Cock-up over a yacht

Basically, the judge in this case, Justice Ratmoho has ruled the Equanimity seizure in Indonesian waters last Feb "invalid" and "without legal basis". What this means is that the Indonesian authorities and the US Federal Bureau of Investigation, which made the high-profiled seizure of the yacht in a joint ops, screwed up big time. We don't know who screwed up who but that's for the Indonesian police and the FBI to sort out.  

Our immediate concern is, what else could those people have screwed up in this investigation? 

The DOJ had wanted people to believe the yacht was among "assets" bought using some US$4.5 billion allegedly siphoned off from Malaysia's 1MDB funds. This despite the 1MDB itself having repeatedly said that it had not lost any money. The other day in Muar, Johor, during a 1MDB briefing by Arul Kanda, YB Razali Ibrahim mentioned  the yacht. "They claimed they had found this yacht that belonged to us (1MDB, Malaysia, the Malaysian people, blah blah blah). How could they possibly find something of ours that we didn't lose in the first place?" 

Mr Ratmoho probably shares such a sentiment when making the ruling against the FBI and the local police on the seizure. He said there was no court ruling that the owner of the yacht had committed a crime. "If there is no crime, there should not be any confiscation," he said. 

Rafidah Aziz, currently the biggest critic of all things in the country, was one of those people who made such a fuss when the FBI and the Indonesians seized the yacht. Read her If I could find the Equanimity, why couldn't Malaysian authorities?  

Well,  Kak Piiidah, your answer is h e r e. 

Read also
After Supermax, will Rafidah stay on at AAX? 

Goodbye, Jim

RIP: Late last year, Jim's friends and fans organised Jam for Jim, a charity mini concert to help raise funds for legendary Blues Gang bassist Jim Mandasamy, who was suffering from a type of neurological syndrome in which language capabilities progressively become impaired. The show made us happy. More importantly, Jim was a little happier, knowing that his friends and fans cared. 

Yesterday, Ganesh broke the sad news to me about Jim's passing. 

Blues Gang bassist Jim dies at 68, The Star

After Supermax, will Rafidah stay on at AAX?

"The former international trade and industry minister said she was a strong proponent of integrity and honesty ..." - Rafidah quits Supermax board over MD's apology

If the above is so, Rafidah Aziz should have resigned as Supermax chairman earlier.  Like in December 2017, when Stanley Thai was convicted for insider trading and sentenced to 5 years' jail. I would imagine that a "strong proponent of integrity and honesty" would have freaked out over something like that. Rafidah stayed on, didn't utter a word. As "a strong proponent of integrity and honesty", someone said to me, maybe Rafidah should not even have accepted the job in the first place. Stanley Thai was charged for insider trading in 2014 [Tycoon claims trial to insider trading charge]; Rafidah came on board at Supermax the following year, in 2015.

Pidah and Stanley, Supermax AGM in 2016

In 2015, Stanley Thai was still a leading anti-BN, anti-Najib Razak corporate leader. But against his own chairman Rafidah's increasingly harsh criticisms of Prime Minister Najib, Stanley Thai has now gone public to admit that he had been "influenced by the Opposition's propaganda in the previous general election".    

“As a member of the business community I like to see political stability. Businesses operating in Malaysia will continue to prosper with the sound economic policies of the ruling government that is led by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib. Foreign investors will continue to have full confidence to participate and drive the economic growth and continue to expand their investments in Malaysia.” - Stanley Thai in Supermax boss says sorry to Najib for support to Opposition in GE13

If Rafidah's decision to quit Supermax is indeed because of Stanley Thai's support for Najib, the business community will no doubt be watching her move at AirAsiaX closely. Tony Fernandes  and gang brought her in as chairman of AAX in 2011 because of her vast experience as a minister and negotiator, not because of her anti-Najib antics.

Read also:
Tony Fernandes credits Air Asia's success to Najib, March 2018
Your 10 questions with Rafidah Aziz, April 2011

Could this be the first one for Malaysia's Anti-Fake News Act 2018?

Updated:
Ah, so SBB won't get the honour of being the first. Not as long as Mahathir keeps mum over Saiful's £65 million accusation. The novelty of being the first to be investigated under the Fake News Act will go to a news related to TMJ's shopping spree in Johor. Read Hoax over TMJ's cash giveaway 1st case probed under fake news law. Kinda anti-climax, if you ask me. And the Crown Prince should take some of the blame for the fracas.


Original piece:

Saiful Bahari Baharom (pic) is a brave man to come out with the £65 m-in-Dr M's bank account story as soon as the Anti-Fake News Act 2018 became law. It better be berani kerana benar. Because if he does not have some kind of proof to show that Dr Mahathir Mohamad did have £65 million or RM375 million in his personal bank account when he was Prime Minister, he can get into quite a lot of trouble. And all those editors of media and news portals that reported on Saiful's exposè, too (for e.g. Why a close family friend to Dr M is openly declaring support for Najib).  Our Anti-Fake News Act was formulated to be equally tough on those abetting in the spread of a fake news. [Here's what you need to know about Malaysia's Anti-Fake News Act 2018].

All Dr Mahathir needs to do is to come forward and deny the £65 million story and accuse Saiful of falsehood and start proceedings to bring down the media and portals that published the accusation. Imagine the irony - the biggest opponents of the Anti-Fake News Act using the new law to seek justice against lies and half-truths! How poetic! 

Providing, of course, that the £65 million story is a lie in the first place. 

Private Adam's family speaks out after TMJ's warning on forked tongue individual

It was Salahuddin Ayub, who is leading Pakatan Harapan's election machinery in Johor, who said last December that the Johor royalty's dislike of Mahathir Mohamad wasn't going to be an issue for the 14th general election. He said the Opposition's focus in Johor would be housing, education and the outflow of workers to Singapore and "whatever tension exists between Mahathir and the Sultan, let it stay between them." 

On 7 April, TMJ, Johor's crown prince, wrote a long piece on FB warning Johoreans ahead of the general election "of a forked tongue individual". DAP Johor chief Liew Chin Tong wasn't the least worried also. "... based on to the responses we read (to the crown prince's post), perhaps the support for the palace cannot be transferred to Johor BN," Liew said h e r e. DAP's 

Zaid Ibrahim felt that TMJ's support for BN would actually benefit Pakatan.

Today, unexpectedly, the family of Private Adam came out to apologise to Johor Royalty, hence vindicating the TMJ. The Johorean Big Dog the blogger calls it the unravelling of 30 years fake news left uncorrected. 

"An urban legend about Sultan Johor Almarhum Sultan Iskandar Ibni Almarhum Sultan Ismail, pertaining to being the cause of Private Adam Jaafar went amok thirty years ago was unravelled.

Private Adam’s family stepped forward to tell their side of the story believed to be inspired by Tunku Mahkota Johor Tunku Ismail Ibni Sultan Ibrahim’s posting in the Southern Tigers Facebook, warning against “The man with forked tongue”.

I wonder if  Salahuddin, Liew Chin Tong or Zaid still believe that the Johore palace's feelings and views about Mahathir would not hurt Pakatan's harapan to take over the Johor state at the May 9 general election. I somehow doubt it.