion) for UMNO? 

It seems Najib returned most of the ‘donation’ in August 2013, a few months after he received it.

“Furthermore, in August 2013, a sum of US$620 million (out of US$681 million) was returned by YAB PM to the Saudi royal family because the sum was not utilised.”

Now who told a lie, Najib or the AG? 

Can we accept a lying PM and a lying AG?

How was the balance USD61 million utilised? Did he use it for himself or for UMNO? 

And why did he return a ‘donation’? 

Nobody we know returned a given donation before. 

Why didn’t he utilise all of it for the needy in UMNO in a more transparent manner?

And if nothing was wrong, why did the bosses in SRC International run away and became fugitives?

These are just a few questions posed by the people.

But what perplexed us the most is the AG’s final paragraphs on the RM42 million banked into Najib’s personal accounts:

There are no evidence to show that YAB PM had any knowledge and/or was informed that monies had been transferred into his personal accounts from the account of SRC International;

There are no evidence to show that YAB PM had given any approval for the transfer of monies from the account of SRC International into his personal accounts; and

Evidence show that at all material times, YAB PM was of the belief that all payments which were made by him were made from the donation received from the Saudi royal family which was earlier transferred to his personal accounts.

Based on the facts and evidence as a whole, I, as the public prosecutor, am satisfied that no criminal offence has been committed by YAB PM in relation to the three investigation papers. 

I will return the relevant investigation papers to MACC today with the instruction to close the three investigation papers.

It seems this public officer named Najib Razak does not know/realise/have no knowledge that the money he received was from SRC International, because he never gave any approval for the transfer from SRC International into his personal accounts.

Plus the statement said, Najib Razak thought all money received in his personal bank accounts, 

including the RM42 million was from ‘donation money’ from the ‘Saudi royal family’. 

He himself admitted receiving RM42 million in an affidavit.

The question now is, if Najib Razak returned all the donation money in August 2013 how come he was still receiving millions in December 2014 and February 2015?

The transactions authenticated by MACC and sighted by Wall Street Journals are illustrated as below:

In summary, RM42 million was credited in stages:

- RM27 million on 26 December 2014
- RM5 million on 27 December 2014
- RM10 million on 10 February 2015

So what happened to the RM42 million? 

From where did Najib Razak get that RM42 million? 

Where did it go? To who and on what was it spent on? 

The AG’s statement is silent on this one. 

The figure RM42 million was not even mentioned in the statement. It is almost deliberately left unsaid. 

Is it because it is the most toxic? 

In this regard, how could the AG asked the MACC to close the investigation papers?

Najib Razak and his sycophants are the laughing stock of this nation. 

The cabinet ministers are the laughing stock among the people. Malaysia is the laughing stock of the world. 

The institutions to safeguard the check and balances are not functioning well; and the sycophants are proud of it. 

We are deep in uncharted waters.

Commentary Local Slider

4:09 AM

The people of America have spoken. 

Their choice of their new president is shocking to many, but we need to respect their choice.

President-elect Donald Trump ran a campaign of fear and hate, spewing venom against people of colour, immigrants, the lesbian, gay, biseual and transgender (LGBT) community, Muslims and showing total disrespect to women.

But if we look closely, we would realise that beneath all those hard words was a direct message to the poor, blue collar workers who are struggling to feed their families, terrified of losing their jobs, afraid they can't provide a future for their children, or pay their medical bills.

Essentially, Trump the ‘outsider’ successfully tapped people’s anger against Washington’s establishment politics.

There is a lesson to be learnt here, for the opposition in Malaysia as well.

Despite former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad building a force to oust Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak, nothing worked.

US President Barack Obama went out on a limb to campaign for Secretary Hillary Clinton and yet she was wiped out.

It was anger and total distrust against the establishment that got people to vote Trump as their next president.

Likewise, we, the opposition, need to engage with people on the ground and tailor policies that will look into their day-to-day grievances.

We need to understand their aspirations and hope and ensure our governance can make that happen.

It is important to make the masses understand the implications of pressing issues, such as 1Malaysia Development Bhd or rampant corruption or price increases, including the impending debt crisis. And there is an urgent need to make inroads into rural communities.

Just like Trump, the Umno-led BN government has always capitalised on fear politics to keep Malaysians divided.

The middle and working class Malaysians are also fed up with the ruling elite.

They do not trust the government rhetoric, but are fearful that an opposition-led federal government may not work for them as a result of its constant bickering.

To break this vicious cycle, the opposition needs to show unity and that it will protect the interest of the rakyat and offer solutions to resolving problems facing the people.

This would certainly break Umno's rule, which is already shaky.

Commentary Slider

10:56 AM

According to the DOJ suit, these two fat thieves are a part of bigger group of super-fat thieves.

Firstly, many Malaysians who read the DOJ’s suit against Riza Aziz understood that Najib’s step son could have never accumulated those illegal assets without the authorisation and approval by Malaysian Official Number 1.

Billions of ringgit were siphoned off for personal gains without due regards to the law and financial regulations.

The assistant Attorney General of USA said –

“What happened instead was corrupt officials within 1MDB and others siphoned off a very large percentage of the money that was raised to the tune of $3 billion and used it in ways that provided absolutely no benefit to people in Malaysia other than themselves.”

Only the most incompetent, and the most stupid could not comprehend what this legal suit means.

Anyway, back to the matter at hand.

Last Thursday we wrote to determine what kind of moronic statements Najib and his cadre of clownish buffoons will regurgitate in order to disinform the public and defend the indefensible crime.

And these people did not disappoint!

a) We start off with the Malaysian Official Number 1 first. Here is what he said:

Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak has urged all parties not to jump to conclusions over the ongoing action by the US Justice Department to seize over US$1bil (RM4.02bil) in assets allegedly linked to 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB).

“I want to say categorically that we are serious about good governance so anything that is against the law, we want the process to take its course.”

Malaysians had already jumped to conclusions because they have read the facts of the case.

Everything is in that 136 paged dossier, verified to be true by the FBI and pursued by the Attorney General of USA. It has a federal dimension to it.

Malaysians can jump to conclusion much earlier if the Malaysian Official Number 1 had practised good governance and made transparent the Auditor General’s report. But alas, like someone suffering from dementia, he had reneged on his promise to open up the AG report.

He also claimed that the case is civil, not criminal.

What kind of shameless person this prime minister is when his name is plastered so many times in the report , having implicated in a series of illegal transactions, yet still want to remain aloof and ignorant to the fact that his name has been sullied? He is now seen as the most corrupt foreign official in the court of United States and to the world.

What is there to be proud of?

Perhaps, he and his supporters are suffering from scleroderma (thick skinned disease).

Yes, he is not the defendant in this case.

But it won’t be for long. Once Riza Aziz’s assets are confiscated, they will slap him, his associates, his relatives and the corrupt people behind this enormous theft with anti-money laundering charges.

Najib once said the 1MDB business model is a failure.

Do you know why 1MDB actually failed?

Because the people behind it are thieves.

Is he not the worst Finance Minister in Asia, as many had presumed?

Eventually he will be known as the worst Prime Minister in the World.

b) Salleh Keruak and his brainless statements.

We can talk about this person’s stupidity till kingdom come and he can still surprise us with a few more of his idiotic antics.

This was one of them:

When asked on the ‘Malaysia Official 1’ stated in the Department of Justice statement, Salleh said it was merely a claim by the complainant.

“We have been hearing about it a long time ago.

It is what the complainant said.

You must remember it is not what the attorney-general said.

Some people even said that the complaints came from Sarawak Report and Khairuddin Abu Hassan.

Sad to say, they were wrong.

The complainant is none other than the Government of the United States of America.

The forfeiture complaint, issued by a unit known as the Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative, represents the largest such case brought by the Justice Department.

It comes at a time of heightened concern about secrecy, shell companies and illicit money flow around the world.

The Department of Justice and the FBI had been investigating this case without the need for Sarawak Report or Tun Dr Mahathir or even Khairuddin Abu Hassan to intervene.

These investigators do not like corrupt people to abuse their banking system and their currency with impunity.

The number 2 boss of FBI even said it out loud in the press conference:

“Today’s action sends a message to corrupt foreign officials,” Wegner said.

“The FBI, together with our international partners, will find these individuals and root out their corruption.”

He added, “We are working very hard to make sure that the U.S. will not be a safe haven for these types of crimes.”

Obviously Salleh Keruak, having the reputation as the designated village idiot in the cabinet, did not read the document as a whole.

Otherwise, he would have come to the conclusion that the USA is serious in catching the culprits, not limited to just Riza Aziz and Red Granite.

Neither Khairuddin Hassan nor Sarawak Report nor Tun Mahathir was the complainant

Salleh Keruak also said there is no political conspiracy about the DOJ’s legal suit against Najib’s step son.

When we read the evidence presented to the California court about this heist, the facts laid out are not dissimilar with what The Edge, Sarawak Report and Wall Street Journal had reported and published for the past one year.

Yet, these media were accused by Najib and his clowns for mounting a political conspiracy against the government!

That shows how flabbergasted they were when this corruption case exploded last year.

Each one of them were so dumbfounded, their first reaction to defend this thieving leadership is to cry out ‘CONSPIRACY’.

Trying to de-criminalise Najib is a tiring chore.

Nobody can last that long with their sanity intact.

c) Apandi Ali. Who doesn’t recognise this new AG who had replaced his predecessor for no apparent reason other than to save Najib?

The previous AG was about to charge Malaysian Official 1 for the same proof spelled out on page 33 – 34 of the DOJ document, yet Apandi Ali dismissed the charges brought about by MACC.

He absolved everyone from any wrongdoing, and ignored the findings.

Last Thursday he said:

(i) there had been no evidence from any investigation conducted by any law enforcement agencies in various jurisdictions which showed that money had been misappropriated from 1MDB; and

(ii) there have been no criminal charges preferred against any individuals for the offence of misappropriation of funds from 1MDB.

Both points were merely denials.

What else can he say as the personal defence lawyer for Najib?

Obviously, the reason why there are no criminal charges for misappropriation of funds from 1MDB is because he is sitting on the pile of evidence but decided to do nothing.

Even the PAC report suggested that Shahrol Halmi be brought to book but nothing has been done so far.

Apandi, what happened to the SRC money Najib took?

You never denied he had it in his personal accounts.

Has Najib returned the millions he took ‘accidentally’?

What kind of charges would you mete out to Najib when everyone in this world knew how he had spent those millions.

No charges at all?

And obviously, back in January 2016 you lied about the existence of a donor.

You said the Saudi royal household had donated those billions to Najib. But the DOJ’s investigations had proved otherwise.

Are you a sad little liar, Apandi?

By the way, how can you deny banking documents and transactions that clearly showed money was misappropriated from 1MDB, into a couple of shell companies and directly into Najib’s private accounts?

Are you saying the banks tampered and faked its own documents?

Apandi, your behaviour clearly showed us that you are not the Attorney General of Malaysia.

You are a fraud.

Selected purely to defend Najib, albeit poorly, because the truth can never be faked.

No matter how hard you try.

d) 1MDB, now better known as the den of thieves had dared to issue a statementwhich sounded nothing more than a pathetic effort to appear innocent:

“1MDB highlights that it is not a party to the civil suit, does not have any assets in the United States of America, nor has it benefited from the various transactions described in the civil suit.

Furthermore, 1MDB has not been contacted by the US Department of Justice or any other foreign agency in relation to their investigations.”

Well, a company whose officers named as 1MDB Officer 1, 2 and 3 in the DOJ filesuit can never admit they are involved in this billion dollar heist.

What more its top advisor is named as Malaysian Official 1 in the suit as well.

Will thieves admit they stole millions from a company they preside?

Will thieves admit they have stolen taxpayers money through a company they manage?

Of course they won’t.

This is why they have made such ridiculous statement. 

If Irwan Serigar, the current Director of the Board has any sense of honour and responsibility, 

1MDB would have started its own investigation effort and made a police report over the misappropriated funds and say thank you to the FBI for highlighting and naming those had breached their oaths as government officials in doing their job honourably and admirably.

But they hadn’t done so. 1MDB and its ilk are just trying delay the painful inevitability.

Malaysians knew about this since last year except for the few clowns who thought otherwise

e) Tengku Sharifuddin, the most befuddled press secretary in Malaysian history threw in his miserable opinion no one asked:

Malaysian authorities have led the way in investigations into 1MDB. 

The company has been the subject of multiple investigations within Malaysia, including by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission,

Auditor General and bi-partisan Public Accounts Committee.

After comprehensive review, the Attorney General found that that no crime was committed.

Again and again they pinned their innocence on the Attorney General’s clearance that 1MDB did nothing wrong.

As if, they have no facts to solidify their claims that there are no wrongdoings whatsoever as claimed by the DOJ.

Latest news is, they now had to rely on the idiots in JASA and even bloggers to be the official mouthpiece for 1MDB and Najib! How pathetic.

Where is Arul Kanda?

Where is Minister of Finance II?

Funny thing is, even the MACC admitted to have collaborated with the FBI in sharing the evidence on the crimes committed by the people associated with 1MDB.

How come other people are so eager to right the wrongs committed, yet Najib, his press secretary and the Attorney General are lackadaisical in their attitude?

Are they brain dead?

Has zombies filled Putrajaya’s corridors of power?

RM50 billion went down the drain, some of it misappropriated and abused by Malaysian Official 1 and his associates, but nobody batted an eyelid.

Not even the the Youth Wing of UMNO.

These are the worst kinds of zombies.

No reaction whatsoever when “the Malaysian people were defrauded on an enormous scale.”

Malaysians may yet hear worse news in the weeks to come.

The Swiss Attorney General is still investigating the USD4 billion misappropriated from 1MDB.

They have not pressed any charges yet but with the advent of the US seizing assets purchased using illegal money, it won’t be long before the Swiss prosecutors stand before a crowded press conference and issue a statement.

Singapore even seized SGD240 million (RM720 million) worth of assets which belonged to transactions relating to 1MDB.

Half of the seized wealth ilegally belonged to Jho Low and his family members.

Only time will tell what will happen next.

The thieves and their supporters can crow all they want, clutching at straws.

They can remain dumb and ignorant, claiming nonsensical things like Najib is not named in the civil suit therefore he is innocent; forgetting the fact that the things he did as mentioned in that 136-paged document are quite lucid and startling.

These supporters chose to remain dumb and ignorant.

We read somewhere about this kind of mentality – ‘if I walk around closing my eyes about these crimes, people won’t see me as stupid.’

Laughable, isn’t it?

Commentary Local Slider

1:53 PM

Now he is busy pawning Malaysia's prized land banks, infra projects and defence procurement contracts to China like its going out of fashion, not caring a toss about the damage that will do to to our finances, growth or world standing. 

But, Najib lost his moral compass way back in 2006 with his involvement in the C4 murder of Altantuya .

Make no mistake.

It was either that or 'hara kiri' for Najib.

There is a huge $30 billion hole in 1MDB's balance sheet resulting from the looting of 1MDB by Najib and his thief-in-arms, Low Taek Jho aka Jho Paris Hilton.

Together with interest on massive borrowings, 1MDB's debts, much of it falsely classified as investments, stand at $53 billion.

The "investments" are represented by worthless "units" or IOU, fake papers created by Jho Paris Hilton through dummy corporations and fake investment holding companies incorporated in off-shore tax shelters fronted by his handsomely paid (with money looted from 1MDB) Mafia.

Genius audit partners at Deloitte & Co were duped into signing clean audit reports for 2013 and 2014, pressured by the fact that Najib's son works there as a partner.

Deloitte resigned recently, hoping to avoid global negligence law suits by putting out a disclaimer that their 2013 & 2014 audit reports should no longer be relied upon.

But, it's too late. Deloitte can be sued by any investor or bond holder as no audit report can be legally withdrawn after it's been approved via a resolution at a company's AGM and financial statements filed with the Registrar of Companies.

There is another $4 billion of borrowings from KWAP, the government's pension fund for civil servants, that has gone missing from 1MDB.

Possibly, a hundred million or so ringgit is accounted for by investments in Mongolian and Indonesian coal-mining ventures.

The rest was looted by Najib and Jho Paris Hilton.

When threatened with loss of testicles by Malays, Najib, as also Finance Minister, illegally transferred the $4 billion loss to the Ministry of Finance (MoF) where rests the debt to KWAP, guaranteed by the Taxpayer with details classified under the Official Secrets Act (OSA)!

Now we come to the $144 billion of MoU with China.

Firstly, MoU are a dime a dozen.

A few years ago when Najib went to Kazakhstan for his daughter's wedding, he took along with him a planeload of relatives, friends and civil servants, all expenses passed on to the Taxpayer by the biggest cheapskate freeloader (and his wife) in Malaysian history.

To make it look real, some 40 or 50 MoU were signed between Malaysia and Kazakhstan.

Till today, not one has materialized as a contract or project of any worth!

Secondly, all these projects will result in outflow of money from Malaysia to China. Ultimately, the Malaysian Taxpayer will have to foot the cost.

It's not a case of the Chinese actually bringing in FDI's to invest in sustainable long-term businesses in Malaysia.

They will be mere contractors.

Remember, MALAYSIA has to pay for littoral ships, frigates and their maintenance contracts.

That being the case, why are there no open tenders for purchase of ships, arms, weapons etc.?

Of the $144 billion of MoUs, we have the price-tag for only 1 project - the 55 billion East Coast Railway Line (ECRL).

There are no figures for the rest.

In July, Sarawak Report leaked out that Najib was planning to fraudulently tag on $30 billion to the 600km ECRL project to plug the $30 billion he stole from 1MDB, thereby increasing the project cost to a staggering unheard of $60 billion or $92 million per kilometer!

By comparison, work is scheduled to begin on the 197 km Gemas-JB double-tracking railway project awarded to China Railway and costing $7.13 billion or $36 million per km!!

Given the way things are done in Malaysia, you can be sure that even the $7.13 billion price tag has been inflated by a minimum 15%.

There may be a few extra tunnels, still, how could ECRL cost 2.6 times more per km than Gemas-JB?

A clueless Works Minister Fadillah Yusof screamed 'foul', saying it had not been discussed at Cabinet level at all.

So-called Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai's views on the contract are conspicuous by their total absence.

But, the biggest and worst conscienceless crook in Malaysian history, Najib, has now bypassed every government department and Minister, and signed the MoU with China state-owned company, China Communications Construction Company (CCCC), for $55 billion, without calling for an open tenders.

The reason is obvious. CCCC has been blacklisted by the World Bank for serial corruption and shoddy works in several countries.

A leopard can never change its spots. In 2002 Najib as Defence Minister, signed the $8 billion Scorpene Submarines contract with DCNS of France knowing they were involved in corruption and MURDERS in France, Taiwan and Pakistan.

In the end, $575 million was siphoned out as "commissions" by Razak Baginda for kickbacks to UMNO, more in marking up the true cost of the submarines, and Altantuya got murdered!

The ECRL project handled personally by Najib stinks of corruption even before a single line has been sketched on the drawing board.

More than that:

1. How could ECRL cost $27 billion and the financing, more than 100% at $28 billion?

2. Where are the revenue projections to show how the capital sum of $55 billion and subsequent commissioning, operational and maintenance costs will be paid?

3. What is the break-even cost and years of this project?

In the past, the EPU (Economic Plundering Unit) under previous crime ministers, came up with fancy pie-in-the-sky passenger traffic numbers to award sweetheart automatic toll increase and compensation contracts to croney Toll Highway Concessionaires.

Similarly, in justifying $30 billion for the double-tracking railway projects, they came up with unheard of increases in passenger and freight load volume projections.

Yet, KTMB has turned in nothing but huge losses.

4. Once the ECRL is completed, if ever, then the current Gemas-Kelantan line will lose big money.

Has Najib factored this into his business model?

I will give it to you in black and white right now - the ill-conceived and fraudulent $55 billion ECRL, like Perwaja, Proton, MAS, will turn out to one of the biggest money losers in Malaysia's financial history.

Najib has also issued a full commercial bank licence to China Construction Bank, reckoned to be the second largest bank in the world.

This surely means that Maybank, CIMB, RHB and Affin, all tier 1 banks, will take a massive whacking in profits and share prices.

Has Najib thought that far ahead to what it will do to his racist Bumiputra agenda?

How will the Malays react?

As for Melaka development etc., why exactly does Najib need the China parties?

If you are going to hand out multi-bilion ringgit real estate projects on plum long-term deferred payment terms, why not do it by open tender to local and/or international developers?

Unless of course, fraud and corruption are major considerations!

Believe me, bird's nest export and research are not going to propel Malaysia into high income nation status anytime soon.

And why would China set up a steel plant in Sarawak?

Where would the steel be exported to?

Malaysia where Perwaja has failed big time?

To China where they can produce it cheaper and there is a slow down?

Are these MoU for real?

AND IF $27 BILLION ECRL CAN BE INFLATED BY NAJIB TO $55 BILLION, THEN YOU CAN SAFELY BET THAT $144 BILLION IS REALLY ONLY WORTH LESS THAN $72 BILLION!

Remember, all the other MoU too will result in OUTFLOW of money from Malaysia.

Where will Najib find the money when our debts have exceeded $800 billion, and has more than doubled under him since 2009?

Jack Ma appointed as digital consultant?

Don't make me laugh.

We had Bill Gates before and where did that get us?

It's not Jack Ma who's the problem, it's the Najib mind set.

Crooks and thieves around whom (Najib) three murders have revolved have no interest in the PEOPLE or their welfare.

They are doomed to fail spectacularly, not least because Communism and Islam sit uncomfortably side by side!

Commentary Local Slider

12:33 AM

The future is yellow. Najib Abdul Razak’s infamous slogan, ‘You help me, I help you’, has been exported to the People’s Republic of China (PRC), where Najib’s ailing 1MDB has been given a lifeline.

Najib stands with Jack Ma on one side and his spouse, Rosmah on the other. 

The contrast is particularly galling. 

Jack Ma is a self-made billionaire, Najib became one after a RM2.6 billion Arab ‘donation’, whilst ‘she’ is a ‘self-styled’ First Lady of Malaysia (Flom) and can induce a billion headaches.

Najib’s trip is a victory for people with vested interests, but the Malaysian taxpayer will bear the cost. 

Signing 14 deals worth RM144 billions with PRC industrialists, is like opening the floodgates to the PRC.

 It is a betrayal of Malaysia. 

He has openly snubbed Malaysians of Chinese descent, and his worshippers, the Malay nationalists and Ketuanan Melayu types, at the same time.

For many years, he encouraged the red-shirts and ministers like Ismail Sabri Yaakob to criticise Chinese Malaysians.

Whilst these two groups confronted one other at the front door, Najib quietly invited the PRC to enter via the back door, and told them to make themselves at home.

Chinese Malaysians have been blamed for everything from the high cost of cooking oil to chickens, from fish to flour. 

With more PRC visitors and workers arriving soon, who will the red-shirts blame for the increased cost of goods and services?

Despite the Islamic ties, the Arabisation of the Malays, the Wahhabi ideology practiced at home, Najib turned his back on the Saudis. 

With depleted oil reserves, and the Saudi taps running dry, it did not take long for Najib to turn to the east, in a move which mirrors that of a former PM.

Angered by the United States’ Department of Justice (DOJ) case, Najib sought vengeance by aligning himself with the PRC. 

Perhaps, he thought he could wrest control of many of the disputed islands in the South China Sea by jumping into bed with the PRC.

Whilst in China, Najib appointed Jack Ma, the founder of Alibaba, to advise the Malaysian government on Malaysia's digital economy and its e-commerce activities.

This should be a marriage made in heaven, as Malaysians are no strangers to Ali Babas.

First, is the well-known story about Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, from ‘The Tale of the Arabian Nights’.

Commentary Slider

12:24 AM

THE SUNDAY Star front page headline today - 

“ Childcare: An uphill task” - is a graphic indication of how bad the economy has become and is made worse by the government’s inept policies.

The reason? 

The rise in minimum wage and the inability of the low- and middle-income parents to pay higher fees consummating with the higher salaries the centres have to pay teachers and caregivers.

In his fixation with high income economy, Prime Minister-cum-Minister of Finance, Datuk Seri Najib Razak had enforced the minimum wage nationwide on July 1 this year despite objections by many parties.

The monthly minimum wage for the Peninsula is RM1,000 and RM920 for Sabah, Sarawak and Labuan.

This is despite knowing that many employers do not have financial capacity to pay the prescribed rates.

For this reason alone, he is no longer fit to continue as the Prime Minister. Consider this my feedback to his request for public input for the 2017 budget. Let us have somebody else planning the budget.

His cockeyed high-income policy and pseudo transformation have caused so much damage to the economy and brought untold miseries to the people. 

Only the rating agencies seem to like his transformation mantra. 

The worse is yet to come.

As I had stated in my Sunday’s Sinar Harian column “Asam Pedas”, the government has technically ran out of money and could be fiddling with technicalities to hide the truth.

My assertion that government’s revenue might have fallen below its operating expenditure (Opex) has neither been challenged nor clarified. 

As we all know allocations for education and health have been reduced and development projects delayed.

In today’s article in the Sinar, I urged the new Second Finance Minister Datuk Johari Abdul Ghani to tell the truth.

Ousting the BN is the Answer

Looking at things from this angle, the success of the Deklarasi Rakyat’s twin-objective of removing Mohd Najib and reforming the institutions becomes even more vital.

Neither Mohd Najib’s removal nor the reformation of the institutions would be possible without the Barisan Nasional being removed from the a seat of power.

In the nutshell, the Opposition's objective in the coming general elections (GE) should be the defeat of the BN. 

Anything less is unacceptable and ineffective.

They should position themselves as the future government and behave likewise - enough of partisanship and jingoism. 

They have to band together to convince the people that they are better than the BN.

Opposition leaders can choose to call their alliance whatever name they like but their objective must be to end the BN hegemony and to carry out democratic and institutional reforms.

The concluding paragraph of the Deklarasi Rakyat states:

“We call upon all Malaysians, irrespective of race, religion, political affiliation, creed or parties, young and old to join us in saving Malaysia from the Government headed by Dato’ Sri Najib Tun Razak, to pave the way for much needed democratic and institutional reforms, and to restore the important principle of the separation of powers among the executive, legislature and judiciary which will ensure the independence, credibility, professionalism and integrity of our national institutions.”

Since the declaration was launched on March 4, it has garnered more than 1.4 million signatures but has been largely ignored by the government. 

Even attempts to present the petition of the King have not succeeded so far.

With so many key institutions, including the monarchy, being undermined by the BN-controlled executive and legislative branches, only its defeat at the polls would make it possible for the check and balance mechanism to be restored and enhanced.

The NGO leaders have repeatedly stated that they would support the opposition alliance only if there is genuine unity and the commitment to make reforms a key element in its manifesto.

In the meantime the 1MDB scandal continues to worsen, the economy is sputtering and the Prime Minister is becoming less able to rule.

The US Department of Justice (DoJ) has commenced civil proceedings against people accused of stealing and laundering the 1MDB money. 

The operating expenditure of the central government could have gone into the deficit. 

The corporate sector is reporting lower income and is closing down marginal businesses, retrenching staff and leaving the country .

The country’s biggest investment fund, the EPF a few days ago revealed that its second quarter 2016 investment income had declined by 26% to RM8.44 billion.

Forging a United Alliance

That new objective of defeating the BN had been made clear at the various plenary sessions of the Deklarasi Rakyat as well as the meetings of the newly registered Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia.

The party's Chairman Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and President Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin had openly declared their intention to forge a united opposition front to take on the BN one-to-one in the coming GE.

They both had held meetings with counterparts from the PKR, DAP, Amanah and even PAS.

Independent observers are unanimous that the surprised court meeting between Dr Mahathir and Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim on Sept. 5 had boosted the opposition’s chances of trouncing the BN in the coming GE.

Dr Mahathir-Anwar meeting a boost to the opposition

In that “muhibbah” meeting, Dr Mahathir had agreed to support Anwar’s legal challenge against the enforcement of the National Security Council Act (NSCA). 

His lawyer, Haniff Khatri Abdulla, had confirmed that he had been instructed to speak to Anwar’s legal team.

Dr Mahathir said after the meeting that if he could work with Lim Kit Siang (the DAP’s strongman) there is no reason why he couldn’t work with Anwar. 

The latter, on his part, believes that Dr Mahathir has embraced the reform agenda.

Mahyuddin had also either met or spoken to leaders of the opposition parties, including those from PAS, to get the sense of the processes that they have to go through to come to the decision to take on the BN one-to-one in the coming generals polls.

Only a one-to-one contest could guarantee that the opposition candidates could match up to the BN’s logistical might and its “cash is king” strategy. 

The BN could already be engaging in fund-raising in anticipation of an earlier GE. 

Watch out for project launches, corporate deals and share transactions on Bursa Malaysia.

The opposition leaders should learn to speak and behave like leaders, cease partisan politics and put an end to petty squabbles or risk being condemned by the people for missing this golden opportunity.

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