European Parliament resolution of 17 December 2015 on Malaysia

The European Parliament,

–  having regard to its previous resolutions on Malaysia,

–  having regard to its resolution of 15 January 2014 on the future of EU-ASEAN relations(1) ,

–  having regard to the Statement by the EEAS Spokesperson of 15 April 2015 on the recently adopted amendment to the Sedition Act in Malaysia,

–  having regard to the Statement by the EEAS Spokesperson of 17 March 2015 on the arrest of Nurul Izzah, opposition Member of Parliament in Malaysia,

–  having regard to the Statement by the EEAS Spokesperson of 10 February 2015 on the conviction of Malaysian opposition politician Anwar Ibrahim,

–  having regard to the EU Strategic Framework on Human Rights,

–  having regard to the Statement by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights of 9 April 2015 on draft anti-terror and sedition laws,

–  having regard to the joint press release by the EEAS on the EU-ASEAN policy dialogue on human rights of 23 October 2015,

–  having regard to the EU Guidelines on Human Rights Defenders,

–  having regard to UN Universal Periodic Review session of October 2013,

–  having regard to the report of the Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons of June 2015,

–  having regard to the second Universal Periodic Review of Malaysia before the UN Human Rights Council, and its recommendations, of October 2013,

–  having regard to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948,

–  having regard to the United Nations Declaration on Human Rights Defenders of 1998,

–  having regard to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) of 1966,

–  having regard to the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT) of 1984,

–  having regard to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Human Rights Declaration,

–  having regard to Rules 135(5) and 123(4) of its Rules of Procedure,

A.  whereas the EU regards Malaysia as a key political and economic partner in South-East Asia; whereas the EU and Malaysia are negotiating a Partnership and Cooperation Agreement and a Free Trade Agreement;

B.  whereas the space for public debate and free speech in Malaysia is rapidly narrowing as the government resorts to vaguely worded criminal laws to silence its critics and quell public discontent and peaceful expression, including debates on matters of public interest; whereas these laws include the Sedition Act, the Printing Presses and Publications Act, the Communications and Multimedia Act and the Peaceful Assembly act, amongst others;

C.  whereas on 3 December 2015 the National Security Council Bill was passed in the Malaysian Parliament by a majority vote; whereas the bill grants the National Security Council led by the Prime Minister sweeping powers to declare a state of emergency in any area deemed a security risk, giving broad powers of arrest, search and seizure without warrant;

D.  whereas under the Sedition Act alone at least 78 people have been investigated or charged since the beginning of 2014;

E.  whereas former opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim was sentenced on charges of sodomy in February 2015 following a politically motivated prosecution which resulted in criminal proceedings that failed to meet international standards of fair trial; whereas he has been denied appropriate medical care;

F.  whereas LGBTI people in Malaysia are criminalised under the country’s anti-sodomy law and regional laws prohibiting cross-dressing, and face political hate speech, arbitrary arrest, physical and sexual assault, imprisonment, and other abuses;

G.  whereas Malaysian cartoonist Zulkiflee Anwar Ulhaque (Zunar) is facing charges under the Sedition Act following critical tweets against the government with regard to the sentencing of Anwar Ibrahim; whereas blogger Khalid Ismath and academic Azmi Sharom face similar charges;

H.  whereas the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission has questioned the Prime Minister in connection with graft allegations after the discovery of over 600 million euros in his bank account without any justification of source and purpose, as well as on separate allegations that hundreds of millions of euros were missing from deals involving a state firm he launched, 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB);

I.  whereas media outlets and publishing houses have faced restrictions under the Printing Presses and Publications Act following reporting about these allegations, and whereas lawyer Matthias Chang and politician Khairuddin Abu Hassan were arrested following their investigations into these allegations;

J.  whereas the High Representative raised concerns regarding the abusive use of criminal laws during her visit to Malaysia on 5-6 August 2015;

K.  whereas, according to the UN and NGOs, the Malaysian police forces have increasingly resorted to acts of torture, late night arrests, unjustifiable remands and selective prosecution;

L.  whereas Malaysia continues to practice the death penalty with up to 1 000 prisoners currently on death row;

M.  whereas Malaysia is a Member of the UN Security Council and the current ASEAN Chair, and the 27th ASEAN Summit was held in Kuala Lumpur from 18 to 22 November 2015;

1.  Reaffirms the EU’s strong commitment to the Malaysian people with whom the EU has strong and longstanding political, economic and cultural ties;

2.  Deplores the deteriorating human rights situation in Malaysia and in particular the crackdown on civil society activists, academics, media and political activists; expresses concern with regard to the spike in the number of people facing charges or arrest under the Sedition Act;

3.  Is particularly concerned about the adoption of the National Security Council Bill and urges its withdrawal; calls on the government to maintain a proper balance between the need to safeguard national security and the imperative to protect civil and political rights;

4.  Urges the Malaysian Government to immediately release all political prisoners, including former opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, and to provide them with appropriate medical care, and to drop politically motivated charges, including those against cartoonist Zulkiflee Anwar Haque (Zunar), blogger Khalid Ismath, academic Azmi Sharom, political dissidents Khairuddin Abu Hassan and Matthias Chang, and human rights activists Lena Hendry and Maria Chin Abdullah;

5.  Urges the Malaysian authorities to repeal the Sedition Act and to bring all legislation, including the Prevention of Terrorism Act, the Printing Presses and Publications Act, the Communications and Multimedia Act, the Peaceful Assembly Act, and other relevant provisions of the penal code, in line with international standards on freedom of expression and assembly and the protection of human rights; calls on the Malaysian authorities to facilitate peaceful assemblies, and to guarantee the safety of all participants and their freedom of expression across the whole country;

6.  Urges the establishment of the Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC), as recommended by the Police Commission of Inquiry in 2005, to investigate allegations of torture and deaths in police custody;

7.  Underlines the importance of independent and transparent investigations into the graft allegations, and of full cooperation with the investigators; urges the Malaysian Government to refrain from putting pressure on the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission and media;

8.  Deeply deplores the rise of supremacist groups which contribute further to the creation of ethnic tensions;

9.  Encourages the Malaysian Government to open a dialogue with opposition parties and civil society stakeholders;

10.  Calls on the Malaysian Government to ratify key international human rights conventions, including the ICCPR, the ICESCR, the CAT, the ICERD, ILO Convention 169, the ICC Rome Statute, as well as the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and its optional protocol;

11.  Asks the Malaysian Government to extend a standing invitation to all the UN Special Procedures, thereby enabling special rapporteurs to visit Malaysia without asking for an invitation;

12.  Reiterates its position that the death penalty is a cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment, and calls on Malaysia to introduce a moratorium as the first step towards the abolition of the death penalty for all offences and to commute all death sentences to prison terms;

13.  Calls on the EU and its Member States to coordinate policies towards Malaysia, in line with the EU Strategic Framework on Human Rights, in order to encourage reform on the above issues of concern through all possible means, including in the context of the UN where Malaysia is a non-permanent member of the Security Council in 2015-2016;

14.  Urges the EU Delegation to Malaysia to step up efforts to finance projects on freedom of expression and reforming repressive laws, and to use all appropriate tools, including the European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights, to protect human rights defenders; urges the withdrawal of the anti-sodomy law and calls on the EEAS, in line with the EU guidelines on the protection and promotion of the rights of LGBTI persons, to step up its work on the rights of LGBTI people in Malaysia who face violence and persecution, and to aim in particular towards the decriminalisation of homosexuality and transgenderism;

15.  Reaffirms the importance of the EU-ASEAN policy dialogue on human rights as a useful tool to exchange good practices and promote capacity-building initiatives;

16.  Calls on the Commission to make sure that human rights concerns are duly taken into account during future negotiations on an EU-Malaysia FTA and PCA;

17.  Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission, the Vice-President of the Commission/High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, the parliaments and governments of the Member States, the parliament and government of Malaysia, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and the governments of the ASEAN Member States.

Link: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//TEXT+TA+P8-TA-2015-0465+0+DOC+XML+V0//EN&language=EN

Related reports:

Heed EU’s call for independent probe into 1MDB, RM2.6 billion donation, says DAP 
http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/heed-eus-call-for-independent-probe-into-1mdb-rm2.6-billion-donation-says-d


European Parliament's resolution unfortunate, says Foreign Affairs Ministry

http://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2015/12/20/european-parliament-resolution-unfortunate-foreign-affairs/

Respect our sovereignty, M’sia tell European Parliament

http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2015/12/21/respect-our-sovereignty-msia-tell-european-parliament/

1MDB: scandal-hit Malaysia fund seals China deal for power assets

By Michael Peel in Bangkok. Published by Financial Times on 24 November 2015.

Malaysia’s scandal-hit 1MDB state investment fund has clinched a deal to sell power assets to one of China’s fast-expanding state nuclear companies for $2.3bn. The agreement with China General Nuclear Power Group helps cut the Malaysian fund’s big debt pile but hands over a keystone of sovereign-backed 1MDB’s activities to a Chinese state buyer.

It is the latest twist for the state investment fund, where the fate of billions of dollars borrowed as it ran up more than $11bn of debts from contentious deal making has sent ripples reverberating from Malaysia to the Middle East to the Cayman Islands.

The higher than expected price also raises the question of whether the deal is in part a reminder by Beijing of its influence in Malaysia, after President Barack Obama’s efforts last week to woo Najib Razak, the country’s premier, as an ally on US-China maritime disputes.

While beating expectations, the 9.83bn ringgit pricetag represents a steep discount on the roughly 12bn ringgit that 1MDB has said it paid for the assets over the past few years, although attached power purchase agreements, are closer to expiry and so less valuable. Foreign buyers also benefit from the steep fall in the value of the currency, which has tumbled by about a fifth in the past year against the dollar.

CGN’s main local rival bidder was Tenaga Nasional, the state-owned electricity company, and the auction process attracted companies from Saudi Arabia and Qatar. Shares in Tenaga rose 5 per cent early on Tuesday, apparently in relief that the company would not be used by the government to bail out 1MDB.

But the sale to CGN creates complications of its own, given how factions of the ruling United Malays National Organisation have stoked hostility towards the country’s Chinese Malaysian business elite. The deal also appears to over-ride rules that limit foreign investors to minority stakes in the Malaysian power production industry without a special waiver. 

James Chin, director of the Asia Institute at Australia’s Tasmania university, said there could yet be a backlash against CGN if electricity users ended up paying more. “It will become a racial issue if there is a power [price] hike to benefit the new operators,” Mr Chin said.

Arul Kanda, the former Abu Dhabi-based banker brought in earlier this year to restructure 1MDB, said CGN was the “clear winner” of an auction he hailed as a “vote of confidence in the Malaysian economy”.

Malaysia has been under growing economic pressure because of a mix of international energy price falls, high consumer debt levels and concerns about the fallout from 1MDB’s troubles.

Both the price and the politics of the CGN deal are now likely to come under greater scrutiny, at a time when the Najib government is under severe pressure over its stewardship of 1MDB. The premier has for months been fighting off a campaign to oust him over mysterious payments of almost $700m to his personal bank account. He denies wrongdoing and says the money was from an unnamed Middle Eastern donor.

CGN’s 1MDB deal was revealed after Mr Najib held talks on Monday with Li Keqiang, his Chinese counterpart. Mr Li announced Beijing would both buy more Malaysian government bonds and offer Kuala Lumpur the chance to purchase almost $8bn of Chinese debt and shares.

The 1MDB deal is part of a broader overseas expansion by CGN, including a high-profile push in the UK. CGN’s rival China National Nuclear Corp agreed a deal last week to build two nuclear power plants in Argentina.

Link: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/2f8a2b1e-9274-11e5-9e3e-eb48769cecab.html?ftcamp=published_links%2Frss%2Fasiapacific%2Ffeed%2F%2Fproduct#axzz3sOgbYepM

Malaysia under fire for 'human rights clampdown' ahead of Barack Obama visit

By Philip Sherwell, Asia Editor. Published by The Telegraph on 19 November 2015.

Malaysia has intensified a crackdown on free speech and dissent ahead of Barack Obama’s arrival on Friday for a high-profile summit, campaigners have said. The daughter of a jailed opposition leader and human rights activists have called on Mr Obama to raise the country’s human rights record with his host.

Najib Razak, the embattled prime minister, may have hoped for some respite from his domestic political woes and a deepening financial controversy during the summit with the US president and other Asian leaders. But domestic activists and international campaigners have maintained the focus on Malaysian’s human rights crackdown as Mr Obama arrives on Friday for the meeting between the Association of South East Nations (ASEAN) and the US.

Mr Najib’s government has reportedly used criminal defamation and sedition laws to prosecute activists, journalists and opposition leaders in the run-up to the ASEAN summit in an attempt to quell dissent. The crackdown has been chronicled in scathing reports released recently by Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International.

This month, a United Nations working group concluded that Anwar Ibrahim, the jailed former deputy prime minister, was being held in violation of international law and called for his immediate release. Mr Anwar has been named a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty and his case described as a “travesty of justice” by Human Rights Watch. 

Mr Anwar’s daughter, Nurul Izzah, an MP and deputy leader of his People's Justice Party, urged Mr Obama to use his visit to highlight Malaysia’s rapidly deteriorating human rights situation. “The forthcoming ASEAN-US summit is an opportunity for President Obama to ask much more of Prime Minister Najib Razak's administration and lead the global community in confronting the government's violations of human rights,” she wrote in US News & World Report. “And he must call publicly for my father's release and that of other political prisoners.”

Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director of Human Rights Watch, said that Malaysia was now “on a human rights precipice” and that “in no other country in ASEAN has the human rights situation fallen so far and so fast over the past two years”. He urged Mr Obama to tell his host that “his accelerating human rights crackdown on political opponents and civil society activists must stop, and make it clear that failure to do so will affect bilateral relations with the US.”

It is the second time in recent months that critics have used a high-profile international summit hosted by Malaysia to focus on Mr Najib. In September, the prime minister backed out of giving the welcome address to the world’s leading anti-corruption gathering organised by Transparency International. It had recently emerged that Mr Najib had received payments into his personal bank accounts of nearly $700 million from an unnamed Middle Eastern benefactor. The prime minister has denied any wrongdoing or personal benefit and his aides have insisted that the money was channelled through Mr Najib’s accounts as a political donation to help his party fight the 2013 elections.

Mr Najib was already facing searing criticism for his role in the scandal of the 1MDB state investment fund, which has wracked up debts of $11 billion since he set it up in 2009. He currently heads the fund’s advisory board. It was during an investigation by Malaysian officials into alleged corruption at 1MDB that the payments into Mr Najib’s bank accounts were revealed. His aides’ explanation of the provenance of the funds has done little to dim the controversy. His government has reacted by launching a wide-ranging crackdown on critical voices. It has charged two opposition members of parliament, an opposition activist, and two rally organisers with criminal offences for exercising their free speech rights and raided the offices of two online news portals reporting on corruption investigations.

The timing is awkward for Mr Obama as he again faces a series of hurdles in his goal of pursuing a US foreign policy “pivot” to Asia. He will arrive from the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC) summit in Manila where the gathering was overshadowed by the Paris terror attacks, Sino-US tensions over the South China Seas and a lively debate about the “hottest” leader pitching Canada’s Justin Trudea against Enrique Pena Nieto of Mexico.

And Mr Obama has wooed Mr Najib as a regional ally in his campaign to secure support for the trans-Pacific trade deal – an initiative that he hopes will be a major foreign policy achievement his final years in office. The Malaysian leader was even invited to play golf with Mr Obama last December during his annual Christmas holiday in Hawaii. But in September, it was revealed that US federal investigators were examining claims of 1MDB corruption. It has just emerged that the web of international investments by the scandal-plagued 1MDB fund has stretched to include a former leading Obama fundraiser, an ex-White House official and a hip-hop superstar.

1MDB paid private-equity group DuSable Capital Management $69 million to buy its stake in a joint venture to develop solar power plants in Malaysia, the Wall Street Journal reported. DuSable was founded in 2013 by Frank White, a former Democratic Party fundraiser, Shomik Dutta, a former special assistant at the White House, Pras Michel, one of the original members of the band the Fugees.

There are no allegations of wrongdoing but the deal has raised questions in Malaysia about links between the state fund that is close to Mr Razak and well-connected US figures.

Link here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/malaysia/12004884/Malaysia-under-fire-for-human-rights-clampdown-ahead-of-Barack-Obama-visit.html

Malaysia Fund 1MDB’s Missing Money Problem Grows

By BRADLEY HOPE and TOM WRIGHT. Updated Sept. 18, 2015 7:59 p.m. ET published by WSJ.

Questions about a troubled Malaysian state investment fund and missing money in the Middle East have widened to include nearly $1 billion more.

The Wall Street Journal reported last week that officials in Abu Dhabi were trying to understand why a $1.4 billion transfer that the fund, 1Malaysia Development Bhd., said it made to a counterparty in the Middle Eastern emirate wasn’t received. Now, those officials are questioning a further $993 million that 1MDB reported it paid to the Abu Dhabi fund, the International Petroleum Investment Co., but which also appears to be largely missing, people familiar with the matter said.

Officials at IPIC didn’t respond to requests for comment. Officials at 1MDB didn’t respond to requests for comment before this article was published online, but afterward said the source and purpose of the payments were clear: to settle the termination of some options that had been issued to IPIC.

The questions deepen the mystery around 1MDB, which was set up by Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak in 2009 to invest in Malaysia’s economy. The fund is struggling to repay more than $11 billion in debt and is at the center of a corruption scandal that is destabilizing Mr. Najib’s government.

Earlier this year, a Malaysian government investigation found almost $700 million entered the prime minister’s private accounts through entities linked to 1MDB ahead of a close election in 2013. The source of the money is unclear, and the government investigation hasn’t detailed what happened to the funds that went into Mr. Najib’s personal accounts. Malaysia’s anticorruption body in August said the funds were a donation from the Middle East. The donor wasn’t specified.

Attempts to reach Mr. Najib weren’t successful. He has denied any wrongdoing or taking money for personal gain.

The link to the Abu Dhabi fund came in 2012, when it agreed to guarantee $3.5 billion in bonds issued by 1MDB to fund the purchase of some power plants. In return, IPIC was given options to buy a stake in those power assets. But last year, both sides agreed to end that deal with 1MDB agreeing to buy back the options for an undisclosed price.

1MDB said it made a transfer of nearly $1 billion to an IPIC subsidiary in November as partial payment for the options, according to a copy of a draft report by Malaysia’s auditor general that was reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

Neither the financial records of IPIC, nor its wholly owned subsidiary Aabar Investments PJSC, for 2014 mention receipt of the money. They say only in a footnote that as of the end of 2014, 1MDB owed IPIC $481.3 million in outstanding payments for the options. No substantial amount of money was received by IPIC, the people familiar with the matter said. It isn’t clear how IPIC arrived at the $481.3 million figure and how it relates to the nearly $1 billion transfer 1MDB says it made to IPIC.

In its statement after this article was posted online, 1MDB said it can’t comment on the accounting treatment by the Abu Dhabi fund or its subsidiaries. It also said the matter of the options has been resolved.

“1MDB can confirm that pursuant to the payment made by 1MDB, the options were in fact terminated,” the fund said in a statement.

The missing $1 billion is the second payment that 1MDB reported it made and IPIC said it didn’t receive. Financial statements from 1MDB and a report by the Malaysian auditor general, which is one of a number of agencies investigating 1MDB, show that the fund made a separate payment of $1.4 billion to IPIC. That payment was described as collateral for the loan guarantees that Abu Dhabi provided on the bonds issued by 1MDB. Last week, the Journal reported that payment also was missing and that Abu Dhabi officials were looking into it, according to people familiar with the matter.

The 1MDB fund said last week that it stood by its audited financial accounts and that its auditor, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Ltd., had made “specific and detailed” inquiries into the collateral transfer before signing off on the accounts. Deloitte declined to comment.

On Aug. 14, the Swiss attorney general’s office opened criminal proceedings against two unidentified executives of 1MDB and against what it called persons unknown for suspected corruption and money laundering. It also has frozen tens of millions of dollars in Swiss bank accounts. Swiss authorities on Tuesday said Malaysia has agreed to allow its prosecutors to question witnesses.

Read more here:
http://www.wsj.com/articles/malaysia-fund-1mdbs-missing-money-problem-grows-1442547656

1Malaysian Development Berhad has condemned as "wrong, poorly sourced, sensationalist and malicious" the latest article by the Wall Street Journal concerning 1MDB.

The article related to "nearly US$1.0 billion" of payments which WSJ said was made by 1MDB for termination of certain options.

The state-owned fund said: "Given the severity of the unproven allegations, the malicious insinuations made and the impact on the 1MDB rationalisation plan, we would have expected at the very least that the Wall Street Journal would have the decency and courage to name its source and/or provide proof."

"This inability to substantiate clearly shows the shallow nature of its assertions and casts serious doubt on whether or not the Wall Street Journal editors themselves believe in the weak story, cobbled together by its reporters."

Read more here:
http://www.bernama.com/bernama/v8/ge/newsgeneral.php?id=1172641#.VfwkjJC12dg.twitter

A former senior member of Malaysia's ruling party said authorities prevented him from boarding a flight on Friday bound for New York, where he planned to lodge a complaint with police against indebted state investor 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB).

Khairuddin Abu Hassan has already lodged complaints in Switzerland and Hong Kong regarding banking activity involving 1MDB, which has been linked to various individuals under investigation in Switzerland for suspected corruption.

Khairuddin said on his official Facebook page that immigration officials prevented him from leaving on orders from Malaysian police, who later asked him to report to Kuala Lumpur's police headquarters at 11 a.m. (0300 GMT) on Monday.

Read more here:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/09/19/us-malaysia-1mdb-idUSKCN0RJ05I20150919?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews

Najib defends #RedShirt’ rally, says not seditious or racist

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said even though several illegal rallies had been held before this to challenge the dignity of the Malays, they were patient. “But the Bersih 4 rally was considered the turning point when several participants went beyond the limit by stomping on the picture of national leaders and insulting the country's leadership,” he said at the National Silat Federation (Pesaka) Silat Assembly 2015 at Dataran Merdeka in Kuala Lumpur yesterday. Speaking before 15,000 members of Pesaka from all over the country, Najib said: "Slapped once, we did not do anything. The second time... nothing... the third time... nothing... but the fourth time had crossed the limit. Malays also have rights. The Malays will stand up when their pride is scarred, when their leader is insulted, condemned and humiliated. It's enough, do not repeat such vengeful acts"...He said the assembly of silat exponents tonight showed they were prepared to defend the nation's dignity from being humiliated. In his speech, Najib also reminded that the government could not be changed through street demonstrations.

Read more here: http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/najib-defends-red-shirt-rally-says-nothing-seditious-or-racist?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

"BAPA mertua saya juga ditipu, dikatakan ada rombongan ke Putrajaya, tapi sampai di Kuala Lumpur, disuruh pakai baju merah dan ikut perarakan dari Masjid Negara," kata Qystina dipetik laporan OhBulan. Demikian luahan seorang netizen termasuk beberapa lagi pelayar laman sosial mendakwa ibu, bapa atau saudara mereka ditipu untuk sertai himpunan tersebut.

"Lain kali tolong jujur. Beritahu cerita sebenar. Bukan menipu orang tua, cakap untuk kehadiran sambutan Hari Malaysia," kata Rie di Facebook.

Berita selanjutnya di sini: http://www.sinarharian.com.my/semasa/netizen-bapa-mertua-ditipu-sertai-baju-merah-1.431976

Malaysian riot police on Wednesday fired water cannon on ethnic Malay protesters staging a pro-government rally in the capital Kuala Lumpur that has raised racial tensions in the multi-ethnic country.

Police briefly sprayed demonstrators who were chanting slogans denouncing Malaysia’s Chinese minority and demanding access to a tourist street lined with ethnic Chinese-run businesses, witnesses said.

At least several thousand members of the Muslim ethnic Malay majority marched through the heart of the capital to declare support for Prime Minister Najib Razak, a Malay who is facing calls to step down over a financial scandal.

Shadowed by heavy security, the demonstrators also claimed that long-held Malay dominance of the country was being challenged by the Chinese.
Read more here: http://www.scmp.com/news/asia/southeast-asia/article/1858708/najibs-red-shirt-army-warned-malaysian-government-avoid

Related links: http://www.todayonline.com/world/asia/police-fire-water-cannons-red-shirt-rally-crowd-petaling-street
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asiapacific/water-cannon-fired-at-red/2129858.html?cid=twtcna
http://www.thestar.com.my/News/Nation/2015/09/17/Red-shirt-Bill/

#Bersih4

Corrupt Malaysia money distorts Melbourne market

By Nick McKenzie, Richard Baker, John Garnaut. Published by The AGE National on 23 June 2015.

In 2013, the private sale of an unassuming five storey apartment block near Monash University in Caulfield stunned local observers. Even in Melbourne's booming property market, the $22.5 million price tag for a  building designed like an IKEA cupboard seemed well above the odds. That's because it was.

Named Dudley House by developers keen to imbue it with a sense of grandeur, it seems the last place to host any untoward dealings. But the sordid tale of this building highlights one reason that federal treasurer Joe Hockey is so concerned about the foreign funds flowing into an already overheated property market, as well as why local and international corruption fighters say Australia has become an investment hot spot for the crooked and corrupt.

An eight-month Fairfax Media investigation has traced suspicious money flows, court files and corporate records across three continents to uncover why Dudley House's purchase price was so high. 

Its sale was part of a global money laundering and bribery scheme engineered by greedy local developers and powerful officials overseas who pocketed $4.75 million in bribes on this single deal.

Fairfax Media has also discovered that some of these same figures are linked to tax haven companies which are also behind the purchase of around $80 million in Australian properties.

By following a complex money trail - which, in a curious twist, includes front companies set up by a Singaporean wedding-cake maker – Fairfax Media has identified the foreign officials who appear to be using Australia as a money laundering hub.

There are also Australian facilitators tied to these suspect dealings, including Melbourne man Peter Mills, who once did a stint in Pentridge prison for corporate fraud. Mills was recently quizzed in a civil court case about whether the $4.75 million generated by inflating Dudley House's sale price was used "to grease palms" overseas.

His reply was short but surprisingly honest. "Yeah, I think so".

Financial laundromat

For a country whose leaders claim it to be a world leader in integrity, Australia is developing an ugly reputation. 

In 2012, PNG's chief corruption fighter labelled Australia the "Cayman Islands" of the Asia Pacific, due to the ease in which PNG politicians could invest their ill-gotten wealth in Australian property.

The Chinese government has more recently launched its own campaign, warning that crooked officials are taking refuge and squirelling away embezzled funds in Australia.  

Fuelling this developing scandal have been incentives, including fast-tracked Australian residency visas, for overseas businessmen who invest large amounts here.

Earlier this year, Joe Hockey himself intervened to force one of China's richest men  to divest a $39 million Sydney Harbourside pad because he'd tried to use front companies based in tax havens to avoid foreign investment restrictions. Last month Fairfax revealed that another Chinese businessman hid behind an elderly Melbourne couple to disguise the purchase of an even bigger mansion in the same neighbourhood, the $52 million Altona.

Only last month, the Paris-based anti-laundering agency, the Financial Action Task Force, warned that "Australia is seen as an attractive destination for foreign proceeds [of crime], particularly corruption-related proceeds, flowing into real estate, from the Asia-Pacific region." 

The Dudley House deal is the clearest example to date. But it would have almost certainly remained a secret without Melbourne tradesman John Bond.

The Malaysian connection

Bond, 53, is a man who doesn't walk away from a fight. The barrel-chested former suburban footballer helped manage a jail for young offenders before starting his own window and door company. When the window-maker won a lucrative job to help outfit Dudley House, he dreamed of dramatically expanding his business. But employees need to be paid. And after working on the development for many months, Bond, along with his own staff and dozens of other contractors, were owed several million dollars. 

"They [the developers] kept putting it off. It became one week. Then one month. Then six months.  And I thought to myself, something is terribly wrong here. They seem like they are never going to pay us."

The 'they' were Melbourne developers, Chris Dimitriou and Peter Mills, along with their joint venture partners – two mysterious Malaysian businessmen.

These two businessmen, Yusof Gani and Ahmad Azizi, appeared keen to keep a low profile in Australia. 

"We knew they were influencing things behind the scenes, but I never met them," says Bond. "All I know is that they are powerful back in Malaysia."

Emails uncovered by Fairfax Media and sent to the Malaysian pair suggest this low profile was aimed at avoiding scrutiny by the Australian Foreign Investment Review Board.

In one missive, their Australian manager, Dennis Teen, suggests that Gani and Azizi understate their true investment in the Dudley House development by falsely nominating Teen as the majority shareholder.

"The maximum for each individual foreigner without FIRB approval is 15 per cent," wrote the manager in one email, so he suggested the Malaysian duo claim their shareholding was only "14 per cent." 

"I'm agreeable," one of them replied. 

In Malaysia, Gani and Azizi have a much bigger profile. Each has been anointed a "Dato" by the Malaysian government -- the Malaysian version of a knighthood. 

Facebook posts show Azizi and his two sons, Erwin and Erwan, mixing with the elite and getting around in Porches and Ferraris. Erwan hangs out at the Kuala Lumpur Porsche club. There is plenty of international travel, including a family trip to Paris.

In Malaysia, where wealth and political connections go hand in hand, the Azizis didn't just have the funds to invest in a multi-million dollar Australian property development. They also had the contacts to pull off a remarkable deal: the sale of this development to the Malaysian government at a massive mark-up.

According to confidential documents, it was Dato Azizi's Porsche-loving son Erwan who facilitated this deal via a network of contacts connected to a multi-billion dollar Malaysian government institution called MARA.

Created in 1965 with the noble aim of helping the rural poor, MARA is a household name in Malaysia. But MARA's decision to buy Dudley House through a subsidiary, MARA Inc, shows how far it has strayed from its core values.  

The right price

The property that John Bond had helped to build was worth $17.8 million and Mills, Dimitriou, Azizi and Gani were, according to paperwork, intending to sell it for this amount.  

But, around the time that the Porsche-driving Azizi junior helped introduce certain Malaysian officials to the deal, the sale price was suddenly inflated by $4.75 million.

As the two Datos' Australian manager Denis Teen later explained in civil court proceedings lodged on behalf of the Dudley House creditors: "If we didn't agree on the $4.75 million, we would not have the deal". 

This inflated sale price of $22.5 million should have increased the prospect of tradesman like John Bond getting paid. But Bond's fears that he and his fellow creditors were about the be ripped off dramatically increased when the Australian developers Mills and Dimitriou appointed an administrator, indicating their company would not be able to pay the bills of the tradesmen who built Dudley House. 

By 2013, Bond had spent two years working on the project. He was broke and desperate. His tipping point had come when his son, Cooper, asked his dad to pay for a trip to an interstate football carnival to represent Victoria.

"I couldn't afford it," says Bond quietly in an interview with Fairfax Media. "I had to borrow money from my own parents to send Cooper to Darwin."

The experience left Bond determined to find out who had got rich from Dudley House while he was left facing ruin.

Harking back to his days as a suburban footy player, he pushed back. Hard. With several other creditors, he went to the Victorian Supreme Court, and demanded the appointment to the project of a new liquidator, Pitcher Partners boss Andrew Yeo.

Yeo assigned the case to a bright young Pitcher Partner employee, Odie Henzel, and told him to start digging. 

With his well cut suit, neat hair-cut and quiet demeanour, Henzel and Bond could not be more different. But the financial analyst and the window maker soon struck up a rapport. Incensed at Bond's treatment, Henzel joined the mission to unearth the secrets of Dudley House. 

Among a cache of documents, Henzel discovered a strange email. It was dated March 8, 2013 and sent by a man purportedly working for Malaysian government officials. It stated that in return for the Malaysian government agency MARA buying Dudley House, a payment of "AUS$4,785,000 in the form of introduction and consultancy fees" would have to be wired to a mysterious Singapore shelf company.

Taking the cake

Fairfax Media tracked down the director of this company to a cake shop in a busy, upmarket Singaporean shopping strip. Her name is Hanna Kamruddin and she nervously revealed she'd been appointed a director of the shelf company after her brother, a Harley Davidson-riding Malaysian called Hishan Kamruddin, introduced her to three men who wanted an offshore company and bank account set up. Hanna Kamruddin agreed to help them in return for $1000. "I'm so naïve," she said when asked about the arrangement. 

"When I look back it was a very stupid decision."

Kamruddin insists she does not know the identity of the Malaysians who paid her the $1000. 

But she remembered one thing. They were somehow linked to a Malaysian government agency. 

Corporate records in Australia reveal more about those linked to front companies directed by the young cake maker. One of the firms was taken over by several powerful Malaysian officials: a former politician turned MARA Investment chairman, Dato Mohammad Lan Bin Allani, and a MARA chief executive, Dato Halim Bin Rahman. 

When contacted by Fairfax Media, Allani said he couldn't recall the Dudley House dealings, even though he visited Melbourne to inspect the property in May last year, according to a Malaysian Consulate website. He said he was involved in setting up offshore companies in tax havens as a "convenient" way of selling property bought by the Malaysian government. When questioned about his knowledge of any alleged kickbacks, the former politician hung up the phone. 

The front companies directed by the Singapore cake maker aren't the only suspicious corporate vehicles Malaysian officials have used to purchase Australian properties. A company called Thrushcross set up in notorious tax haven, the British Virgin Islands, was used to purchase Dudley House, along with a $23.5 million property on Swanston Street, near Melbourne University. (Dato Azizi's son, Erwan, signed some of the paperwork associated with the deal.) 

Malaysian officials from MARA have also used other shelf companies in Singapore, which is also regarded as a tax haven, to purchase properties in Queens Street and Exhibition Street in Melbourne's CBD for around $40 million. 

The circuitous path of the $4.75 million dollars generated by inflating the price of Dudley House also points back to the Malaysian government. The money was paid by the Dudley House developers for non-existent services, including "professional advice" and "consultancy and advisory fees." 

Corporate records reveal that the firms behind these sham invoices are closely linked to several powerful Malaysian figures, including another top MARA official. The liquidation proceedings lodged in the Victorian Supreme Court after John Bond and Pitcher Partners' intervention provide further evidence that the $4.75 million was paid as bribes.

When quizzed directly about these apparent "kickbacks" in court, developer Chris Dimitriou stated: "To the best of my knowledge, that $4.8 million went to Malaysian parties." Dimitriou refused to answer any of Fairfax Media's questions.

His fellow developer Peter Mills was more forthcoming, telling Fairfax Media in a phone interview that the deal was corrupt. 

"I suppose I have to [take responsibility]. But no one told me about it beforehand. Otherwise, I wouldn't have gone along with it."

Zero consequence

While Fairfax Media's investigation has revealed that at least some of those involved in the Dudley House deal have engaged in serious criminal conduct, nobody has been, so far at least, called to account by authorities in Australia or Asia.  

To this extent at least, they join hundreds of allegedly corrupt investors confident they can park their ill gotten gains in properties in Sydney, Melbourne or elsewhere.

Australian resident Denis Teen, who managed the local affairs for Dudley House's Malaysian developers, was also called to the stand in the liquidation proceedings. He spoke quickly, appeared nervous and denied knowledge of any corruption (a denial he repeated to Fairfax Media). But his testimony still provided insights into the way he and his partners do business.  

"We are not saints," Teen told the court. "We just want a deal done."

Link: http://www.theage.com.au/national/corrupt-malaysia-money-distorts-melbourne-market-20150623-ghu6a0?skin=smart-phone

Finding Real Love

BY CHUA EE CHIEN. Published by Asian Beacon on 28 July 2013.

Edmund Smith is a good-looking pastor, loving husband and father of two children who once led a “wild homosexual lifestyle,” as he says.

Smith had his first gay relationship when he was 18. A pub singer at night and a special education teacher by day, he used to entertain thoughts of having a sex change and tried to behave as femininely as possible. Plucking his eyebrows and shaving the hair on his legs were just two of his many womanly routines. What drove him to this lifestyle and what made him walk away from it?

Confusing Childhood

“I am the fourth boy in my family. When Mum was pregnant with me, they had hoped that I would be a girl. Perhaps that’s why, until I was five, my mother brought me up like a girl. I played with dolls and wore dresses,” says Edmund. “My father rejected me – he never
hugged me or touched me. My rejection deepened especially after my younger sister was born because I could remember clearly my father loving her and saying nice things to her just because she was a girl.”

“So, for the first five years of my life, I remember wishing to be a girl due to all the ‘self issues’ that had developed because of how my parents treated me and my confusing upbringing. I hated being a guy and naturally I began to think, feel and talk like a girl,” he recalls.

“When I reached the age of six and started to go to kindergarten, my mum suddenly decided to stop treating me like a girl after receiving comments from others and she started abusing and beating me up, making me more confused,” he says.

Edmund was later sent to an all-boys school and there he found boys who were just as effeminate. So, at the age of 13, he began his homosexual life.

Triggers

Based on his personal experience, he finds that there are mainly three specific issues which would trigger one’s journey to homosexuality, if not dealt with.

The first is the ‘vacuum’ issue, which is related to a lack of parental love. “Everyone needs the ‘V’ love. A mother’s love flows down from one side, and a father’s love flows down from the other and a child needs both parents’ love. Most gay guys have never had a father’s love,” he says.

The second trigger is the ‘self issue’, which is basically something about ourselves that we reject. For example, if you are a man and you reject your masculinity, that becomes a ‘self issue’ towards your gender.

The third trigger is the ‘barrier issue’, which causes one to look at the opposite gender negatively due to bad experiences such as abuse and bitterness.

Unfortunately for Smith, he had all three issues and therefore, looked for real love among his kind all through his secondary school days, while trying to be as feminine as possible.

Smith had his first real relationship with a man when he was 18 but it only lasted a year as his partner became possessive. He then started another relationship with another man.

It was not until he was 24 when he was dumped by his third lover that Smith decided he was sick and tired of his lifestyle and decided that he’d rather be single than be used by men again. It was a lonely journey to recovery as he had to walk away from his friends and give up his lifestyle of frequenting gay clubs and saunas.

Meeting The Right Man

Brought up in a Roman Catholic home, Smith faithfully went to church even while he was practising the homosexual lifestyle. “I went to church every Sunday, but I never had a relationship with Jesus,” he says.

His turning point came when he met Jenny, his colleague at Salvation Army where he worked as a teacher. “One day, Jenny asked me, ‘Why don’t you give Jesus a try?’ I then decided to open up my heart and receive Christ into my life.”

Upon Jenny’s invitation, he started attending the Salvation Army Church and grew in his relationship with this Jesus.

Looking back, Smith realises that his “right man – Jesus” had always been by his side because when he was going through his third break-up, he happened to be at a place where he was surrounded by Christians.

“If not for Jesus and the support from fellow Christians, I would have gone back to my old lifestyle. The journey to recovery from sexual brokenness is not an easy one. You need a church or group who can listen to you and lift you up when you fall,” Smith says.

One of Smith’s greatest blessings is his wife, Amanda Amutha Perumal, who was his colleague and good friend at Salvation Army. In 1997, Smith and Amanda went to Singapore Bible College to further their studies and there, they got to know about Choices, a Singapore- based organisation which reaches out to homosexuals.

They were trained at Choices for their ministry with homosexuals and in 2003, they moved back to Malaysia and set up Real Love Ministry (RLM) in Malacca.

“I started the ministry with the goal of raising up Befrienders-trained RLM workers who will journey with homosexuals who want to leave their lifestyle. I also started giving talks on the issues of sexual brokenness and formed support groups,” says Smith.

Spreading The Love

In 2006, Edmund and Amanda felt God’s call to start a church in Malacca which they later named Real Love Fellowship. Today, Edmund is the Senior Pastor of the church, reaching out and spreading the love of Jesus to the sexually-broken and marginalised community. His church is attended by the young and old from all walks of life.

The proud father of two – Angel and Ethan – has a passion for the performing arts and still sings, acts and dances professionally. His album, Wake Up, was inspired from his years of community work with the mentally-challenged, AIDs patients and homosexuals. He also travels frequently as an itinerant speaker, sharing his testimony to many.

Seeing the huge need of the homosexual community, Smith says that his church is looking to doing more work among the community. “There are hundreds of homosexuals who want to come out, but we have only few Befrienders,” he says. “We need more people to step out to reach out to these people.”

The Smiths also hope to purchase their own building to cater to the increasing needs of their church members and ministry. More information on Real Love Ministry is available at www.r-l-m.com.

Malaysia: Crackdown on Freedom

Published on 14 May 2015 by Al Jazeera.

Meet the Malaysians arrested under a controversial law that critics say is being used to silence government opponents.

Boycott Chinese businesses, minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob tells Malays

A minister has called on the Malays to band together and boycott businesses that refuse to lower product prices despite the price of fuel having nosedived.

In a Facebook posting that has since been pulled down, Minister of Agriculture and Agro-based Industries Ismail Sabri Yaakob told Malays that since they formed the majority of consumers in the country, they should boycott Chinese establishments as a means of forcing the owners to lower prices.

He said that although the government through the Ministry of Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism, could tackle errant businesspeople using the Price Control Act and the Anti-Profiteering Act, it was consumers who ultimately wielded the greatest power when it came to lowering market prices.

He lamented however that Malays continued to frequent these establishments although many of these food outlets either did not have “halal” certifications or if they did, had certificates that were “suspect”.

He fingered out Old Town White Coffee and wondered why Malays did not instead go to the thousands of other Malay restaurants that were genuinely “halal”. He said, “but still the Malays refuse to boycott…more so when the owner is said to be from DAP Perak’s Ngeh family who is widely known to be anti-Islam…”

He also said that it was time Malays changed their consumer behaviour patterns in order to stop the Chinese from exploiting them any further. “…as long as the Malays do not change… the Chinese will continue to take the opportunity to suppress the Malays”.

Read more here:

http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2015/02/02/boycott-chinese-businesses-minister-tells-malays/

Ismail Sabri has adamantly refused to apologise for his call to Malays to boycott Chinese traders who refused to lower the prices of their goods because he believes his views were spot on and beneficial to people of all races.

He said many Chinese consumers were also disappointed with the high price of goods in the market despite the slump in oil prices and told the Malaysian Insider, “No way nak minta maaf (I will not apologise).”

Turning the tables on MCA who have demanded an apology from him, the minister of Agriculture and Agro-based Industry said instead, “My message is thank me for defending the Chinese, too.”

He also believed that despite all the threats from MCA last week, the party would not re-open the matter in the next cabinet meeting simply because the prime minister had already issued a formal statement and the matter was considered closed.

In the statement issued by the Prime Minister’s Office, Najib Razak said Ismail was not specifically singling out the Chinese per se, but referring to errant traders of all races who refused to lower the prices of their goods.

Read more here:

http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2015/02/09/apologise-no-way-sabri-tells-mca/

Well Connected at Home, Young Malaysian Has an Appetite for New York

By LOUISE STORY and STEPHANIE SAUL.  Published by The New York Times on 8 Feb 2015.

In early 2010, a young Malaysian financier named Jho Low began making some very expensive real estate deals in the United States.

First, a shell company connected to Mr. Low, famous back home for partying with the likes of Paris Hilton, purchased a $23.98 million apartment in the Park Laurel condominiums in Manhattan. Three years later, that shell company sold the condo to another shell company, this one controlled by someone even more prominent in Malaysia: the film-producing stepson of the prime minister.

A similar transaction was playing out on the other side of the country. Mr. Low bought a contemporary mansion in Beverly Hills for $17.5 million, then turned around and sold it, once again to the prime minister’s stepson. (Read a summary of this article in Malay.)

Mr. Low also went shopping at the Time Warner Center condominiums overlooking Central Park. He toured a 76th-floor penthouse, once home to the celebrity couple Jay Z and Beyoncé, then in early 2011 used yet another shell company to buy it for $30.55 million, one of the highest prices ever in the building.

At the time, Mr. Low said he represented a group of investors, according to two people with direct knowledge of the transaction. Mr. Low recently told The New York Times that he had not purchased the penthouse for investors, and that it was owned by his family’s trust.

One thing is clear: As with nearly two-thirds of the apartments at the Time Warner Center, a dark-glass symbol of New York’s luxury condominium boom, the people behind Penthouse 76B cannot be found in any public real estate records. The trail ends with Jho Low.

Mr. Low, 33, is a skillful, and more than occasionally flamboyant, iteration of the sort of operative essential to the economy of the global superrich. Just as many of the wealthy use shell companies to keep the movement of money opaque, they also use people like Mr. Low. Whether shopping for new business opportunities or real estate, he has often done so on behalf of investors or, as he likes to say, friends. Whether the money belongs to others or is his own, the lines are frequently blurry, the identity of the buyer elusive.

Mr. Low’s lavish spending has raised eyebrows and questions from Kuala Lumpur to New York, where he has made a boldface name for himself as a “whale” at clubs like the Pink Elephant and 1Oak. The New York Post once called him “the mystery man of city club scene,” adding, “Speculation is brewing over where Low is getting his money from.”

One answer resides at least indirectly in his relationship, going back to his school days in London, with the family of Malaysia’s prime minister, Najib Razak. Mr. Low has played an important role in bringing Middle Eastern money into numerous deals involving the Malaysian government, and he helped set up, and has continued to advise, a Malaysian sovereign wealth fund that the prime minister oversees.

Now, that relationship has become part of an uproar gathering around Mr. Najib and threatening his already shaky hold on power. In Parliament, in political cartoons and in social media, Mr. Najib’s critics tend to argue that he is too close to Mr. Low.

Much of the concern, even in Mr. Najib’s own long-ruling party, involves questions about the Malaysian sovereign wealth fund. More broadly, though, the prime minister’s trappings of wealth and the widely broadcast tales of his wife’s outsize spending — the diamond jewelry, the collection of extravagantly costly Hermès Birkin bags — have become a focus of Malaysians’ rising unease with their government’s institutionalized culture of patronage and graft.

“We are very concerned,” Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, a member of Malaysian royalty and an independent-minded elder statesman of Mr. Najib’s party, said in an interview in Kuala Lumpur last summer. “We want people of integrity to be up there.”

Increasingly, the glare turns to Mr. Najib’s stepson, Riza Aziz, and so to Mr. Aziz’s friendship with Mr. Low. With Mr. Low’s help, Mr. Aziz runs a Hollywood company that produced the films “The Wolf of Wall Street” and “Dumb and Dumber To.” He has spent tens of millions more on the homes in Manhattan and Beverly Hills, transactions that involved Mr. Low, The Times found.

“That’s a lot of money,” Sivarasa Rasiah, an opposition lawmaker, said of Mr. Aziz’s spending. He added, “Every U.S. report on him talks about family wealth. Family who?”

While Mr. Aziz has previously said he is personally wealthy, he declined to explain how he had acquired his money. Mr. Najib’s office, in a statement, said, “The prime minister does not track how much Mr. Aziz earns or how such earnings are reinvested.” As for the prime minister himself, the statement said he had “received inheritance.”

In a statement provided by a spokesman, Mr. Low, whose full name is Low Taek Jho, said he “is a friend of Mr. Riza Aziz and his family.” His real estate transactions with Mr. Aziz were made “on an arm’s-length basis,” he said, adding that he had never purchased real estate in the United States for the prime minister’s family or “engaged in any wrongful conduct regarding any financial matters for the prime minister and his family.”

At the Time Warner Center, The Times found, the 76th-floor penthouse, purchased through a shell company called 80 Columbus Circle (NYC) L.L.C., is one of at least a dozen that can be traced to people with close ties to current or former high-ranking foreign officials, or to the officials themselves.

According to one member of the condominium board there, while the board understood that the penthouse had been bought for investors, it did not ascertain their identities. At the Park Laurel, where Mr. Najib’s stepson owns, the board did not respond to questions about whether it had examined the financing of the purchase.

In fact, in-depth scrutiny of real estate deals is not required. International anticorruption organizations have criticized this lack of inquiry — not just by real estate brokers and condo boards, but by banks, lawyers and the federal government.

“People should ask the questions, ‘Why is it that this individual is bringing in millions of dollars into America, and how was it acquired?’” said Charmian Gooch, co-founder of Global Witness, a nongovernmental organization that works against corruption around the world.

THE MAKING OF A FINANCIER

To mention Mr. Low in Malaysia is to conjure the image of a baby-faced young man in rimless glasses and a loose black V-neck, holding a magnum of Cristal and surrounded by celebrities. But if he is sometimes derided as a tabloid party boy who once flew a group of bottle girls from New York to Malaysia, the reality is that the clubbing life, for Mr. Low, was actually a way to build a booming business managing money for his friends.

“I think a relationship with an investor is not just about managing their money well,” he said in an extensive interview with The Star, a Malaysian newspaper, in 2010. “Although it is not in my job scope, but if my friend says he wants a flight urgently to somewhere or he wants a dinner reservation at a well-known place, I’ll do my best to make it happen.” He also said, “I am usually the concierge service that arranges everything, and thus my name is all over the place.”

Around George Town, on Penang Island, where Jho grew up, the Lows were seen as a family of somewhat deflated affluence, according to several businessmen who have known them for years. The father, Larry, was an executive for an investment holding company called MWE Holdings, but he split with his partner in the mid-1990s and faded from the local business scene. Still only a teenager, Jho, the youngest of three children, emerged as the family’s best hope for the future.

There was money for education abroad, and in London, while attending the ancient and elite Harrow school, Mr. Low became friends with Mr. Najib’s stepson, Mr. Aziz, who was studying at the London School of Economics. He also grew close to Mr. Aziz’s mother, Rosmah Mansor, who stayed for months at a time in an apartment she kept there.

In college, at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, Mr. Low kept up his ties back home by running a Malaysian student group. But he also came to know the children of prominent Jordanian and Kuwaiti families. Even before graduating, he was managing money for what he later described as “my family and close Middle Eastern and Southeast Asian friends.”

After college, many of his early business deals were based in Malaysia — helping a Kuwaiti bank purchase a high-rise complex called the Oval, and bringing Middle Eastern money into the country to finance a commercial zone in the south and a new financial district in the capital. By 2007, he had formed an investment group that included a Malaysian prince, a Kuwaiti sheikh and a friend from the United Arab Emirates who went on to become ambassador to the United States and Mexico.

Two years later, he was pitching his idea for a Malaysian sovereign wealth fund. His plan was to invest public money for the public good through a fund tied to one of the country’s oil-producing states, and so he began wooing the sultan of Terengganu, who was also Malaysia’s king under the nation’s rotating monarchy.

It was all about making connections, making friends. Success, he told The Star, is “attributable to being at the right place and right time and meeting the right people coupled with a trusting relationship.”

In April 2009, those ingredients all came together for Mr. Low. The stepfather of his friend Mr. Aziz became prime minister of Malaysia.

Mr. Najib, 61, has a deep pedigree in Malaysian politics. His father, Tun Razak, was the country’s second prime minister, in the 1970s. His uncle was its third. His cousin is now defense minister.

Mr. Najib has risen through the political ranks: member of Parliament at 23; chief minister of his home state; minister of education, defense and finance; and deputy prime minister.

The family is tightly intertwined with Malaysia’s leading political party, the United Malays National Organization, whose long hold on power owes much to its close relationship with the country’s business elite. That closeness, in turn, has helped engender a culture of corruption, said Zaid Ibrahim, a former minister of legal affairs and judicial reform who served alongside Mr. Najib. Inflated government contracts are the norm, widely accepted because recipients simply turn around and donate to the party, he said.

“You know why corruption is very high in Malaysia?” he said. “It’s because the party in power is synonymous with the state.”...

Read more here: 

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/09/nyregion/jho-low-young-malaysian-has-an-appetite-for-new-york.html?smid=fb-share&_r=0