Najib-era ship scandal resurfaces to sink UMNO

Taking a page out of the 1MDB scandal, imprisoned ex-premier is implicated in a similarly massive naval corruption accusation

Another day, another multibillion-dollar corruption scandal in Malaysia. 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), one of the world’s largest ever financial heists, had earlier put the Southeast Asian nation in the global spotlight along with newly incarcerated former premier Najib Razak, who stands accused of pilfering billions of dollars of public funds.

Another Najib-era scandal has since gripped Malaysia, this time involving the country’s largest-ever defense procurement deal. The Public Accounts Committee (PAC), a parliamentary oversight body, highlighted in an August 4 report that 1.4 billion ringgit (US$314 million) in government allocations toward the purchase of six littoral combat ships (LCS) was diverted for other purposes.

Envisioned as the lynchpin of the Royal Malaysian Navy’s (RMN) transformation program to replace aging foreign-made vessels with locally-built frontline warships, the ships were due to be delivered from 2019. Despite paying 6 billion ($1.3 billion) of the project’s total 9 billion ringgit ($2 billion) cost, not a single ship, nor even their detailed design documents, have been completed to date.

A former defense ministry official who requested anonymity described the deal as “a complete clusterfuck of a procurement” in an interview with Asia Times. “A large part of the LCS fiasco is the fact that the ministry agreed to contractual terms that would otherwise not have ever passed procurement standards in any serious organization with that much money to burn,” the official said.

Read the full story at Asia Times.

Nile Bowie is a journalist and correspondent with the Asia Times covering current affairs in Singapore and Malaysia. He can be reached at nilebowie@gmail.com.

Justice served: Najib is finally going to jail

Ex-Malaysian premier’s final appeal of his corruption conviction is rejected, making him Kajang Prison’s newest inmate

In a historic unanimous ruling, Malaysia’s Federal Court on Tuesday (August 23) upheld former prime minister Najib Razak’s guilty conviction and a 12-year jail sentence on charges related to a multi-billion dollar corruption scandal at state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), sealing the 69-year-old’s fate as Kajang Prison’s newest inmate.

Najib, who simultaneously served as prime minister and finance minister from 2009-18, was found guilty in July 2020 of criminal breach of trust, abuse of power and money laundering for illegally receiving US$10 million from SRC International, a former unit of 1MDB. An appellate court last year upheld the guilty verdict along with a $46.7 million fine, prompting him to appeal again to the nation’s highest court.

“This is a very historic moment for Malaysia,” said James Chin, professor of Asian Studies at the University of Tasmania. “It is the first time in Malaysian history that a former prime minister has been jailed for corruption. There was a lot of suspicion that the judiciary would be influenced by the political class in this case, but the result is an affirmation of the leadership of the judiciary.”

Rejecting his request for a stay of sentence, a five-person bench led by Chief Justice Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat dismissed the ex-premier’s final appeal after Najib’s legal team, which was replaced just three weeks before his appeal began on August 15, declined to present their case in court, citing insufficient time to prepare their arguments due to the purported complexity of the case.

Read the full story at Asia Times.

Nile Bowie is a journalist and correspondent with the Asia Times covering current affairs in Singapore and Malaysia. He can be reached at nilebowie@gmail.com.

Bellwether Singapore buffeted by global headwinds

Post-Covid economic recovery is already losing steam as Prime Minister Lee warns of ‘more storms and turbulence’ to come

Consumer prices in Singapore are at a 13-year high and are projected to rise higher as the notoriously pricey city-state, a bellwether for global economic growth trends, grapples with imported inflation, heightened geopolitical risks and fears its major trading partners are slowing down or headed for recession.

Since easing most pandemic-related restrictions in early April, the Southeast Asian financial hub has shown relative economic resilience with rebounding aviation and tourism sectors and a rising Singapore dollar trading at record levels against most major currencies.But more Singaporeans are now tightening their belts in the face of costlier services, food, fuel, retail goods and utilities.

The city-state has also revised down its full-year economic forecast, with expected gross domestic product (GDP) growth whittled down to between 3-4% from a previous range of 3-5%. Trade officials announced the revised range on August 11, citing a weaker external demand outlook and significant downside risks to the global economy amid concerns over persistent inflation.

Singapore’s government, meanwhile, has acknowledged that the cost of living is at the top of people’s minds while offering a sobering outlook on the economy. In a televised address on August 8, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said that Singapore’s outlook has “clouded considerably” due to global economic challenges while warning of “more storms and turbulence” to come.

Read the full story at Asia Times.

Nile Bowie is a journalist and correspondent with the Asia Times covering current affairs in Singapore and Malaysia. He can be reached at nilebowie@gmail.com.