CORDOBA ALI | SEPTEMBER 23, 2015 9:30 AM ET:- This week, the world has heard a lot about aircraft.

There are spyplanes and war planes in Syria; and two leaders who are stepping off their presidential flights to face diverse destinies.

Yemen's president Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi returned to the southern city of Aden after six months in exile, exiting the plane amid Saudi Arabia's continued bombing of Houtis rebel strongholds in Sanaa.

Read the full story on The Week Wire

THE WEEK REVIEW | UPDATED SEPTEMBER 7, 2015 07:30 PM ET:- Sitting in the blue uniform worn by prisoners in an office within the prison complex of Klong Prem in Bangkok, is Xavier Justo, the man who played an important role scandal that has since then rocked the Malaysian government.

In this interview with Le Temps (Letemps.ch), a Swiss-French daily, one important detail does not escape the attention of the readers, and it is the confusing 'sentiment' expressed by Justo over the information he supplied to Sarawak Report founder Clare Rewcastle Brown.

After saying he thought the reports published by Sarawak Report was probably 'altered', he continued saying he could not certify whether this was really the case.

Justo was jailed for 'blackmailing' PetroSaudi, and is probably aware that several other publications across the globe have the original copy of the data he stole from the former joint venture partner of 1MDB.

Rewcastle Brown, who is the niece of the former Prime Minister of England Gordon Brown, denied having anything to do with alterations or doctoring of the original documents stolen by Justo.

In a telephone conversation with Le Temps, Rewcastle Brown said as a journalist, "I would not do such a thing." 

She told Le Temps some important details of the difficulties she had to access the data's stored on the disk provided by Justo, seeking help from the British daily Sunday Times, where she was given all assistance to resolve the technical issues. Sunday Times kept a copy of the original files, and those are the files extracted from the original disk.

Based on Rewcastle Brown's statement, it could be possible that Justo is the one behind any doctoring of the documents and this would have been done with the intent to hurt PetroSaudi more.

Since his aim was to make quick bucks out of the disk, and his jail sentence is about the blackmailing of PetroSaudi, it is clear Justo still has something to hide.

Whether he doctored the documents before handing it over to Sarawak Report can easily be verified since Sunday Times has a copy - along with other publications as reported by Le Temps - of the original file.

A verification of the copies held by the various news organisations would clear suspicions that the Sarawak born Clare Rewcastle Brown had doctored the files before publishing them.

However, Brown insisted to Le Temps that Justo was only 'one of the sources' of the revelations that has caused so much destabilisation of the Najib Razak regime in Malaysia.

"There are many sources, and all of them concurs," said the UK based Sarawak Report director.

As a matter of fact, it is an article published in July by the Asian Wall Street Journal, which indicated that US$681 million was traced into Najib's own personal private banking account, that triggered the anger of many Malaysians and the allegations of corrupt practices against the government's chief.

WSJ, in its July report, said it was not sure the money found into Najib's account was from 1MDB but that investigations into wrong doings by the Malaysian sovereign fund had led to the uncovering of Najib's accounts with the unusually large sum of cash.

Since then, former Prime Minister Tun Mahathir Mohammad has said he believe the money was from 1MDB, while the money trail from 1MDB and Najib's account - if any - still rests on blurred lines.

Najib has removed the Attorney General Gani Patial, deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yasin and several other top officials from office, and said the billions in Malaysian ringgit found in his account was a donation from a rich and generous Middle Eastern source.

On its part, PetroSaudi told Le Temps via email answers, there were no 'perversions' in its transaction with 1MDB.

"The details of the join-venture is public domain for a long time now and can be found in the financial audits of the 1MDB. The Malaysian firm invested US$1.8 billion in the joint-venture, and left with a profit of US$474 million," said PetroSaudi in a statement.

The company never replied to queries from various media outlets on whether it can prove the documents published by Sawarak Report were doctored.

It simply stated the records can be set straight from 1MDB's book-keeping.

The Malaysians are still waiting for the books of the battered company to be made public. 

As for Justo, the bad guy in the game according to Le Temps, he said he is consumed by shock and remorse. 

Shock because he expected a jail term of just over a year but was handed a 3 year jail sentence. 

Remorseful because he betrayed friends at PetroSaudi - which is hard to comprehend.

The question is how could he feel so confident, expecting a one year jail term for cooperating with the Bangkok police, while expressing remorse and the wish that he could ask his 'friends' from PetroSaudi forgive him?

Did he not expect the short jail term with the hope that he could enjoy the hefty 4 million Swiss Francs pay-off deal he was offerd by PetroSaudi to sever ties from the company?

His claims to Le Temps that he did not want to create trouble for Najib Razak, regretting the street protests, is also doubtful.

"It was a huge transaction. That is why I thought it was of interest to make them public," he said, adding that he saw nothing illegal in the transaction, otherwise he "would have withheld the information" had he seen anything dangerous in them.

According to several newspapers and news portals, which based their reports mostly on the data's stolen by Justo, a huge portion of the US$700 million is still unaccounted for.

They think it went into the accounts of a businessman close to the Najib family. 

The US$700 million these publications said, went into Jho Low's acount following a complex transaction that presided over the deal between PetroSaudi and 1MDB.

This has not been clarified, since then.

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The Week Review Editors

Prime Minister Najib Razak has wielded so much effort clinging to power, that he dealt a severe blow at the heart of the ruling party that he was raised to lead.

However, Najib, too engrossed in his survival strategy, is not aware of the harm he is causing to the party.

While he has always thought that he deserved the post of Prime Minister, and of Umno president, he seems unaware that the party is sorely divided on many issues raised under his leadership. 

After all, Najib's father was one of the founding prime ministers of Malaysia – famously holding power through policies that were popular among Malays, in a bid to raise their economic standards. 

It appears that to Najib, becoming Prime Minister seemed like a natural culmination, after decades of grooming and a gradual rise through the ranks within Umno and the government.

But being the prodigal son of Tun Razak is not enough.

The scion of the Tun Razak family was supposed to take the party forward – but former mentor Tun Mahathir insists he has failed Umno.

Najib's Umno is criticised today because of the very policies previously lauded for giving birth to the Malay community's own rich class, and taking out others from conditions of poverty.

As the changing times rendered these policies redundant – they now support an extreme rich class that the public perceive as aligned with Umno - while leaving other Malays unsatisfied with the economic imbalance, and at the same time continuing to deny other races equal opportunities and equal rights.

Nevertheless, the thorniest of all issues today is Najib's claim he was given money by wealthy donors – but this is not any small money.

This was US$700 million, and Umno leaders are evidently divided over whether the donation was a donation, some denying it is a donation and others questioning whether the party benefited from the 'donation'.

To make things worse, Najib and his allies have made conflicting statements that have only further fueled a perception that the Prime Minister has been deceiving Malaysia at large.

Meanwhile, more and more young Malays have begun to tire of Najib.Some are joining the traditionally Chinese and Indian-dominated Democratic Action Party, in a move by the party to snap more seats from Umno in the next general election.

Many young Malays make fun of Najib online, they protest against his ways on the streets, they say Najib has ignored them – all despite age-old policies in place said to offer opportunities for the race segment, which still makes up the majority in Malaysia.

Many Umno leaders are starting to realise that the decline of support for the party, that has held control of Malaysia since independence, is real and threatening.

They realise that these young Malays are the voters of tomorrow – they will be the ones that will take to the polling station in 2018 and vote, but not for Umno.

The new generation of Malays do not have the same level of respect for Umno that their fathers did, simply because they do not see what greatness it has brought to the country, or done for them, in this era.

Najib's reaction has been damagingly defensive – he has alienated perhaps tens of thousands of supporters by removing ministers he felt have not sided with him adequately on the thorny and controversial issues.

What was the United Malays National Organisation - is no longer a united organisation.

Najib fails to realise that the population of Malaysia, and that of Malays, is growing – and one day he would not afford to buy out support for Umno through contracts, or positions of power.

Things just don't work out that way anymore, Najib.

Importantly, Najib stepping down now would be bad news for the now-in-shambles Pakatan Rakyat.

They have come off a terrible year – the unfortunate deaths of key leaders and the incarceration of Anwar Ibrahim, a former deputy prime minister and the figurehead of Malaysia's opposition.

All Umno needs to do is replace Najib and make renewed promises to the Malay populace – and at least keep them for a time – and win the next election and stay in power for the next decade.

It's a tried and tested formula.

Meanwhile, Umno party members that fall at the feet of their leader have received ministerships and the support of Najib's associates – but more critically, they have been chastised by the Malay public, who become more and more progressive by the day.

Matters have escalated to a point where Ministers who showed total support to Najib are branded as fools and opportunists.

There are doubts they want to be known as such, and that is why Umno needs to close ranks and knock Najib off his perch.

There is simply no other way to stop the bleeding!

'
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By Baldev Singh, Political Analyst

Young Malaysians are knowledgeable.

The worst is not over, as the best is past, for Malaysia's media industry.

Thousands of Malaysian netizens have declared war on their leader through Facebook and Instagram.

Malaysia’s central banker has been listed as one of the best in the world for the last eleven years

Local and foreign media pressed Tan Sri Zeti Akhtar Aziz on Najib’s receipt of billions in donations, and the outcome of the 1MDB investigation.


Bank Negara Governor Zeti today gave an indication that investigations into the RM2.6 billion ‘donation’ to Prime Minister Najib Razak were not over.


“The bank has submitted its investigation papers to the attorney general with the recommendation for the appropriate enforcement action,” Bank Negara Malaysia Gov. Zeti Akhtar Aziz said during a briefing on the country’s second-quarter gross domestic product data. The report was submitted to the attorney-general this week, she said.


She also indicated the central bank’s expectations for actions to be taken against the sovereign fund 1MDB.


From our analysis — the statements made by Zeti seem to confirm that the sovereign fund has breached the country’s financial laws, but no information in this regard were given by Zeti who was pressed by reporters for concrete answers on the issue.


From our perspective, Zeti’s statements seem to indicate there is more to come in relation to the donation, which the Malaysian PM said came from a generous donor from the Middle East.


While Zeti stated the central bank has finalised its investigation on the 1MDB scandal, and has submitted its report to the Attorney General ‘earlier this week with recommendations for appropriate action’, the question is — is Bank Negara still investigating the source of the donation to Najib?




Zeti made it clear that Bank Negara had (also) shared all the information that it had in relation to any account with the relevant authorities.
“The central bank only looks at contraventions to our law and assists other agencies in looking at contraventions to their laws. This is what we can do.

“We cannot take action in areas where our laws don’t allow us to do so,” she said.

“The information that BNM had with regards to 1MDB was provided by the local banks and our foreign counterparts,” she explained to reporters.

So what is BNM’s position on any large transaction in individual accounts?

Zeti said it was the responsibility of financial institutions to conduct due diligence if warranted.

“If there is anything suspicious, they will file a Suspicious Transactions Report (STR) and submit it to us,” she added.

Asked if any STR had been filed in respect of the RM2.6 billion donation transferred into Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak’s account, Zeti said banks were supposed to conduct due diligence on transactions deemed suspicious.

She also insisted the ‘donation’ was not under the bank’s purview, but did not say whether any action will be taken by the bank against AmBank for what appears to be a breach of the central bank’s money laundering trigger system.

What she did say, however, was that the bank was investigating compliance by financial institutions to this requirement (of filing STR). She did not single out any bank here.

Whether the private accounts of the PM were among those investigated and included in the report by BNM is still unknown, but speculation could run rife in the coming days as pressure will mount on the AG for action to be taken on 1MDB.

Zeti made it clear the central bank did not have the authority to pursue any legal action against the account holders.

This could indicate that the central bank has done its part, throwing the ball now into the prosecutor’s court.

However — although Zeti said the bank was unable to publicly discuss the contents of the report, they could discuss the report with the Public Accounts Committee.

She indicated that if the Public Accounts Committee summoned the governor — she and her team would give her full cooperation.

Will the Public Accounts Committee get its act together and ask Zeti about the report it had given the AG?