The Prime Minister, added Lim who is also DAP Parliamentary Leader, cannot continue to pretend that he can just wish his twin mega scandals away with a wave of his hand. “The reports are coming in from different parts of the world about ongoing probes, whether in Switzerland, Singapore, Hong Kong, United Kingdom or United States, into the 1MDB scandal, with foreign analysts predicting the continued erosion of investor confidence in Malaysia.”
For instance, Mixo Das, a Singapore-based strategist at Nomura Holdings Inc., forecast “a potentially long-term investment climate deterioration” while Sydney’s AMP Capital Investors investment strategy head Shane Oliver said he will not be allocating any more funds to Malaysia, noted Lim. “Although Malaysian politics seems to be confronted by a great paradox where Najib seems to be getting stronger and stronger despite ‘scandal after scandal’, the question was whether this great paradox was sustainable or whether a tipping point was being reached where his ‘house of cards’ will suddenly collapse and come tumbling down.”
Everyday, said Lim, enormous pressures continue to be relentlessly mounted, as seen by the latest three developments:
Firstly, an unprecedented challenge to the authority of the Attorney-General (AG) with former Malaysian Bar president Ragunath Kesavan declaring that in any investigation conducted against the AG as chief prosecutor, the Solicitor-General Azailiza Mohd Ahad , who is second in command in the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) , can decide whether to prosecute or not. “If the decision to prosecute the AG is made, any deputy public prosecutor (DPP) is competent to handle the task,” said Lim.
“On Thursday, former Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) director Mohamad Ramli Manan, said that AG Mohamed Apandi Ali can be investigated be under Section 212 of the Penal Code, which relates to the crime of harbouring an offender.”
Alternatively, noted Lim, investigations can also be carried out under Sections 217 or 218 of the Penal Code, related to a public servant disobeying a direction of law with the intent to save a person from punishment or property forfeiture. “This was in relation to Apandi Ali’s recent decision to close cases based on the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission’s (MACC) investigations into the RM42 million from SRC International and RM2.6 billion donation that was deposited into Najib’s personal account.
Secondly, the reiteration by former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad that Najib should resign in order for Malaysia to regain its reputation. “To clear Malaysia’s good name and his own, Najib must prove beyond a shadow of doubt that he is innocent of all the accusations against him,” Lim quoted Mahathir as saying. ““The AG saying he is innocent means nothing. He, the AG, has no credibility.”
Thirdly, said Lim, the launch of a formal investigation in France into whether Najib was paid bribes over a USD1.2 billion Scorpene submarine deal in 2002 when he was Defence Minister. “It immediately brought to mind the murder of Mongolian woman Altantuya Shaariibuu.”