Who is Datuk Johari Abdul Ghani trying to fool when he said the Government would act against those found guilty of wrongdoing in the US Department of Justice's 1MDB suit?

Finance Minister II Johari Abdul Ghani said the government will take legal action against the individuals named in the US Department of Justice's (DOJ) civil suit related to 1MDB, if they were found guilty of wrongdoing.

He even stressed that “there will be no two ways in dealing with this matter.”

The Finance Minister’s assertion must have been joking because the statement lacked any iota of credibility.

How is Datuk Johari expecting Malaysians and the international community to believe him when there has been a complete absence of outrage from the Najib administration on the DOJ suit which the Federal Bureau of Investigations claimed “the Malaysian people were defrauded on an enormous scale”.

The DOJ claimed that 1MDB officials and their associates stole more than $3.5 billion from the fund between 2009 and 2015 and laundered at least $1 billion through the US. The fund's officials tried to conceal the fund's origins through complex transactions that involved shell companies and bank accounts located in various countries.

Despite the enormity of the scam and scandal, the Malaysian Government has shown shocking indifference to the exposé. The Prime Minister, Dato’ Seri Najib Razak only took pains to emphasise that it is only a civil suit and it didn’t involve him.

This was despite the fact that the DOJ suit has highlighted that a “Malaysian Official 1” had received USD731 million from the embezzled funds.  The “MO1” undeniably referred to Dato’ Seri Najib Razak.  In fact, the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Dato Seri Rahman Dahlan even said that “only an idiot don't know who MO1 is”.

Despite all of the above substantiated allegations made by the DOJ, there have been no concrete actions taken by Malaysian authorities.  There have been no developments from the Police who has purportedly been investigating the scandal for nearly two years already.  We certainly didn’t hear of an arrest warrant for Low Taek Jho or Riza Aziz to answer questions, despite their being named as the parties who laundered 1MDB’s funds in the United States.

In addition, the new Bank Negara Governor, Datuk Mohammad Ibrahim has publicly washed his hands off the 1MDB scandal by declaring the 1MDB case closed despite the money laundering allegations. Former MACC Deputy Chief Commissioner, Datuk Zakaria Jaffar have even declared that the 1MDB scandal isn't MACC’s jurisdiction.

Hence who is the Second Finance Minister Datuk Johari Abdul kidding when he told reporters that action will be taken?  He didn’t even have the courage as the Finance Minister II to direct Bank Negara to open money laundering allegations against all of the above implicated officials, including MO1.

In fact, why should the Malaysian Government be waiting for the DOJ suit to concluded in the US before we follow up with the necessary actions?

Given that it is Malaysian money which is stolen, shouldn’t Datuk Johari be jumping up and down demanding immediate action by our own Malaysian authorities, instead of being shamed by a foreign country?

It cannot be clearer that Datuk Johari had been quickly promoted to the Finance Minister II position to help cover up the entire shocking and shameful scandal, and to ensure that his master, Dato’ Seri Najib Razak remained unshaken by the entire global exposé.