The United Nations’ anti-corruption watchdog has called upon Prime Minister Najib Razak to step down from the highest office in the land and allow investigations into the RM2.6 billion transferred into his personal bank accounts to proceed unimpeded.
Manzoor Hasan, the chairperson of the United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC), made the remark today at the 16th International Anti-Corruption Conference (IACC) in Putrajaya.
“In an ideal world, you would want to see the prime minister stay, and the investigation happen. But I think the reality is that if they don’t step down, the process of investigation can be influenced and could undermine the whole process,” he said, as quoted by The Malaysian Insider‘s Anisah Shukry.
“If you apply the natural, legal principles when a person is being investigated, normally that person steps down so a clean independent investigation can take place.”
Manzoor also described Najib’s decision to stay on in the Prime Minister’s chair as being “strange”, but added that it was neither uncommon nor new for a head of government to do so when faced with scandal.
“I think this is where civil society and media can play an important role and put pressure on the government to change the principles and rules that apply,” he said.
Najib has been under instense pressure from many quarters since the publication of a damning report by The Wall Street Journal on July 2, detailing the transfer of some USD700 million (RM2.6 billion) into his personal bank accounts in 2013, two months before the 13th General Elections.
The PM and his defenders said first that the money was not for Najib’s “personal gain”; later, it was revealed that the funds were not from sovereign fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad as speculated, but rather a “donation” from a “friendly Middle Eastern nation” that hoped to see the Barisan Nasional political coalition under Najib’s leadership continue to helm the Malaysian Government.
Over the past few months, Najib has reshuffled his Cabinet and removed former Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin and several other federal ministers who were critical of the PM’s handling of the 1MDB scandal; former Attorney-General Abdul Gani Patail was removed from his post on the same day.
Since then, the Special Task Force assigned to investigate the 1MDB case has also been suspended indefinitely, while Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has been rendered inoperative due to the promotion of its chairperson Nur Jazlan Mohamed and several other PAC members into the Najib Cabinet.
Officers from the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), whch was part of the Special Task Force and is conducting its own investigation on former 1MDB subsidiary SRC International, have been subject to police arrests, raids, and job transfers to the Prime Minister’s Department since their probes began.
