The Red and Yellow Rally are most unnecessary and totally avoidable

I had written large parts of this post before the red rally on Sept 16 but was very reluctant to post it for fear of inflaming the situation then. In fact, I can tell you that there was genuine fear on Sept 16 that something bad could happen.

I must admit that I had expected a maximum of 10,000 to 15,000 people to attend the red-shirt rally but the final attendance of 50,000 to 100,000 far surpassed this. And this is the biggest pro-government rally in Malaysian history.

Despite the apprehension and expectation of wide-spread violence, thankfully this red rally passed without (much) incident.

For avoidance of doubt, my stand is that I am totally against both the yellow and the red shirt rally. I believe street rallies have no place in Malaysian politics.

Now that the "Himpunan Rakyat Bersatu" rally has passed m, I believe this story can now be told .

The Red Rally would not have happened if the BERSIH 4 rally did not happen. It was entirely unnecessary and totally avoidable.

BERSIH 1, 2 and 3 did not have a follow-up red rally so the question is, why did BERSIH 4 had an anti-BERSIH rally?

The reasons are these:
1) BERSIH 4 was over-overwhelmingly from one race.
2) Many of the antics by the supporters in BERSIH 4 went overboard.
3) The arrogance of the BERSIH organizers and DAP regards the timing, the location and the attitude of BERSIH and DAP for not apologizing for the ill-conceived antics in the rally.

Let me explain,

1) BERSIH 4 was over-overwhelmingly from one race.

No matter how you say that BERSIH was supposed to be multi-racial and apolitical, it cannot be denied that the majority of the participants were non-Malays,

The reason for this change was that DAP had managed to antagonize, insult and isolate PAS who decided to stay away from this rally.

I had warned about this possible racial imbalance before the BERSIH 4 rally took place but was called a racist who talked about race.

Even the foreign press can foresee this imbalance and wrote about the danger BEFORE it happened.

The Economist wrote this before the BERSIH rally:

Yet it is also possible that the protest could end up rallying ethnic-Malay support for Mr Najib. Recent rifts in the multi-ethnic opposition have led to worries that many ethnic-Malay supporters of the opposition and of previous Bersih rallies may not turn out this time. The risk is that a big rally dominated by ethnic Chinese and Indians would inflame the pernicious sore, scratched on UMNO’s fringes, that the country’s Islamic heritage is under threat from non-Malays. That is a fiendish trap.

The racial imbalance then led to the perception (whether rightly or wrongly) that this happened:

• 29th Aug - 90% Chinese at Dataran Merdeka
• 30th Aug - 90% Chinese at Dataran Merdeka
• 31st Aug National day - 90% Malay at Dataran Merdeka

Basically the perception was that the Chinese disrupted the preparations for Dataran Merdeka for two days but when it came to actually celebrating Merdeka Day, we stayed away. So much for patriotism.

That was the view held by many of my Malay FaceBook friends during that time. And these people are not the kampung folks but Malay professionals on FaceBook working in the cities.

If you are going to accuse me again of being racist for pointing out the race imbalance of BERSIH 4, then you should also call Singapore PM Lee Hsien Loong for also stating the obvious.

You should also then call Bloomberg a racist for their article titled, "Big Anti-Najib Protests Fail to Draw Ethnic Malay Crowd".

I saw this obvious danger. PM Lee say this. Foreign Media even saw this.

So how come DAP and BERSIH did not see this and refused to admit the obvious?

Didn't DAP and BERSIH know that PAS has already said they are not participating and with that, much of the Malay support of the past three rallies?

But yet they stubbornly went ahead with the rally.

Perhaps they thought Mat Sabu and PAS break-away party Amanah could mobilize the Malay crowd and took a bet - a task which Amanah and PKR failed badly at?

However, DAP and BERSIH lost the bet and we had to live with the consequences.

Another stubborn move from DAP and BERSIH was: Why must you hold it at Dataran Merdeka and why must it be during our national day celebrations?

This is a valid question as after the violence and clashes after BERSIH 3 in 2012, Pakatan and other NGOs including BERSIH leaders agreed to hold the next mega-rally for Himpunan KL112 in Stadium Merdeka which received all the necessary police permits and approval.

It was held successfully and PM Najib even thanked the organizers for their cooperation and said :

"Saya juga mengucapkan terima kasih kepada pihak pembangkang walaupun saya tidak bersetuju dengan mereka, namun mereka menghormati semangat Akta Perhimpunan Aman,”

Their next rallies for the Blackout505 after GE13 were similarly held at Kelana Jaya stadium and at Padang Merbok. The fact that it was a rally based on non-existent blackouts and protested against the lies of the 40,000 Bangladeshis ghost voters that Pakatan has since denied every accusing of is besides the point.

But somehow, BERSIH 4 in KL refused to cooperate and stubbornly went ahead with holding it on those dates and at that location - which meant they did not get the necessary approvals.

BERSIH in Kuching did get those approvals because they agreed to hold it in a field and away from any Merdeka celebrations.

Therefore, questions need to be asked is if BERSIH in Kuching could cooperate and agree to the conditions and BERSIH and Pakatan themselves could agree to them, why can't BERSIH in KL? 

Why the stubborn stance from DAP and BERSIH?

My parents and my friends visited me over last weekend and they were furious about the Red Rally and also shared how dangerous the rally could have turned out.

They questioned why did this Red Rally had to happen. I told them that it was hard to stop and then showed them the following photos and videos of what happened during the BERSIH 4 rally.

After watching this, they shook their heads and regretted the BERSIH 4 rally and said "some people can be so stupid and they should stop playing with fire".

They finally understood why the Red Rally took place.

These are the pictures and videos.

I thought we already know how broomsticks became a talking point of the May 13 1969 violence. Why are we using it again?

Chinese Hell Bank notes with Najib's picture

Read the right breast. Ayam is a Chinese terms used to refer to PM Najib.

More stepping and ayam insults

Slapping with slippers, sitting/farting on pictures of Najib.

Punching the face of PM Najib

Chinese tombstones and joss-sticks of caricatures of Najib and Rosmah

The dreaded brooms. Brooms have no place in Malaysian street rallies due to the historical context.

The following video is my "favourite" example of the idiocy of the BERSIH 4 supporters using Chinese and Taoist funeral music and stupid behaviour to insult Najib and Rosmah. This is a must-watch.

And of course the famous stepping on pictures of Najib and PAS President Hadi Awang. It was more than two persons who did it. Here is the video:

None of thee above photos and videos ever made it into the like of Malaysia Insider, MalaysiaKini and the Chinese media who had in-depth coverage of the BERSIH 4 rally. 

But for the red-rally, any insulting or negative news was immediately written about and featured in those portals. It was only when mainstream media started talking about the people stepping on pictures of Hadi Awang and Najib that the alternative media had to talk about that particular incident.

Now, imagine if Govt or Utusan was malicious, before the red-rally they would have featured all the above pictures on the front page of Utusan or aired it on TV3 already. It is not that they do not have those videos and pictures, they had as they were already widely shared on social media and WhatsApp. 

But they were responsible enough to know that featuring these would be very dangerous and inflammatory.

Aniconism in Islam is a proscription in Islam against the creation of images of sentient beings. The most absolute proscription is of images of God in Islam, followed by depictions of Muhammad, and then Islamic prophets, but the depiction of all humans and animals is discouraged in the hadith and by the long tradition of Islamic authorities, especially Sunni ones.

Aniconism in Islam is also why you don't see statues of any of our historical Malay leaders in Malaysia - it is simply not allowed.

A particular Chinese participant in BERSIH 4 saw the danger and wrote the following in a letter that was originally published in Chinese in a news portal.

First of all, many young participants had been very “creative” in inflicting insults to Najib and Rosmah. The most common display was by using a toy knife or hand gesture in chopping off the head of a toy chicken. The more obscene gesture was poking the backside of the chicken. 

There were also people who pasted Najib’s picture with joss papers to imply that he’s a blood-sucker. 

Some of them were holding placards carrying crude and insulting words. Others were stomping on Najib and Rosmah’s pictures. 

We Chinese used to regard ourselves as victims. When UMNO leaders raised the keris at an UMNO meeting, we felt hurt and threatened as if our dignity had been shredded. 

However, when we used such a crude and barbaric gesture of chicken slaughtering, have we ever thought of the feelings of the Malays? To the Malays, no matter how much they dislike Najib, he is still a Malay and one of them. 

It is only human that people will defend their own kind. Sex blogger Alvin Tan had done a lot of stupid things which the Chinese disagreed with but when other races screamed to whack and kill him, many Chinese also found it difficult to tolerate. 

Malays respect their elders and are loyal to their leaders. No matter how bad Najib is, he is their elder and a national leader. Of course, they follow him. When the Chinese openly insult their elder and national leader, how can they earn the respect of the Malays? 

To paste joss papers on Najib’s picture is a total lack of religious sensitivity. We all know the Malays are religious people and why should we do such a thing to make the Muslims angry.

That wise Malaysian Chinese understands what most DAP leaders and cybertroopers may not understand why many Malays find it so insulting that photos of Malay leaders (particularly UMNO and especially PAS leaders, whom they consider as a Religious scholar and leader) were stamped on, effigies were paraded and insulted and photos were hit with brooms and slippers.

It's a big religious and cultural difference that many non-Malay Muslims may not be aware of and may have severely underestimated this sensitivity.

Despite the differences with PAS, you will never find MCA or Gerakan leaders or members demeaning images of PAS leaders - something which DAP leaders don't seem to think is a problem.

Of course this sensitivity is not just limited to Malaysia.

There have been numerous cases of death threats and angry protests when images of the prophets were misused in Western practice - the recent slayings at Charlie Hebdo due to using insulting images of the prophet in their magazine is one of the more severe example.

A few years back it was the Denmark newspaper depicting the prophet in cartoons that has now become known as the "Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy " - which triggered wide-spread protests and death threats.

A spill-over effect in Malaysia was that the Sarawak Tribune newspaper in Malaysia was also banned for a few years due to printing one of those images which was deemed insulting to Muslims.

On top of that, PAS leader Hadi Awang is the Vice President of the International Union of Muslim Scholars - a widely respected world-wide Islamic organization. 

And yet, his photos were stepped on.

These incidents above were not present during BERSIH 1,2 or 3 but somehow become prevalent during BERSIH 4.

Much of these offensive behaviour can be attributed to bad examples set by DAP and their cybertroopers. This has now become the norm.

And sadly, these bad examples of insulting and stepping on pictures are also propagated by the top-most DAP leaders - although Lim Kit Siang may have forgotten about it when he said in September last year that in 50 years of politics, he has never stepped on anyone's photos.

Of course, that was a lie since we have photographic evidence of that.

And we even have a statement about the above incident by DAP themselves too with an equally lame excuse that Lim Kit Siang and Lim Guan Eng cannot be blamed for stepping on those pictures "as the door mat was placed across the entrance to the convention hall, all persons entering the hall will have to step on the door mat." Thus Lim Kit Siang and Lim Guan Eng could not avoid stepping on those pictures.

One wonder why they put pictures of people as doormats and also wonders why they could not remove the door mat.

Lame. So, quit lying.

Of particular note is DAP's Hew Kuan Yew, who calls himself Superman, and a staple of DAP ceramah. He is well known for bad behaviour and offensive language.

He also brings this behaviour online. Here is a recent post Hew made where he posted a picture of an edited T-Shirt and "praising" Allah. Those who can read Chinese will understand his sarcasm.

DAP's Tony Pua, who has mocked the international fatwa on Valentine's day before  also helps show to DAP supporters that it is perfectly fine to use personal insults on PAS President Hadi Awang.

Tony personally insults PAS president as Nyanyuk

DAP top leaders have been setting a bad example for years and now your supporters are doing the same.

And worse, DAP and BERSIH refused to apologize for those incidents with DAP giving the even more lame excuse that there is no proof that these are their supporters.

Some BERSIH supporters would then brush off the above incidents as the action of just a minority.

This is just a very hypocritical view:

The Red Himpunan Rakyat Bersatu rally is considered racist and insulting because a minority of the participants made insulting and racist comments and antics (LKS is Cina Babi, bantah SJKC, Ini Tanah Melayu) and the minority represents the majority..

The yellow BERSIH rally is not considered racist and insulting because a minority of the participants made insulting and racist comments and antics (such as mock Chinese funerals, hell notes, brooms, stamping on pictures) and the minority DOESN'T represents the majority..

Some BERSIH protestors would say that using Chinese customs and tradition to insult the leader of the Malays and a religous leader like Hadi Awang is not considered racist or insulting religion.

I wonder if the non-BERSIH supporters think the same way as you do, given their different upbringing, culture and outlook?

You sure they think the same way as you?

Or is this more true:

"What you say and do can affect race relations. It is not what you do and say that matters. It is how others perceive what you do and say that counts."

About now, some BERSIH supporters would be saying that BERSIH is entirely apolitical. 

Listen carefully to the video above. Were those BERSIH speeches about free and fair elections or was it about removing UMNO and BN?

And Ambiga who is still the public face of BERSIH had no problems with campaigning for DAP at their elections rally too:

Yup. Free and fair elections only. Never political, Yeah, right.

So, BERSIH is not DAP or Pakatan but somehow PERKASA and PEKIDA is UMNO? What logic is this?

Moving on...

Could PM Najib and government have stopped the red-shirt rally?

I doubt it. There were groups of people with genuine anger at the BERSIH 4 rally - especially since the BERSIH rally happened so soon after the Low Yat incident.

You must remember that the BERSIH 4 rally in KL was also declared illegal and police and govt did its utmost to stop it from happening but it still took place.

Similarly with the red-shirt rally, would Police declaring the red-shirt rally would also have stopped people form taking to the streets? Of course not. 

What PM Najib, MCA, GERAKAN and MIC did in Cabinet was to manage this by insisting on the following conditions be fully adhered to:

1) The rallying point be changed from Petaling Street and Low Yat area to Padang Merbok. Petaling Street and Low Yat are absolutely off-limits.

2) The name of the rally was changed from Himpunan Maruah Melayu to Himpunan Rakyat Bersatu and non-Malays were also invited to join.

3) Strict and heavy police presence to uphold the peace.

With those changes and a neutral rallying point, police then gave the permit to allow a managed rally instead of unmanaged demonstrations.

In a sense, possible tragedy was averted due to the behind-the-scene consensus discussion and agreement that Najib, MCA, Gerakan and MIC did.

And despite the attempts of independent media and Pakatan politicians to try and brand the rally to be protecting Malay rights or Malay position or that Malays are under threat, the truth of the matter is that the rally was to protect Malay dignity.

Specifically, the dignity of Malay leaders Najib and Hadi Awang whose images were stepped on, put into hell-notes, sat on, farted on, put onto tombstones, using brooms to sweep at and funeral ceremony held for them.

You do all that and you still asking Najib to be the PM for all Malaysians?

Sorry, 1Malaysia has already died. It died when 90% of Chinese and Pakatan rejected 1Malaysia during GE13.

Being a product of an English school in St John's primary and secondary school and then middle school and university in England, Najib was never a racist politician.

His actions prior to GE13 showed he was the PM who had tried very hard to reach out and gave the most to the non-Malays. This is without doubt.

In fact, one of Tun Mahathir's attacks on Najib is that he gave too much face to the Chinese which angered the Malays.

But somehow, Najib is being painted as a racist to praising the Red Rally being peaceful - which boggles the mind. 

To conclude, I state again that the red rally was most unnecessary and a totally avoidable rally if the following happened:

1. DAP had not attacked and isolated PAS which led to the racially-imbalanced BERSIH 4 rally
2. DAP leaders and their cybertoopers had not been setting the bad example of insulting other leaders for years which led to the childish and highly-insulting antics in BERSIH 4 and possibly more severe ones in future which will definitely raise race-religion tensions more and ultimately lead to disaster.
3. DAP and BERSH had taken responsibility for those highly-insulting antics in BERSIH 4 and issued an apology
4. Instead of being stubborn, DAP and BERSIH had compromised and changed both the date of the rally and venue to something mutually acceptable to the Police and government.

Better yet, if the BERSIH 4 rally did not happen, the Red rally most certainly won't have taken place.

For every action, there will be a re-action.

I just hope that Malaysia does not go down the track of endless Red vs Yellow rallies like in Thailand.

EPILOGUE - A note to MCA, Gerakan and MIC:

When the shit hits the fan, all DAP ever does is to shift the blame and ask MCA, Gerakan and others to solve the problem like above.  DAP does not solve problems, they tai-chi it to others.

MCA is not responsible for holding or promoting the BERSIH 4 rally nor do they have the support of 90% of the Chinese -many of whom went for the BERSIH 4 rally.

And due to the BERSIH 4 rally, there was an anti-BERSIH 4 rally which could further heighten race tension.

DAP is responsible for this mess but refuse to take responsibility or apologize and wants MCA to stop the rally and clean up DAP's mess?

DAP will never take responsibility for their actions. it is their modus operandi to shift the blame to MCA and others.

This Yellow vs Red conflict is a good example:

1) DAP creates racial tensions by continually pushing and pushing.
2) And when others start pushing back, DAP then tai-chi the problem to MCA, Gerakan and others to solve the problem
3) MCA, Gerakan and others take up the challenge "for the sake of protecting the minorities" and try to confront UMNO and govt to solve it
4) When MCA and Gerakan cannot solve the problem or cannot solve it enough or engage in a war of words with UMNO, DAP will then say MCA, Gerakan etc are useless or cowards or dogs to UMNO.

They will then repeat the cycle.

When is MCA and Gerakan and the rest going to realize that this is DAP's modus operandi and break this cycle?

You all should clearly state your stand that you are against BOTH yellow and red rallies and make sure DAP gets their rightful share of the blame. You are not servants of DAP and have to clean up their mess all the time.

If DAP creates any problems again, please ask DAP to solve them.

After all, 90% of us Chinese have voted DAP and entrusted them to solve our problems.

Therefore, DAP should fulfill their responsibilities - not MCA, Gerakan or MIC.

Making sense of the USA investigation into Najib and family

Today's Malaysian headline was dominated by an article by The New York Times that PM Najib is apparently under investigations by a federal grand jury for allegations of corruption.

The New York Times was also the same newspaper that published Tun Mahathir's interview back in June 2015 which slammed PM Najib, UMNO and the Malaysian Govt and was published on the same day that Foreign Minister Anifah Aman was supposed to attend and address the United Nations Security Council meeting.  This lead to Anifah Aman writing an open letter to the New York Times and slamming Tun Mahathir for his indiscretion saying it is regrettable to sere Tun M undermining Malaysia in the foreign press.

Amazingly, today the UN Security Council is again in session - the first time since June. In fact, PM Najib is on the way to New York now for the UN's General Assembly and their 70th anniversary celebrations.

The timing.of the publication of this article is very suspicious and seems designed to embarrass PM Najib and Malaysia at the UN.

Why I came to this conclusion is based on the following points from today's New York Times article:

1) The persons investigated are Najib's step-son (Rosmah's natural son from her previous marriage) Riza Aziz and also his buddy Jho Low.

New York Times are saying that Najib is also investigated because presumably Reza is related by marriage to Najib while Jho Low is presumably also Najib's friend.

It is important to note that Najib is not personally being investigated himself for corruption as he has no known properties in the USA.

At this point, it is important to note that Jho Low has been listed companies in Malaysia since the year 2007 and 2008 - before Najib became Prime Minister and 1MDB was not even in existence. He was already wealthy then and also had access to serious Middle-Eastern money via his friendship and partnerships with the various royal families even then.

On the other hand, Riza has been producing movies since 2010,

And before this, Riza holds a BS degree in Government & Economics and an MS in Politics from the London School of Economics. He is also a registered authorized person with the UK Financial Services Authority and worked as an investment banker for many years in London.

As a producer, Riza is also in charge of getting investors for their movie projects. It does not mean he himself funded the entire project - that is not what a producer does. Riza had said that there are quite a list of investors who funded his film projects.

But Riza has indeed been successful in producing the Wolf of Wall Street, which grossed more than USD400 million in worldwide ticket and DVD sales - one of the top 200 most commercially successful films of all time and beat out films such as Superman Returns, Ice Age, Mad Max Fury Road, Batman Begins and many others.

Riza's next firm Dumb and Dumber II was also commercially successful and grossed USD170m in ticket sales.

It is clear that Riza has the means and the smarts to make money too and we should not begrudge him this as he is playing in the biggest game of all - Hollywood.

2) The property purchases in questions date back to Oct 2012. But somehow, the New York Times links this to the USD681m (the famous RM2.6b) deposited by a Middle-East campaign contributor to Najib's accounts - which was only deposited in March 2013 - a month before GE13..

Therefore, it is weird for New York Times to link this later deposit with the earlier purchase of apartments much earlier - unless you can hutang first (buku 555 style) when buying properties in the USA.

3) This property purchase was then exposed by the New York Times on February 8 this year around the time that Anwar Ibrahim was sentenced to jail for sodomy. Amazingly, New York Times also took the trouble to translate their article on their website to Chinese and Bahasa Malaysia - presumably because there must be a large population of Malays staying in New York.

This is very strange because not a single other article in the New York Times have a Bahasa Malaysia version.

3) The investigations in the USA appears to have been started by Sarawak Report making a complaint in the USA in March 2015 where Sarawak Report seems to be accusing the USA authorities of not taking things seriously and letting these "criminals" like Jho Low and Najib run free and not taking any action.

Further complaints against Najib to the USA were also apparently made by selfie-fan and Tun Mahathir stalwart Khairuddin Abu Hassan and Tun Mahathir's ex-political secretary Matthias Chang.

Mathhias has revealed that both of them had been talking to the USA embassy and were schedueld to be in New York this week to meet with the FBI regarding 1MDB.

Both of them had gone all around the world lodging cases against Najib and 1MDB with Switzerland, France, England, Singapore and Hong Kong authorities.

When you lodge a case, by law the authorities there are obliged to open an investigation.

This was the same case when Sarawak Report played up the matter Sabah Chief Minister Musa Aman being investigated by Hong Kong's famed ICAC related to the case of businessman Michael Chia who was caught in the year 2008 for carrying RM40mil of cash into Hong Kong.

Sarawak Report even came up with lots of documents and flow charts in their so-called expose of Musa Aman in their article titled ""Hold On Trust For Aman" - More Devastating Evidence From The ICAC Investigation!

With such "detailed" evidence and documents, anyone reading that Sarawak Report would have been convinced of Musa Aman's guilt and ICAC would have thrown Musa Aman in jail.

Instead, in December 2012, the ICAC wrote to Musa Aman that he that he was no longer under probe for corruption for a RM40 million donation to the state Umno chapter.

ICAC explained to Musa Aman that it had started the probe after receiving a complaint against him, saying that this was required by Hong Kong’s laws on corruption.

But the agency said that upon completing investigations and filing a report with its Operations Review Committee (ORC), both the committee and the ICAC Commissioner had agreed not to take further investigative action “on the basis of the facts now known”.

The letter, which bore the ICAC’s letterhead, was signed off by principal investigator Tso Wai-Yan and was addressed solely to Musa at his office in Kota Kinabalu.

It took ICAC all of 4 years to clear Musa Aman but Sarawak Report and the now-dead Pakatan Rakyat played this Musa Aman corruption issue for years and frequently cited he is now under ICAC investigations and cannot escape due to overwhelming evidence - hence Musa will be going to jail soon.

But yet today, Musa Aman has been cleared by both ICAC and MACC and still remains Chief Minister of Sabah today.

Similarly, the pro-opposition NGO SUARAM filed a complaint on the Scorpene case to the French courts in the year 2010 which compelled the French authorities to start an inquiry.

In fact, in May 2012, SUARAM proudly announced that the French courts will be asking Najib to appear for questioning in the French Courts and that France will soon issue an Interpol Red Notice to arrest Najib if he refuses to attend.

Three years later, and 5 years after the initial report to France was lodged by SUARAM, we are still waiting for the France court to supposedly haul Najib in for questioning which they said was imminent.

In fact, this investigation actually worked against Pakatan and Suaram as it was determined by the French courts that Najib, Razak Baginda and Altantuya was never in France at the same time and that Altantuya was never hired as a translator as all meetings were held in English.

Even today's New York Times article admitted that the Federal Grand Jury investigations into Najib was at the very preliminary stage and will likely take many years to complete.

It appears that it has now become a favorite tactic by those with vested interest against the government to lodge report against our country's leaders overseas since by law, those countries have to act on any complaints and start investigations.

These investigations take years but during this period, they can continue to feed the frenzy and play up this issue -both with locally and overseas.

It makes for very good headlines - especially in the foreign press - which the opposition would then play up the issue saying it is an international embarrassment and that the evidence is so overwhelming that even the foreign governments have to investigate and that our leaders will be caught and jailed overseas if they travel abroad.

The opposition fails to reveal, however, that it was they who made those complaints overseas which prompted the investigations to start and hence all the fancy and damaging overseas headlines - all designed to cause harm and damage the credibility of Malaysia and our leaders.

Foreign governments don't simply start investigations on another govt or country unless an official complaint was lodged by someone else.

But these people don't care. They are not interested to find out the truth but merely interested in toppling others. Malaysia's reputation and credibility is not their concern.

Also, Tun Mahathir is also wrong for suggesting that Najib is afraid to go overseas now as he may be arrested. In fact, as we speak, Najib is overseas in UK for some meetings and will then travel to the USA for the UN celebrations in a few days.

Tun Mahathir is naughty for saying this as he forgot about the immunity granted to heads of states and also the fact that any investigations overseas will take years.

As we write, Khairuddin Abu Hassan is still in jail for a week under remand and is now under police questioning.

Khairuddin with Tun Mahathir take center-stage at the Nothing2lose forum in June 2015

Perhaps soon we will find out who ordered and funded him and Matthias Chang to travel all around the world to lodge reports against Najib and linked him up with all the foreign press for his interviews.

Eight months ago, Khairuddin was still a bankrupt and his penthouse apartment got auctioned off in January 2015. But strangely, months later after Khairuddin started attacking 1MDB, he managed to pay off all his debts and even went all around the world lodging police reports - Switzerland, France, UK, Singapore, Hong Kong and the aborted USA trip.

It seems that these people have no problems inviting foreign interference into Malaysia's own investigations and our sovereignty as long as they and their political masters' objective is met.

Bankruptcy search confirming that Khairuddin has been bankrupt since May 2014

Auction of Khairuddin's house in Jan 2015

This will be an interesting story - depending on who or what Khairuddin Abu Hassan reveals under questioning by PDRM in this one week jail period.

As for Najib, if those famous authorities from USA, HK, Switzerland, Singapore, France and UK clears him from these RM2.6b and 1MDB allegations years later, then no one should question him on these anymore.

But it would be years later. By then, I am sure Najib's enemies will come out with newer allegations and continue the same practise of filing reports overseas and working with foreign media in order to embarrass and pressure him.

They have done it before, they are doing it now and they will do it again in future coz its cheap, easy and you get a few years worth of political bullets to use to attack your opponent.

Whether it is fair or not is an entirely different matter.

LEAKED: Written Confession of Xavier Justo

As the full confession and WhatsApp logs of Xavier Justo continues to be leaked and published by the local media in sensational fashion that has implicated Sarawak Report, Clare Brown, The Edge, politicians such as Nurul Izzah and Tony Pua, Sarawak Report has published the full written confession of Xavier Justo on their website here.

Since many users in Malaysia are no longer able to access Sarawak Report due to a government restrictions imposed after Justo and Thailand police had said that data had been tampered by Sarawak Report,  I reproduce the full document here.

I am unable to confirm this confession published by Sarawak Report itself to be 100% legitimate but the contents are very consistent with what our local media has been reporting in their cover page stories. In addition to the confession, our local media also had access to the WhatsApp logs which PDRM sources have confirmed is from the Thailand police investigation and that it will have legal repercussions in Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore.

It appears that Sarawak Report wanted to leak this document first before it got leaked by others so that Sarawak Report can preempt this by providing their conspiracy excuses and reduce some of the more negative reaction towards them.

As Sarawak Report and Clare Brown becomes increasingly desperate as the details are being revealed in media and after Justo has been convicted, Sarawak Report is now accusing that the Switzerland government is now involved in the cover up by their embassy and their govt and also that PetroSaudi has sent secret agents posing as Scotland Yard police to manipulate Xavier Justo whom she now says is suicidal and suffering from Stockholm Syndrome.  Sarawak Report believes that this accusation apparently justifies Sarawak Report releasing the Justo confession on their website here.

In recent months as the Justo story was developing, Sarawak Report had also accused Thailand police (whom she says are corrupted) and Singapore governments (whom she calls a Sin City who spies on journalists)  of colluding with Malaysia to cover up 1MDB.

Xavier Justo's written confession follows:

26 June 2015, Bangkok Remand Prison  

On Friday the 26th of June 2015, I hereby confess to my full involvement in, and responsibility for, the offences for which I am charged. They are the attempted blackmail and attempted extortion of PetroSaudi. I make this confession of my own free will and accord without any pressure, duress or outside influence. I do not wish to have a lawyer present. 

I fully admit my criminal behaviour and accept my guilt in these matters. I just want to set the record straight and apologise to those who I have wronged. I have conspired with others and further admit offenses of theft of data, handling stolen goods, selling stolen data and IT equipment to third parties and attempting to launder the proceeds of sale. My only motivation for selling the data that I stole was for monetary gain and I never considered myself a whistle-blower. 

I worked at PetroSaudi from March 2010 to April 2011. I had two different roles while I worked there. I headed up the IT function and I was also executive administrator of a couple of group companies. I had this job due to my previous administrative roles and my longstanding friendship with Tarek Obaid, PetroSaudi’s CEO. These roles gave me privileged access to PetroSaudi’s confidential data and IT systems.

In March 2011, it became clear that my employment with PetroSaudi would be terminated. I started to worry about how I would provide for myself and family if I didn’t have a job and decided that I needed to protect my financial security. I felt that the best way to do this was to use my access to PetroSaudi’s IT systems to take as much data and information as I could. I didn’t do this because I thought PetroSaudi had done anything wrong. I never saw any wrongdoing while I was at PetroSaudi or afterwards. I did it because I knew the data was important to the company and confidential and I thought I might be able to sell it. 

I accessed the data by breaking into my colleagues’ computers and making bulk downloads of whatever I could find onto portable hard drives and memory sticks. I wasn’t looking for anything in particular – just as much data as possible to have the maximum chance of it being valuable. I took this data knowing that I was committing a criminal offence. In total I stole about 90 GB of data which included emails, documents and other material. This was done over several days during March and April 2011. 

In early April my contract was terminated and I signed a Settlement Agreement with PetroSaudi. The Settlement Agreement was negotiated by my lawyer and PetroSaudi’s lawyer and contained normal terms requiring me to return data and property and respect confidentiality. I also received a settlement payment based on my salary and my notice period and recognising my friendship with Tarek Obaid. Shortly before signing my Settlement Agreement (original payment to Justo was a settlement agreement and not the first blackmail as some people believe) I downloaded all of the contents of my PetroSaudi computers and drives onto other portable drives that I took from PetroSaudi’s IT stores. I then returned the original IT equipment to give the impression I had handed back all data and equipment. 

However, I kept the drives onto which I downloaded all of that data. I admit that all of these actions also breach my Settlement Agreement in addition to my attempts to blackmail PetroSaudi and to sell and transfer the data. 

I understand that I will have to pay back all of my settlement payment to PetroSaudi and realise that I am liable to pay damages to PetroSaudi under my Settlement Agreement as a result of my actions. 

In July 2013 I contacted Patrick Mahony and demanded 3.5 Million Swiss Francs for the return of the stolen data. Over the next 5 months I sent further emails to Patrick Mahony demanding money otherwise I would sell the stolen data to other interested parties, though at this point I hadn’t contacted anyone else. I knew that releasing this huge amount of confidential data would damage PetroSaudi. 

I met with Patrick Mahony at the Shangri La Hotel in Bangkok in October 2013 where I verbally threatened him that if PetroSaudi did not pay me for the stolen data I would sell it to others 1 and cause damage to PetroSaudi. Patrick told me that PetroSaudi hadn’t done anything wrong and there was nothing in the data I stole that would suggest wrongdoing. PetroSaudi refused to pay. 

When the blackmail didn’t work I tried to find a buyer for the data and after a while was contacted by Clare Brown. This was in May or June 2014. I know that she is a journalist with Sawarak Report and a relation of Gordon Brown, a UK former prime minister. I met Clare Brown in Bangkok about 10 days after she contacted me. She told me that anything I had involving PetroSaudi’s transaction with 1MDB would fetch a good price and agreed she would facilitate the sale of the stolen data to others. 

She promised me I would make at least a couple of million from this sale. During the next six months I kept regular contact with Clare Brown. She tried a few buyers including the entourage of Anwar Ibrahim but wasn’t successful. 

In Feb 2015 Clare arranged a meeting at which she was present with Tong Kooi Ong and the editor of one of his newspapers Mr Ho Kay Tat. The meeting took place in the Fullerton Bay Hotel in Singapore. During this meeting I agreed to sell all of PetroSaudi’s stolen data to Tong for the sum of 2 million USD. I originally asked for 3 million USD and this was negotiated down to the two million. 

We only discussed the content of the data at a very high level as they said they were only interested in the 1MDB transaction and I hadn’t worked on it. So I showed them I had a lot of documents and emails from the 1MDB transaction but I couldn’t explain how the documents worked, or what they meant, and I couldn’t give them any background to the transaction. Tong and Clare told me that the material would be used to attack the current Malaysian Government and the Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak. 

They didn’t explain to me how they would do this, they just said they wanted some original documents and emails to build a story around. Clare said that as long as I could give them genuine documents, the contents of those documents didn’t matter because she would do the rest.  I didn’t know what she meant by that. 

Tong stated he didn’t want to involve the Saudis or PetroSaudi which was important to me. He said that this was an internal Malaysian matter only. He asked Clare to write an article based on the stolen information and for him to proof read the article before publication. 

Clare agreed to do this. However, subsequently this proved to be a lie. It was agreed by Tong that I would hand him the data at this meeting and he would pay 2 million USD the following day. 

Then I gave Ho Kay Tat PetroSaudi’s stolen data contained on a stolen hard drive. Tong’s IT team who were present took it off him checked the data and copied it for Tong. I handed a second hard drive to Clare Brown. A few days later Clare informed me that the copy was corrupted and I sent her a further copy on a memory stick using DHL to London. 

We met again in Singapore a few days after that to discuss the data some more and finalise payment. One or two days after that second meeting I opened a BVI trust in Singapore and tried to open a bank account at DBS Bank to receive the payment. However DBS refused to open the account. Tong told me that he would transfer the money to this account using his UOB Bank account in Singapore, he was unable to do this as DBS refused my account. 

I opened an account in Abu Dhabi asking Tong to pay the money to this account using whatsapp. He refused claiming that Jho Low has too many interests in the region. I then offered my Justo-Consulting in Hong Kong for payment, again using whatsapp. Tong refused to pay claiming it has my name which was a risk. I did not put the money in my Swiss account because of the growing story around the Malaysian/ PetroSaudi situation. In fact I closed the account and moved the money to Koh Samui to my wife for safety. 

Tong then offered to pay me by cash if I travelled to Singapore, this would be done of several trips. I declined this option fearing detection at airports and exposing myself to arrest. 

The latest proposal was to pay me using Clare Brown. We all agreed to do this. It would involve Tong paying her the 2,000,000 USD in the UK and her paying me a monthly amount disguised as a consultancy fee via the Sarawak Report. She proposed that I opened a news desk for the South East 2 Asia Region for which she would first pay me 350,000 USD, followed by a further 1,250,000 USD later. 

She told me that she had asked her UK lawyers to set this up and I was waiting for payment when I was arrested. I am aware and fully acknowledge that this would constitute money laundering. 

However, so far I have received no money. I still have copies of PetroSaudi’s data which I’m storing in Koh Samui. It’s stored a Samui Storage and I authorised the Royal Thai Police to recover and seize this. Also stored are the whatsapp conversations I had with Clare, Ho Kay Tat and Tong and they are kept on a USB stick. It’s in a black suitcase made by Tumi and in their company safe. 

I accept my dishonesty and greed. I would like to sincerely apologise to Tarek Obaid and Patrick Mahony for the harm stress and anxiety I caused them as individuals. I would like to apologise for my criminal behaviour to the Royal Thai Police and the Thai Courts as well as the people of Thailand. 

I would also like to apologise to the Malaysian government and the people of Malaysia for the harm and upset I have caused them by releasing private data concerning business which has nothing to do with me. I never foresaw the magnitude and harm my actions will cause. I deeply regret what I have done and I fully accept the punishment and authority of the Thai Courts and legal system and I will plead guilty when I go before them. 

Xavier Andre Justo.

Xavier Justo with senior Thailand Police including Thai Major-General of police Prawut Tavornsiri 

Other than baking up all sorts of conspiracy theories, this Sarawak Report and the opposition are very good at selective release of documents without telling the full story. Such telling part of the story without telling the fool story is the same as lying as they can manipulate the narrative to paint the story their way. 

Sarawak Report said they have 3 million emails from PetroSaudi but only released a dozen or so but don't want to release the rest.

Just like the whole world were told by the Opposition and the independent press that the Cayman and BSI units held by 1MDB are worthless but end up Wall Street Journal reveal the units are fully guaranteed by Aabar, which is owned by the Abu Dhabi Govt since the year 2012 - which means 1MDB actually made quite a lot of money from the PetroSaudi deal instead of billions stolen by Jho Low.

This guarantee was the reason why Aabar's parent IPIC paid USD1 billion to 1MDB in June - equivalent to the remaining balance of the units held by 1MDB in BSI..

Of course, after this revelation, Sarawak Report  and opposition don't highlight this fact about the units and keep quiet.

Worse is that the WSJ revealed that the PAC members including Tony Pua were told this and shown the Aabar guarantee documents but did not utter a word at all and admit that they were wrong.  Tun Mahathir and his supporter are also similarly very quiet about this even though he had repeatedly accused these units of being worthless in the past.

USD1.4 billion of UAE Govt money went missing? Also, WSJ confirms that Cayman and BSI "Units" are not worthless

I have been asked by many to comment on today's Wall Street Journal article titled "Malaysia’s 1MDB Fund Scandal Spreads to U.A.E." and The Malaysian Insider's related article "Abu Dhabi alleges US$1.4 billion from 1MDB missing, says WSJ".

The two articles alleges that Abu Dhabi Govt's sovereign fund IPIC cannot trace a USD1.4b payment from 1MDB to them.

These are my observations:

1) The Malaysian Insider lied again with their headline "Abu Dhabi alleges US$1.4 billion from 1MDB missing, says WSJ" - which is entirely incorrect.

The allegations that this money was missing came from "two people familiar with the matter" as reported by WSJ:

Ibrahim Al Abed, a spokesman for the U.A.E. the UAE's ambassador to the U.S., IPIC and Aabar didn’t respond to requests for comment on the transfers.

Therefore, TMI is wrong to say Abu Dhabi alleges money is missing as it is not from official govt sources. Even WSJ won't dare use such a misleading headline like TMI.

2) As this particular allegations impacts on both countries, we should await for official comment from Malaysia and Abu Dhabi Govt.

I wouldn't know for sure whether IPIC received the payment or not but I would be very surprised that they have not because:

• The "missing" money is related to the 2012 USD3.5b bond issue guaranteed by IPIC and if after 3 years, IPIC only recently found out USD1,4b was missing then I don't know what to say. Details of this 2012 bond and the terms and conditions were clearly stated in the 2014 Audited Financial accounts of IPIC.

• IPIC would be very foolish to take over interest payment (already done) for the USD3.5b bonds (which they will take over as part of the settlement agreement) and also very foolish to have paid USD1b cash to 1MDB in June this year if the money was missing.

You really have to question the competency of the UAE government if they could not detect for over 3 years that USD1.4 billion of their money went missing.

3) The WSJ report has confirmed that the so-called BSI/Cayman units are not worthless. 

WSJ has revealed that the PAC (including Tony Pua) were told that these disputed and supposedly worthless USD2.32b units are guaranteed by Aabar Corp, a part of the Abu Dhabi Govt since the year 2012 - a detail that was never revealed by Tony Pua, 1MDB or anyone for that matter.

I believe that 1MDB would have long wanted to say that these units are guaranteed by Abu Dhabi but was prevented so by confidentially agreements - especially since it was between two sovereign governments.

Their inability to publicly state this fact have allowed critics to attack 1MDB for years on these units and cayman funds.

I believe the June USD1billion payment from IPIC to 1MDB was related to these remaining units (majority of the USD2.32b untis were redeemed before this) which IPIC's unit Aabar guaranteed and IPIC made good on its guarantee with this payment - which essentially closes the case of the USD2.32b cayman investments and BSI units

And since these units are supposed to be the proceeds from the 1MDB-PetroSaudi joint-venture, this proves that no money was missing and gives credibility to 1MDB's claims that they made at least USD500m from the 2009 joint venture with PetroSaudi.

So, if no money was missing then how the heck did Jho Low or GoodStar "steal" USD1.83 billion from 1MDB?

Since the PAC were shown evidence of this Aabar guarantee, I am surprised that Tony Pua did not come out to apologize for saying the Cayman units were worthless.

Tony Pua already in trouble with the law over Justo-gate has remained that the 1MDB units are guaranteed by Aabar and not worthless

Perhaps he will say that he cannot comment on this as it was PAC confidential matter?

4) WSJ seems very determined to continue to link the USD681m payment into Prime Minister Najib accounts as money from 1MDB.

Despite an official MACC statement that the money was not from 1MDB and multiple statements from our ministers stating that the money was campaign contribution from a Middle East source, even in today's article WSJ tried to make this link to 1MDB.

Read why I think it is entirely possible that this came from a Middle East donor during the heady periods of Arab Spring and why the donor would want to remain anonymous:  Arab money and the Malaysian Spring?

In their July 2015 article which exposed the information that money had flowed into PM Najib's account, WSJ had tried to link the money to the USD3b bond issued in March 2013, a month before the money went into Najib's account.

Since that didn't work out well, WSJ is now trying to link the money from the 2012 USD3.5b bonds instead.

You really have to question the motives of WSJ of their continued efforts.

5) Confidential and official secrets of Malaysia continue to be deliberately leaked to foreign media which strongly indicates a conspiracy to topple PM Najib and Malaysia Government. 

I had questioned why were only a few pieces of a large investigation paper into 1MDB deliberately leaked to WSJ just mere days after UMNO postponed its party elections.  WSJ had confirmed that they received this selective info from unnamed government investigators.

These few pages just showed money flows into Najib account but do not show who gave the money (since revealed as a Middle East donor who wants to remain anonymous), whether it was allowed by UMNO rules that their president can hold money in trust for the party (yes, it's in their party rules) and where these funds are used and where it went to - details which are fully available to the investigators. 

But strangely, only a few pages of very selective information was leaked to WSJ just days after the UMNO elections were announced to be postponed to after GE14.

And again in today's report, Wall Street Journal says it has reviewed the interim Auditor-General report into 1MDB which was completed and released in late July. This document is highly confidential and available to PAC and MOF sources only.

How the heck did foreign media get their hands on this protected document that was just released not too long ago?

Who within government is conspiring with foreigners to try to discredit and bring down our government?

If it is proven that PM Najib committed a crime by taking money from 1MDB, he should go to jail.

But if it is proven that he did not commit any crime and the money was not from 1MDB, what should the government do with these people who keeps releasing selected confidential information to foreign media which badly discredits our country and destabilizes our economy?

What action should we take on these malicious people?

Read what are the implications to Malaysia and the world, if the USD681m is indeed from 1MDB: What if Tun M is correct that the RM2.6b is from 1MDB?

----
Update: 1MDB has just issued an official statement on this.

1MDB Stands by Its Audited Accounts 

We refer to a biased article by the Wall Street Journal today relating to US$1.4 billion of payments made by 1MDB. We note that the Wall Street Journal does not name its source or provide any proof of the unproven allegations it is making, thereby seriously discrediting its sensationalist story. 

1MDB cannot speak on behalf of Aabar or IPIC nor can we comment on the accounting arrangements of third parties. What we can confirm is that the 1MDB audited financial statements clearly describe the amount and purpose of the payments, which for the avoidance of doubt, is structured as a deposit (i.e. a financial asset belonging to 1MDB and not an expense to 1MDB). 

Secondly, based on those payments, we can confirm that IPIC did provide and continues to provide, guarantees for the principal and interest of 2 x US$1.75 billion bonds issued by 1MDB, with a total principal and interest amount of approximately US$5.5 billion. 

Thirdly, we can confirm that 1MDB auditors, Deloitte, made specific and detailed enquiries on these payments prior to signing off on the 1MDB audited accounts. 

Fourthly, Deloitte has strongly defended its methodology and audit process of 1MDB at the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) hearings, a bipartisan select committee of the Malaysian Parliament. Accordingly, the Wall Street Journal is wrong to state “it isn’t clear what happened to the funds”, at least not from a 1MDB perspective. 

More importantly, we are shocked that a hitherto reputable publisher such as the Wall Street Journal would make use of clearly confidential information in its reporting. We refer specifically to the WSJ confirming it has reviewed a “transcript of the proceedings”, from a parliamentary committee probing 1MDB, of which the only possible source is the PAC hearings on 1MDB. 

The Standing Orders of the Malaysian Parliament very clearly states that “the evidence taken before any Select Committee and any documents presented to such Committee shall not be published by any member of such Committee, or by any other person, before the Committee has presented its Report to the House”. 

The actions by Wall Street Journal are a potential breach of Malaysian law by a supposedly respectable foreign publication. We are further concerned as to who involved in the PAC hearings may have leaked this transcript, which is clearly an attempt to prejudice the PAC investigations and deny 1MDB its right to due process as provided for by the laws of Malaysia. 

1MDB strongly urges the relevant authorities to investigate this matter thoroughly and take all requisite action to preserve the process integrity and Standing Orders of the Malaysian Parliament.