YOURSAY 'Indeed, Najib's protest of innocence reminds me of Bill Clinton in the wake of the Monica Lewinski scandal.'
'Dr M masterminded claim I stole 1MDB's money'
Negarawan:
BN must pressure Najib to take leave until full investigations are concluded. Otherwise there should be an emergency sitting of the Parliament to move a motion of no confidence against the prime minister.
The whole country is at stake here because of one person. The emotions of the rakyat will run high pretty soon if no action is taken by the authorities. We cannot allow a person with dubious character to continue running the country into ruins.
Instead of his constant denials, he could have easily demolished the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) allegations by showing his bank accounts. Indeed, more than 24 hours has passed.
Armchair Newspaper: WSJ is not beholden to former PM Dr Mahathir Mohamad. It is a respectable media organisation with global reach and influence. This latest serious expose against Najib would have gone through rigorous scrutiny and verification before it was printed.
Ordinarily and in this case; where serious criminal allegations have been made against the prime minister of a sovereign state; one would assume that WSJ had solicited a response from Najib before publishing the news.
WSJ would have also collated and independently verified their hard evidence and authenticated their source in order to defend the news on the legal defence of "truth" or "fair comment" if Najib or other aggrieved parties wish to sue them for defamation.
This due diligence process would have gone through rigorous legal analysis by the best defamation and media law experts WSJ could afford.
Najib's blame game only reinforces one's view that perhaps he really has something to hide. I suspect Najib too would have also consulted his top-notched legal minds and realised the folly of fighting truth with fires.
So the best approach for him now is to deny and cry conspiracy. But one suspects that even the usually servile, corrupt and inept Umno warlords are now circling their mortally wounded president now.
Mushiro: Najib's respond are weak and feeble, not from one who is not guilty. He should have denied outright that the money did not go into his AmBank accounts.
Statements like ‘he did not use government funds for personal gain’ are misleading. What about for family use or party use - would that be okay?
Sirach: Indeed, Najib's protest of innocence reminds me of Bill Clinton in the wake of the Monica Lewinski scandal.
Looking directly into the TV camera, and wagging his crooked index finger, he said: "I never had sexual relations with that woman" or something similar. But the truth eventually emerged.
The question the PM must answer is did the US$700 million (RM2.6 billion) go into his personal accounts. If so, does anyone other than he operates the accounts.
The issue of the money not being used for his personal gain is irrelevant.
Np: Please sue those in court if there is nothing to hide. Prove your innocence by asking those who have made the false allegations to produce evidence to account for their claims.
If not, it would be difficult for anyone to believe that you are innocent when a reputable newspaper like WSJ publishes such allegations.
Kim Quek: Najib’s point-blank denial that the funds were for personal use implies two things.
First, the revelation of the close to US$700 million deposited into his personal bank accounts is true. Second, it is mainly for party’s use, which means that such money funded BN’s election campaign for GE13.
The question now is whether the Malaysian investigating bodies which are the source of such leaked information - namely the auditor-general and Bank Negara, and possibly the police and MACC (Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission) - will report the truth to the Malaysian public?
If they do, will the authorities, namely the police, MACC and the auditor-general and possibly the Election Commission, enforce the law?
The answers to these questions depend on whether Najib has enough muscles to successfully subjugate these authorities to protect himself and his party, as previous prime ministers were able to do so in the past.
Swipenter: I do not think that Mahathir can make or influence WSJ to print such a story on Najib. Even US President Barack Obama does not have that sort of clout over WSJ.
Remember how sacrosanct the Americans treat their right of freedom of speech and expression. They had their Watergate and George Bush Jr's lies about weapons of mass destruction. Their press is not very forgiving on those two presidents of theirs.
Since you are so sure that Mahathir is working with whistleblowers, both local and foreign, to leak misinformation to bring you down as a democratically-elected PM of Bolehland, then use the full force of our laws to bring them to court. That you have my full support.
Fernz: If Mahathir is behind all the allegations against Najib, he may have far more damaging information than 1MDB if this issue is unlikely to force Najib to do what he wants.
The Altantuya Shaariibuu killing may well deal the coup de grace to Najib. Mahathir doesn't mention something for nothing. He's not known to indulge in idle chatter. When he says something, it means that he's thinking about it.
The most dangerous things that he says are usually mentioned very casually and then "forgotten" until it's time to use it. He mentioned Altantuya very casually and then dropped it. This will be the issue that he will bring back to deliver the coup de grace.
Mahathir's real intention may not be to oust Najib but force him into a corner where he will declare a state of emergency and rule by decree. Mahathir may well be thinking that this is the only way to save Umno from 2018.
Abasir: Najib, stop fudging. Just answer these questions with a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’.
Do you have a personal account/accounts in the bank in question? Were the reported sums transferred to that account before the last GE13?
Did you formally disclose the inflow of funds to the proper authorities as required by law?
Was 1MBD’s money used to ‘buy’ votes?
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