Ignorance is bliss
You know nothing Jon Snow Najib Razak
Najib Razak’s last day reading his witness statement in the SRC International money laundering case threw up some familiar themes i.e. the standard (and expected) throwing of former pals under the bus as well as more claims of apparently not knowing about stuff related to his own bank account.
On Monday, the “don’t knows” involved denials of having knowledge that fugitive financier and Milo Ais fan Jho Low was managing his account together with a team from AmBank, that said account was frequently overdrawn, and that he’d been red-flagged a coupla times by Bank Negara for suspicious money laundering activities.
The deets of the Jibster’s latest claims aren’t especially earth-shattering so we won’t bore you with what was said before by the prosecution’s witnesses. However, what we will point out is that according to Malaysiakini, the latest denials make it 46 times that the former PM has claimed no knowledge in the course of reading his 243-page witness statement.
That’s a shit load of don’t knows for a person who used to head the country and manage our cash as finance minister, don’t cha think?! It’s also a lot of don’t knows for a guy who’s always so quick to go on Facebook and tunjuk pandai about all the things that are wrong with the government’s economic policies.
In fact, Najib’s count of 46 easily beats Mahathir’s 14 “I don’t remember” lines in the VK Lingam trial. Even in this, he’s trying to one-up the old man, eh?
BTW, while Jibby was quick to deny things related to the management of his bank account, the fellow had no trouble putting up his hand and admitting he’d bought jewellery for another man’s wife. And it wasn’t just something he picked up at Pandora or the neighbourhood Poh Kong either. The Jibster forked out RM3.2 million from his own pocket to buy the gift for Qatar’s Noor Abdulaziz Abdulla Turki Al-Subaie.
Najib said he’d bumped into Noor’s husband, Sheikh Hamad Jassim Al Thani, while holidaying in Sardinia in August 2014, and realising the Sheikh and his wife had been super generous with their gifts to him on their visit to Malaysia, Jib felt he certainly needed to be generous back. Hence, the purchase of the jewellery.
Najib, of course, being the ethical, honest and upright dude that he is, shelled out his own dough for the gift, which was for the purposes of diplomatic relations of course.
Here’s an interesting fact for ya, though. Between 2011 and 2018, the Jibster drew only RM1.3 million for his roles as PM and Pekan MP. So what we’d like to know is how the bloody hell did the dude have RM3.2 million to burn on a gift?!
And in case you’re wondering how Rosmah Mansor took this whole buying jewellery for another woman thing, we’re pretty sure Rosie would’ve been mollified by the RM466k Chanel watch the Jibster bought her for her birthday.
And guess what? It’s Rosie’s birthday today! May we suggest a Birkin bag since those mean policemen took away all her other ones?
Fathers and sons
Samy Vellu’s son is suing him. But it ain’t what you think.
On Monday, The Edge reported that Samy’s son, S. Vell Paari, had filed an application seeking a court declaration that his dad, the 82-year-old MIC icon, isn’t of sound mind and able to manage his own affairs. And in case the court does find Samy to be mentally unfit, VP, a former MIC sec-gen himself, wants the court to appoint someone – perhaps him – to manage appa’s estate.
But no, the application (originating summons, if you wanna be technical) wasn’t filed just so VP could gain control of the family assets. (According to him, lah!)
Vell Paari says his dad suffers from dementia. And since 2017, the family’s witnessed a “progressive deterioration” of Samy’s “cognitive ability”. To make matters worse, it seems appa’s bankers have refused to grant him access to funds in his accounts as they know about his mental state.
The main reason for the summons though, as VP tells it, is that his father’s “poor recall and registration of events” makes him unable to defend himself or give proper instructions to lawyers in cases brought against him. And notable among these is a case that’s been brought by one Meeriam, whom The Edge quotes Vell Paari as saying, was Samy’s mistress. Samy, you naughty, naughty boy!
VP didn’t give any more deets about Meeriam (though The Star notes her name is Meeriam Rosaline Edward Paul) or what she wants, but it appears, at least from what VP says, that his dad is in no position to defend himself from her claims.
Samy’s been out of the limelight for a while now, and while he might have made the news on and off in the run-up to GE14 to throw support behind Najib Razak (even while calling his old boss, PM Mahathir Mohamad, “a good man”), we haven’t seen or heard much from him beyond the odd appearance at party dos and the like. So perhaps it is really true then, and Samy isn’t, as Vell Paari claims, in the best of health. Which, regardless of what you may think of the man’s politics, is sad considering he was one of our most memorable and quotable politicians.
Here we go again
What was first an SD has now become an official police report, and on Monday, the man making the claims against his former boss Anwar Ibrahim spent up to eight hours being questioned (or should we say, probed?) by the cops.
But, according to the guy’s lawyer, Muhammad Yusoff Rawther was prepared for all this. ’Cos what he truly wants is justice.
Whether Yusoff (or the guy he’s accusing) gets justice though, isn’t certain at this point. But what is is that an investigation paper has been opened under Section 354 of the Penal Code for assault or use of criminal force with the intent to outrage modesty – an offence that carries the penalty of a fine, whipping, and up to 10 years jail time.
Anwar, as we mentioned last week, has called his former aide’s claims “gutter politics”. (And actually, so has current nemesis, Azmin Ali.) But the PKR big boss had better have a better answer than that for the boys in blue when he’s called in to answer the sexual misconduct allegations.
When Yusoff first made his claim, a grand-uncle had rubbished it, claiming it lacked credibility. However, Yusoff’s father, as well as the man himself, say the uncle in question doesn’t speak for the rest of the family. Hmmm. Is it just us, or is this starting to look a little (a lot?) like 1998 when a family squabble (then featuring Azmin and sister Ummi Hafilda) served as a sideshow to Anwar’s first sexual misconduct (a.k.a. Sodomy 1) case?
In other news, Ramkarpal Singh, who’s acting for Anwar, says a notice of demand sent to Yusoff’s address in Penang was returned ’cos he apparently doesn’t live there any more. Regardless, a new notice, the lawyer and MP says, will be sent once Yusoff’s current address is obtained or “if he has a lawyer, the other alternative is to pass it to his lawyer.”
Well, Ram, Yusoff does have a lawyer. And guess what? It’s the same guy PM Dr Mahathir Mohamad uses.
Odds and ends
A wee bit more happened yesterday. And here’re the highlights in brief:
- Ahmad Idham is set to cut short his tenure as CEO and leave the National Film Development Corporation (Finas) in March next year. Ahmad, who received brickbats over a suggestion to censor Netflix, is understood to be leaving for personal reasons. Sure he is.
- The Health Ministry is embarking on a three-month polio immunisation campaign following confirmation of the first polio case in the country in close to three decades.
- PKR sec-gen Saifuddin Nasution says the PKR meet in Kuala Lumpur starring Azmin Ali and co. did not violate party discipline. However that hasn’t stopped Anwar man Farhash Wafa Salvador Rizal Mubarak from taking swipes at the PKR deputy president and his supporters.
- Malaysia has filed a formal complaint to the SEA Games organising committee following its decision to strip gymnast Izzah Amzan of her rhythmic gymnastics gold. Izzah and teammate Koi Sie Yan scored the same number of points in the ribbon even on Saturday. However, the jury handed Sie Yan the gold. Malaysia, it appears, then protested to the competition technical delegates, who declared the two joint winners. Unfortunately, the organising committee had other ideas, and took Izzah’s gold back.
- Something called Pak Li Medicated plaster has been banned by the Health Ministry for containing a scheduled poison. We dunno what it is, but it apparently contains diphenhydramine – an antihistamine that’s used to relieve allergies.
- Miss Malaysia Shweta Sekhon won the best national costume at the Miss Universe competition in Atlanta. And then she didn’t. But it kinda wasn’t Steve Harvey’s fault this time.
“I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing.”
- Plato -
IN INTERNATIONAL NEWS
- Russia has been banned from the 2020 Olympics, 2022 World Cup and all other sporting events for four years over what has been described as a state-sponsored doping scandal. The country will, however, still be allowed to compete in Euro 2020.
- Finland’s Sanna Marin, 34, became the world’s youngest serving PM when she was appointed head of her country’s Social Democratic party. Marin was elected to parliament in 2015.
- Five people were killed and some 31 more injured following the sudden eruption of a volcano on New Zealand’s White Island. At least eight people are still unaccounted for.
- You may be vegan, but are you vegan enough? If you haven’t bought these vegan condoms yet, then the answer is probably no. This German condom doesn’t contain the animal byproducts normal condoms do. So make sure you’re next tumble in the hay is an eco-conscious one!
- Netflix has dominated the latest Golden Globe nominations with a whopping 17 nods, including Best Motion Picture (Drama) noms for Marriage Story, The Two Popes and The Irishman, and one nomination in the comedy/musical category for the Eddie Murphy-starring Dolemite is my Name.
