Inter-Research And Studies (IRAS)

This article has earlier appeared in the Beritadaily.com on 27/1/2017 The scandal surrounding the state-owned 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) and the case of a RM2.6 billion deposit found in the personal account of Prime Minister Najib Razak have not only become local headlines but have also gained international attention. This is because this nation has become Umno’s Malaysia where everyone must say yes and bow respectfully to the Umno president. Our nation’s three major organs – the executives, parliament and the judiciary system – are all right under his thumb. This is why he managed to bulldoze through many oppressive laws for use against his critics and opponents in order to stay in power. In Malaysia, the position of the prime minister has become too powerful. Checks and balances on him are currently non-existent because the institutions themselves have made him so. As for our parliamentary system, no doubt there are some checks and balances on matters pertaining to govern...

This article has earlier appeared in Beritadaily.com on 14/5/2016 The multi-billion ringgit scandal of 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) is far from over. The prime minister was hoping that the people would slowly forget about the whole episode and “move forward”. Just what kind of “move forward” is he expecting from us? The 1MDB report released by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) consists of many kinds of twists and turns which have left many readers and observers gravely confused and wondering if the sole purpose of this report was to absolve the prime minister of any blame or wrongdoings in the scandal. Well, from the eyes of a lay person, it is clear the report is implying that Prime Minister Najib Razak was in no way responsible for the scandal, even if he had signed many of those documents, blindly or whatsoever. The prime minister has nothing to do with decision-making in 1MDB. The prime minister is merely the chairman of the advisory board and he has no direct discretion ...

This article has earlier appeared in Beritadaily.com on 14/3/2016 The government has decided that the outcome of the 1MDB probe will be kept under the Official Secrets Act (OSA) to prevent leakages, at least until it is tabled in parliament. So, why is the government hiding 1MDB under the OSA? In the course of the investigation, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) had promised a thorough probe into every single detail in the 1MDB controversy to determine what went wrong in its asset acquisition activities which had resulted in debts of RM42 billion. When 1MDB’s RM42 billion scandal was first exposed, there were lots of speculations and guessing game as the government refused to reveal what had actually gone wrong in these deals. The government also took months to initiate its internal investigation, and the PAC’s probe too was abruptly put to a standstill on various occasions. In between, we saw the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) being raided, followed by the detention of...

This article has earlier appeared in Beritadaily.com on 19/2/2016 If a leading politician or senior official from the Barisan Nasional (BN) government was caught or exposed for his corrupt practices, the people would make hell of a noise demanding that the person resign, be probed and charged for the crimes committed. However, today, the leading BN politician or senior official will fire back by claiming that those calling for action to be taken against him are threatening the existence of the Malay race in this nation. He will add that without Umno, there will be no more Malays in this land. Again, when people saw a leading figure from the BN government abusing his powers to award government contracts to members of his family, close relatives or cronies, calls for the person to be probed and demanding his resignation will be met with his response that it is un-Islamic to do so or it is not the way of Islam to call for action to be taken against the leader or official. In shor...