C4 Centre and Bersih 2.0 urge parliamentarians who will be debating the motion in the Swiss parliament next week to to return a portion of the stolen funds laundered in Switzerland back to the people of Malaysia.
Last week has seen the discourse on 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) intensify around the subject of the seizure of Jho Low’s luxury yacht Equanimity in a joint-effort action by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Indonesian police force.
While the international media have gone into a frenzy to cover this new development in 1MDB money laundering probes around the world, Malaysian authorities instead have arbitrarily silenced voices who are raising questions on 1MDB and corruption.
In Switzerland, CHF104m (RM430m) has been frozen while court proceedings are still ongoing against Swiss banks complicit in laundering 1MDB funds. We have received news from Swiss Finance Minister Ueli Maurer that the money has already been deposited in the Swiss Federal Treasury as there were no claimants.
But next week, Swiss parliamentarians allied in this cause are tabling a motion in the Swiss parliament calling for at least a portion of the money to be sent back to the country of origin.
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A Malaysian civil society initiative was announced in November 2017, calling on the Swiss federal Ministry of Finance and the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (Finma) to return the funds seized by Swiss authorities to Malaysians, who are the rightful beneficiaries via an independent trust fund.
This proposal suggests that it is possible for the money to be returned to Malaysia via a trust fund modelled after the Bota Foundation in Kazakhstan. If the funds are to be returned, it should be managed by an independent body represented by different groups, employ transparent processes, and is accountable to the public on how these funds will be distributed back to the people.
Without any action by the government and its many limbs to prosecute the culprits who enabled and benefited from money-laundered stolen 1MDB funds, it is not a viable option for the funds to be returned to the very leaders who are part of a flawed system, which allowed for such greed and rampant corruption to persist. Indeed, the attitude of the government towards allegations of corruption and money laundering via 1MDB has hardly been above reproach.
Beginning with the removal of the previous attorney general from office, to the current attorney general granting Prime Minister Najib Razak impunity, democratic institutions meant to safeguard public interest such as the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission and the courts have failed to respond to the issue.
The Swiss attorney general’s request for cooperation in the 1MDB investigation in April 2017 was met with silence from the government. Attempts to take the matter to court and discuss it in Parliament have also been highhandedly dismissed.
Former Batu Kawan Umno deputy chief Khairuddin Abu Hassan was also detained under the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act on suspicion of attempting to ‘sabotage the economy’ after lobbying foreign governments to put pressure on Malaysia by way of addressing the allegations of corruption surrounding 1MDB.
C4 Centre and Bersih 2.0 urge parliamentarians who will be debating the motion in the Swiss parliament next week to consider the proposal put forth: to return a portion of the stolen funds which happened to be laundered in Switzerland back to the rightful beneficiaries, the people of Malaysia.
Centre to Combat Cronyism and Corruption (C4 Centre)
Coalition For Clean and Fair Elections (Bersih 2.0)
Global Bersih
AGENDA RAKYAT - Lima perkara utama
- Tegakkan maruah serta kualiti kehidupan rakyat
- Galakkan pembangunan saksama, lestari serta tangani krisis alam sekitar
- Raikan kerencaman dan keterangkuman
- Selamatkan demokrasi dan angkatkan keluhuran undang-undang
- Lawan rasuah dan kronisme
Not now!
However the funds are managed by the current government which on the track record reported by the Auditor General has repeatedly shown the considerable ineptitude in culling waste and leakages dispite numerous years of alarming mismanagement. If you are naive and even if you believe that the current government is not corrupt, the fact that this government has failed by way of mismanagement alone is enough for you to fear for those assets, the people of Malaysia will see none of that money.
How to return it? The Government has not claimed it. And they are behaving as though as nothing was lost from 1MDB!!! Its best that the Swiss authorities hold until there is a regime change in Msia.
U mean return to Najib???
Return later or these crooks n robbers will siphon them off again.
Why so stupid? If they return the funds who is it given to?