ABU and Malaysians’ political battle against Umno-led BN rages on …
What is ABU? It is an activist’s movement aimed at lobbying for political change in Malaysia.
ABU stands for Asalkan Bukan Umno (in Bahasa Malaysia) or Anything But Umno (in English).
ABU is led by lawyer cum activist Haris Ibrahim and its mission, on behalf of the rakyat, is to lobby for the toppling of the Umno-led Barisan Nasional federal government from Putrajaya at the 13th General Election (GE13).
ABU’s initiative has since “failed” but the political traction gained from the initiative is no less a failure to endeavour the installation of a new federal government, a coalition that is pro-rakyat.
Whether ABU is seen as a political threat to the ruling BN, Haris was on April 14, 2016, found guilty of making seditious remarks at a public forum following GE13.
The Star reported:
However, judge Shamsudin Abdullah granted the defence’s application for a stay of execution pending appeal, with bail increased to RM10,000 from RM5,000.
Haris was charged under Section 4(1)(b) of the Sedition Act, which carries a jail term of not more than three years and a fine not exceeding RM5,000.
In handing down the guilty verdict, Shamsudin said he was satisfied that the words uttered by the accused at the May 13 forum had a tendency to call on Malaysians to topple a democratically-elected government.
He said the prosecution had succeeded in proving its case beyond reasonable doubt, and that the defence’s testimony was a mere denial of wrongdoing.
In applying for a stay, Haris’ counsel Gobind Singh Deo submitted that there were still pending court challenges to the constitutionality of the Sedition Act.
Gobind had earlier appealed for a light sentence, on consideration that his client had several medical conditions which he was receiving treatment for.
In calling for a heavier sentence, DPP Muhammad Ilmami Ahmad said that as a lawyer by profession, the accused should have sought better ways to air his grouses about the Government and electoral system.
He said a harsher sentence should be meted out to teach the accused a lesson and also deter others in the future.
Haris was charged with four others with uttering seditious words at a public forum at the Kuala Lumpur and Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall in Jalan Maharaja Lela between 8.55pm and 11.15pm on May 13, 2013.
He was charged with former Batu Berendam MP Tamrin Ghafar, PKR vice-president Tian Chua and activists Adam Adli and Safwan Anang.
All of them had pleaded not guilty with the trials conducted separately.
This was Haris’s introduction in his blog called The People’s Parliament:
My name is Haris Ibrahim. Trained in the law.
Late father was Malay and my mum is Ceylonese.
I am Malaysian.
My ethnic background is relevant in helping me to understand my cultural make-up but is irrelevant in defining my status as a citizen of Malaysia.
Until 2004, I voted for the opposition. In that year, I was taken in by the promises of our present PM.
Our PM has not delivered on his promise to be a PM for all Malaysians.
I have become increasingly disillusioned with ministers, MPs and judges who have breached the people’s trust and reneged on their oath of office to defend and uphold our constitution.
This blog, then, is about civil society reclaiming its power to determine who are the law-makers in Parliament today who are worthy of the trust reposed in them by the people and if, sadly, we discover there are none presently, to make an informed decision of who we will next install in the people’s parliament …
We are here, not because we are law-breakers; we are here in our efforts to become law-makers – Emmeline Pankhurst
No News Is Bad News is relatively a new blog founded and launched barely a month ago on Aug 3, 2016.
We find ABU and Haris’ dedicated fight for justice and democracy most honourable for Malaysians.
And this is why we also find it most appropriate to reproduce and highlight ABU and Haris’ July 22, 2016, blog post on the ongoing global multi-billion-ringgit money laundering probe allegedly linked to 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) and Prime Minister Najib Razak.
Here’s the blog post:
For Riza, US$41m worth of gambling chips. Rakyat, BRIM & GST
Posted on July 22, 2016
I spent the better part of yesterday reading for the second time the Complaint filed by the US Justice Dept.
Its been well analysed and dissected by Malaysiakini. For those of you who are not subscribed to Malaysiakini, I think its time you spent some money to support their news reporting.
Malaysian Official 1 is mentioned in something like 15-20 paragraphs. No doubt about who it is.
Najib, PM of 47% of voters at the 13th GE, Malaysian or otherwise.
“The attorney-general intends to clarify that at no point in the civil claim filed by the US DOJ is the prime minister named as a defendant or have been alleged to have committed any criminal wrongdoing,”, Malaysiakini reported AG Apandi Ali as saying in a statement today.
I will let you all in on a not-so-well kept secret. Few at the Bar thought much of this fellow.
The only reason Najib is not named a defendant in the Complaint is that the USJD does not know of any property acquired by Najib using 1MDB funds he had unlawfully obtained. Were it otherwise, Najib would have been named. In fact, courtesy of statements made by Apandi at his now infamous press conference where he waved evidence at the press present, now quoted in the Complaint, Malaysian Official 1 is indisputably a reference to Najib.
Najib not alleged to have committed any criminal wrongdoing, Mr. AG?
At page 55 of the Complaint : “Once funds were transferred from Aabar-BVI to Blackstone, they were used to make payments to Qubaisi and Husseiny, who served as officers of both Aabar and Aabar-BVI, to Malaysian Official 1 and 1MDB Officer 3. The distribution of these funds from the Blackstone account for the personal benefit of officers involved in the bond deal further evidences a misappropriation of public funds and the diversion of the bond proceeds from their intended purpose”.
At page 60 of the Complaint : “Blackstone was used as an intermediary to obscure the fact that 1MDB bond proceeds were being sent from Aabar-BVI-of which Qubaisi and Husseiny were directors, to accounts that were beneficially owned by Qubaisi, Husseiny, Malaysian Official 1, and 1MDB Officer 3. The funds sent to accounts belonging to Qubaisi, Husseiny, Malaysian Official 1, and 1MDB Officer 3, as described above, were unlawfully misappropriated from 1MDB and /or IPIC”.
Unlawfully misappropriated aka theft, learned AG.
Receiving stolen property to your own benefit.
I give you a flag to wave on National Day. Good manners prescribes you accept graciously with an expression of gratitude.
I bank in US$20m into your bank account, Mr AG. One in your position and of your standing and integrity must immediately lodge a report with MACC, lest it be said that you were partaking of some illegal self-enrichment.
Or do you just keep it and say, no criminal wrongdoing?
Reading the detailed scheming that must have been hatched by all the culprits, named and mentioned, over the months and years, to rob hard working and hard living Malaysians of billions of dollars left me numb.
Until I got to page 65.
Anger I have not felt in such a long time welled in me.
Tears of anger flowed as I thought of our children who must share school uniforms with siblings, parents who must forego much needed medical attention so that they might feed their children, workers refused a humane minimum wage and so having to take on a second and third job in the hope of making ends meet.
Page 65 reports that in less than a month, between 21st June, 2012 and 15th July, 2012 Riza, Jho Low and Tan, together with others from the Wolf of Wall Street production, blew US$41million at the casinos!
US$41m may seem trivial when seen against the billions involved, but it is this wanton waste on hedonistic pleasure in total disregard for the millions who struggle in their daily lives just to get by, that, today, serves to remind me once again why the good people of this nation must rise together to rid ourselves of this cancer that UMNO/BN has long become.
Malaysiakini reports political risk consultants Eurasia as saying that Najib’s “supporters placed in key positions across government will continue to shield the prime minister from any probe by blocking access to information or evidence that could implicate him”.
Its happening already.
See the AG’s statement above. He also now says there is no evidence that 1MDB has gone AWOL, having earlier ordered MACC to close all investigations into this matter. Will he now order MACC to resume investigations?
The IGP does not wish to comment on the USJD Complaint as it is a civil matter involving the loss of US$3.5B of 1MDB aka rakyat’s money through criminal misappropriation by Najib’s stepson and his gambling kakis. Have no fear, though. PDRM investigation is expeditiously underway. Once concluded, it will be handed over to the relevant authority.
The AG.
Can we all go to sleep now, content?
No?
Then what?
Continue to blog here or comment on Malaysiakini until we are blue in our faces?
Malaysiakini reports today that my friend, Segambut MP Lim Lip Eng has lodged a police report demanding an investigation of the missing US$3.5B and the involvement of Riza, Jho Low and Malaysian Official 1 in the same. He’s given the police 1 week to get moving or face ‘drastic action’, including peaceful street demonstrations.
Maria Chin Abdullah has just announced that Bersih 5.0 may well happen. Consultations are underway for a consensus.
Even Mahathir has got in on the act. He’s calling for a rally, consistent with his agenda, that Najib step down.
Yes, I’ve been making my views known on Mahathir’s stand, but let me say this now.
Mahathir is what, 91 or 92 years old?
And while I still will not trust him or take a chance with him for all he has done to our country and seeing no sense of regret from him for the same, I have to applaud him and say he, at least, is not confining fighting his cause to a keyboard.
Mahathir says “Malaysians are timid. In other countries, millions take to the streets. Malaysians are very nice, we don’t normally hold such protests” – Malaysiakini.
He seems to have forgotten the Reformasi protest rallies in 1998, the Kesas Highway protest and the Anti-ISA rallies during his time as PM.
But, yes, that was then.
Is he right?
Are we timid?
Unlike Mahathir, I don’t want to just see Najib removed.
I am still ABU.
Remove Najib.
Remove UMNO.
Remove BN.
Deliver to the people of Sabah and Sarawak what was promised them, to the letter, in 1963.
Restore the institutions of state back to the people.
Remove all draconian laws.
Put in place a needs-based, not race-based, program to alleviate and uplift the lives of the many millions, so long deprived and marginalised.
God knows He has blessed this nation with the wealth to enable us, yes us, you and I, to undertake this duty.
Do we have the courage?
We fear?
Go to your houses of worship and pray for 3 revolutions.
First, that your heart be filled with so much love for our downtrodden, that your heart be filled with so much determination to ensure that this travesty never ever happens to our people again, and that, by this, we may overcome all fears that may come our way.
Second, that our minds be steeled enough to face whatever adversity may be thrown our way.
Third, that we will bring a tsunami of change to our land such as has never been seen before.
Take the cue from Zunar. Interviewed by Australia National University’s web magazine New Mandala,this is what he said : “We need to cross the line. This is the line of fear we call it. It is not a normal line. It is a line of fear. If you don’t cross it, we are trapped in there forever. The system will be very happy. The government will be very happy if you don’t want to cross the line. I hope more and more people will cross it (the line). We must break the system. If not, they (the government) will be very happy. Now Malaysia has been governed by the same party for more than 60 years. If we don’t cross the line, we will give mandate for another 60 years to them. I don’t know if I will win or lose, but if I don’t fight, I’ll definitely lose,”
My conviction for sedition still stands. Appeal pending.
I remain free and ready to stand with each of you to rise and take our country back.
So, ABU and the rakyat (people)’s political battle against the Umno-led BN regime is to continue until and through GE14 …
I spent the better part of yesterday reading for the second time the Complaint filed by the US Justice Dept.Its been well analysed and dissected by Malaysiakini. For those of you who are not subscribed to Malaysiakini, I think its time you spent some money to support their news reporting.
Malaysian Official 1 is mentioned in something like 15-20 paragraphs. No doubt about who it is.
Najib, PM of 47% of voters at the 13th GE, Malaysian or otherwise.
“The attorney-general intends to clarify that at no point in the civil claim filed by the US DOJ is the prime minister named as a defendant or have been alleged to have committed any criminal wrongdoing,”, Malaysiakini reported AG Apandi Ali as saying in a statement today.
I will let you all in on a not-so-well kept secret. Few at the Bar thought much of this fellow.
The only reason Najib is not named a defendant in the Complaint is that the USJD does not know of any property acquired by Najib using 1MDB funds he had unlawfully obtained. Were it otherwise, Najib would have been named. In fact, courtesy of statements made by Apandi at his now infamous press conference where he waved evidence at the press present, now quoted in the Complaint, Malaysian Official 1 is indisputably a reference to Najib.
Najib not alleged to have committed any criminal wrongdoing, Mr. AG?
At page 55 of the Complaint : “Once funds were transferred from Aabar-BVI to Blackstone, they were used to make payments to Qubaisi and Husseiny, who served as officers of both Aabar and Aabar-BVI, to Malaysian Official 1 and 1MDB Officer 3. The distribution of these funds from the Blackstone account for the personal benefit of officers involved in the bond deal further evidences a misappropriation of public funds and the diversion of the bond proceeds from their intended purpose”.
At page 60 of the Complaint : “Blackstone was used as an intermediary to obscure the fact that 1MDB bond proceeds were being sent from Aabar-BVI-of which Qubaisi and Husseiny were directors, to accounts that were beneficially owned by Qubaisi, Husseiny, Malaysian Official 1, and 1MDB Officer 3. The funds sent to accounts belonging to Qubaisi, Husseiny, Malaysian Official 1, and 1MDB Officer 3, as described above, were unlawfully misappropriated from 1MDB and /or IPIC”.
Unlawfully misappropriated aka theft, learned AG.
Receiving stolen property to your own benefit.
I give you a flag to wave on National Day. Good manners prescribes you accept graciously with an expression of gratitude.
I bank in US$20m into your bank account, Mr AG. One in your position and of your standing and integrity must immediately lodge a report with MACC, lest it be said that you were partaking of some illegal self-enrichment.
Or do you just keep it and say, no criminal wrongdoing?
Reading the detailed scheming that must have been hatched by all the culprits, named and mentioned, over the months and years, to rob hard working and hard living Malaysians of billions of dollars left me numb.
Until I got to page 65.
Anger I have not felt in such a long time welled in me.
Tears of anger flowed as I thought of our children who must share school uniforms with siblings, parents who must forego much needed medical attention so that they might feed their children, workers refused a humane minimum wage and so having to take on a second and third job in the hope of making ends meet.
Page 65 reports that in less than a month, between 21st June, 2012 and 15th July, 2012 Riza, Jho Low and Tan, together with others from the Wolf of Wall Street production, blew US$41million at the casinos!
US$41m may seem trivial when seen against the billions involved, but it is this wanton waste on hedonistic pleasure in total disregard for the millions who struggle in their daily lives just to get by, that, today, serves to remind me once again why the good people of this nation must rise together to rid ourselves of this cancer that UMNO/BN has long become.
Malaysiakini reports political risk consultants Eurasia as saying that Najib’s “supporters placed in key positions across government will continue to shield the prime minister from any probe by blocking access to information or evidence that could implicate him”.
Its happening already.
See the AG’s statement above. He also now says there is no evidence that 1MDB has gone AWOL, having earlier ordered MACC to close all investigations into this matter. Will he now order MACC to resume investigations?
The IGP does not wish to comment on the USJD Complaint as it is a civil matter involving the loss of US$3.5B of 1MDB aka rakyat’s money through criminal misappropriation by Najib’s stepson and his gambling kakis. Have no fear, though. PDRM investigation is expeditiously underway. Once concluded, it will be handed over to the relevant authority.
The AG.
Can we all go to sleep now, content?
No?
Then what?
Continue to blog here or comment on Malaysiakini until we are blue in our faces?
Malaysiakini reports today that my friend, Segambut MP Lim Lip Eng has lodged a police report demanding an investigation of the missing US$3.5B and the involvement of Riza, Jho Low and Malaysian Official 1 in the same. He’s given the police 1 week to get moving or face ‘drastic action’, including peaceful street demonstrations.
Maria Chin Abdullah has just announced that Bersih 5.0 may well happen. Consultations are underway for a consensus.
Even Mahathir has got in on the act. He’s calling for a rally, consistent with his agenda, that Najib step down.
Yes, I’ve been making my views known on Mahathir’s stand, but let me say this now.
Mahathir is what, 91 or 92 years old?
And while I still will not trust him or take a chance with him for all he has done to our country and seeing no sense of regret from him for the same, I have to applaud him and say he, at least, is not confining fighting his cause to a keyboard.
Mahathir says “Malaysians are timid. In other countries, millions take to the streets. Malaysians are very nice, we don’t normally hold such protests” – Malaysiakini.
He seems to have forgotten the Reformasi protest rallies in 1998, the Kesas Highway protest and the Anti-ISA rallies during his time as PM.
But, yes, that was then.
Is he right?
Are we timid?
Unlike Mahathir, I don’t want to just see Najib removed.
I am still ABU.
Remove Najib.
Remove UMNO.
Remove BN.
Deliver to the people of Sabah and Sarawak what was promised them, to the letter, in 1963.
Restore the institutions of state back to the people.
Remove all draconian laws.
Put in place a needs-based, not race-based, program to alleviate and uplift the lives of the many millions, so long deprived and marginalised.
God knows He has blessed this nation with the wealth to enable us, yes us, you and I, to undertake this duty.
Do we have the courage?
We fear?
Go to your houses of worship and pray for 3 revolutions.
First, that your heart be filled with so much love for our downtrodden, that your heart be filled with so much determination to ensure that this travesty never ever happens to our people again, and that, by this, we may overcome all fears that may come our way.
Second, that our minds be steeled enough to face whatever adversity may be thrown our way.
Third, that we will bring a tsunami of change to our land such as has never been seen before.
Take the cue from Zunar. Interviewed by Australia National University’s web magazine New Mandala,this is what he said : “We need to cross the line. This is the line of fear we call it. It is not a normal line. It is a line of fear. If you don’t cross it, we are trapped in there forever. The system will be very happy. The government will be very happy if you don’t want to cross the line. I hope more and more people will cross it (the line). We must break the system. If not, they (the government) will be very happy. Now Malaysia has been governed by the same party for more than 60 years. If we don’t cross the line, we will give mandate for another 60 years to them. I don’t know if I will win or lose, but if I don’t fight, I’ll definitely lose,”
My conviction for sedition still stands. Appeal pending.
I remain free and ready to stand with each of you to rise and take our country back.
So, ABU and the rakyat (people)’s political battle against the Umno-led BN regime is to continue until and through GE14 …
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