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MP speaks | Former Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak has become the most prolific Facebook user in Malaysia.
Over the past seven days, he has had 35 Facebook posts, an average of five per day, ranging from three to seven per day.
But he condemned himself on the 1MDB kleptocracy by his deafening silence on the revelations of the chairman of The Edge Media Group, Tong Kooi Ong, five days ago, tainting Najib's claims about his ignorance of the scandal of 1MDB.
Tong claimed that in 2015, he had personally informed Najib of the evidence that fugitive financier Low Taek Jho, also known as Jho Low, was engaged in a scam with 1MDB, to be then evicted from home of the Prime Minister of the time.
Tong said the meeting with Najib on the night of March 6, 2015 was hosted by an Umno MP.
"I met Najib in the living room – it was just us.
"He started telling me The edge was wrong, and that 1MDB's problems were his business model of over-indebtedness. There was no theft of money.
"I told him the opposite.I shared with him information that, in my opinion, was proof that it was a scam, with Low in the center." I explained how the accounts had been made up to generate a profit and why I thought the money was all gone.
"After about half an hour, he gave in and told me that he would close 1MDB.He did not say what he was going to do about the debts."
"Then I started to tell Najib that Jho Low was to be held responsible and should be sued." It annoyed him, he stood up immediately, walked to the door and asked me to leave.
"I was surprised that he was so sensitive about Low."
Tong spoke in response to Najib's claim that Low could have deceived 1MDB, but maintained that he was unaware of any reprehensible acts that could have occurred at the time.
In his silence, Najib indirectly confirmed Tong's revelations. In fact, Najib now claims that he never said he was deceived by Low.
Najib has yet to clarify a question I had asked about his various meetings with Low, particularly the number of secret appointments he had with Low outside of Malaysia after the 13th general election of 2013.
During my visit to New Zealand in September, I also asked whether Najib or Jho Low would be the first to betray each other in the 1MDB case, that Attorney General Jeff Sessions had called it "kleptocracy at its worst".
Najib's silence on Tong's revelations can not be more telling about Najib's legacy as a global kleptocrat instead of being the prime minister of Malaysia.
Give Najib a last chance to defend himself against Tong's accusations.
Tong said that The EdgeThe first-page allegation in 2015 that Jho Low stole US $ 1.83 billion, backed up by a trail of cash transfers to bank accounts, prompted Najib to suspend The Edge. Tong and The edge Police opened an investigation on the editor Ho Kay Tat for economic sabotage and banned Tong from leaving the country.
As Tong said, "Najib knew what Jho Low was doing. We provided the evidence and he closed us to shut us up. "
Let's listen to Najib.
LIM KIT SIANG is the deputy of Iskandar Puteri.
The opinions expressed herein are those of the author / contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.
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