COMMENT | When Singapore’s foreign minister Vivian Balakrishnan visited Malaysia for three days of intensive talks last week, he met an impressive array of leaders, including the prime minister, royalty, other top government ministers and opposition figures.

But he also did a very puzzling thing - he conferred with a convicted felon who was responsible for the greatest theft ever in Malaysia and what is still considered to be the largest kleptocratic theft of government money ever. We are, of course, talking about former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak and self-styled national development company 1MDB.

Singapore should be well aware of the 1MDB scandal because it figured very highly as a place from which much of money laundering from 1MDB occurred. In fact, Singapore was the first country to charge and jail bank officials for offences committed in...