YOURSAY | ‘Why wasn't members of the PAC informed of the letter?’

PAC chief denies WSJ's report, says Good Star info ‘intelligence grade’

Odin Tajué: Public Accounts Committee (PAC) chief Hasan Ariffin, we appreciate that you are trying your best to earn your keeps, or, as you have said, ‘cari makan’, and thus you have all this time done and said what you have.

However, many of us are pretty well-informed, and although we may not exactly be geniuses, we are nevertheless reasonably intelligent.

The authorities that have confirmed Good Star Limited was owned by Jho Low, and that there has been no change in the status of the beneficial ownership of the said company, are from Seychelles and they are responsible for the incorporation of companies there. Therefore, if they have said that the company was owned by Jho Low, then it is a fact.

One of the terms of confidentiality of the information states that the disclosure was limited to the PAC for intelligence purposes only and not for the courts or the public. This does not mean that the veracity of the information is doubtful. It means that the information is for your knowledge and not to be disclosed to others. To reiterate, the information is a fact.

If you want to, although it is totally unnecessary, you can double check the ownership of the said company by going to Seychelles and with your own hands open the register of companies and with your own eyes read the part relevant to the said company.

But as we all know, you will not do that sort of thing. This is obvious from the fact that you have refused to summon Jho Low to be questioned and now attempted to confound your audience by claiming that the information was of “intelligence grade”.

You have zero credibility, integrity and honour, Hasan. You would do and say anything to get your ‘makan’.

Patriot1: Indeed, why weren't members of the PAC informed of the letter? Shouldn't the committee members make a collective decision on the authenticity of the letter from Bank Negara?

FairMind: If Bank Negara had stated that the information provided to the PAC was “intelligence grade”, then the public expects the PAC chairperson to use his intelligence to call in the relevant parties to probe further to get to the bottom of the matter.

Instead, on the contrary, the chairperson used his "intelligence" to stop the probe and ‘doctored’ the report to hide the Bank Negara letter.

WDA: Is Hasan insulting our intelligence? Or is he using terms like "intelligence grade" for the ruling party to fool their vote base - the rural and not-so-educated folks?

It is like saying the Attorney-General’s Chambers cannot accept the investigations of the Royal Malaysian Police (PDRM) because the former is not an investigative or intelligence agency.

The PAC chairperson should not get away with this. Action should be taken against him, at least for his serious lack of intelligence.

Rupert16: If the information from Bank Negara is of intelligence grade, why is it Mr Cari Makan did not allow his committee to call in Jho Low to be interviewed to verify the information?

If there is not enough time, then at least the issue on Good Star should, at the very least, be allowed to be cited for further investigation in the PAC report considering this is a very pertinent matter relating to 1MDB.

But what did Mr Cari Makan do? He conveniently deleted any mention of Good Star in the report.

I have no doubt the fact speaks for itself, and that is Mr Cari Makan is attempting to hide information that will incriminate PM Najib Razak.

And if the information from Bank Negara is of intelligence grade, why did the central bank stop further investigation into 1MDB?

Appum: Hasan is more interested in the status of the letter (intelligence grade) than the content of the letter - that Jho Low is the owner of Good Star Limited.

The substance of the matter is the content, not the status. Status can be changed or modified but content is immutable, so why is he trying to con the public?

Wg321: This ‘cari makan’ man continues to beat around the bush, trying to split hair to protect a certain VVIP.

In the meantime, the Swiss Financial Authorities called Finma has already completed their investigations on money laundering by those closely associated with the 1MDB scandal and they are going to launch enforcement proceedings any time now after Singapore.

They have contacted the Seychelles government to confirm the beneficiary owner of the company called Good Star Limited. The Seychelles Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) has given its full cooperation to Finma.

Finma can’t be bothered to contact Malaysian authorities for help because they know they will get zero cooperation from Malaysia.

Rupert16: If the information on Good Star from Bank Negara is "intelligence grade", then the question to ask is, "why this information classified under the Official Secrets Act (OSA)"?

There is no doubt that many right-minded rakyat have the intelligence to work out the answer for themselves, and that is, it was a very unintelligent attempt by Mr Cari Makan and his boss to suppress incriminating information on the 1MDB scam.

If it was 'intelligence grade', then why wasn’t Jho Low summoned?

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