COMMENT On one account, Prime Minister-cum-Finance Minister Najib Abdul Razak should be lauded for helping Tabung Haji to make good returns overnight.

There is no doubt that once Tabung Haji floats its prime land in the open market, there will be a number of bidders, be it cronies or true investors, especially since land in the Federal Territory is scarce.

The Tun Razak Exchange (TRX) land that the debt-ridden 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) had sold to Tabung Haji for RM188.5 million will undoubtedly help the latter to make millions in return, when a private developer decides to purchase the prime land even at market prices.

To Tabung Haji, it is a windfall which Najib assures us that the capital gains would immediately silence his critics, in particular former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

Both 1MDB and Tabung Haji are government-linked bodies set up for different purposes. One is now allegedly laden with debts that it is unable to service, while the other is hard-earned money that Muslims have contributed over the years in order to fulfil their pilgrimage obligations.

Where the problem lies

It is a matter of lack of integrity, good governance and transparency that we see in the entire episode involving the people who were supposed to safeguard the country’s finances. This is where the problem lies, not about making a windfall or good returns overnight.

If Tabung Haji took up the advice from the prime minister to immediately dispose of the land following the recent expose, it is only obvious that the board is not fulfilling its fiduciary obligations as an independent party. It will not absolve any party of the allegations made by the 1MDB critics.

After all, as the funds’ chairperson Abdul Azeez Abdul Rahim had openly said, this is a political battle - therefore, all the more reason he should not drag Tabung Haji further down the path, but let Najib alone to face the brickbats from his nemesis, Dr Mahathir, and others.

Following the manner in which Najib had ‘advised’ Tabung Haji to dispose of the land, there is also no reason for the rakyat not to believe that the purchase of the land had also been done in the same manner.

In the first place, why was prime land owned by the government sold at a mere RM70 per square foot (psf) to 1MDB, when it should have been worth so much more if floated in the open market? Who approved the government’s decision to sell the land in the first place? Was it a decision made by the cabinet?

Integrity, please. Does this amount to ‘under-declaring’ the real market value of the government’s land bank? The government should have earned millions more, and the money could have gone into the coffers for the welfare of the rakyat such as building a hospital for the state of Perlis.

But, what irks most people the most is the billions of Ringgit that have allegedly gone missing in 1MDB, which have not been accounted for yet. Am I right in asking why did it have to sell the land if it had all the money to service the loans?

Cabinet in the dark?

My question is: Was the cabinet even informed of the government’s decision to sell the prime land to 1MDB at such a low price?

Previously, we learnt that the cabinet was totally with Najib on the 1MDB saga.

What came as a shocker is that, in a statement yesterday, cabinet minister Wee Ka Siong said that fellow cabinet ministers were apparently left in the dark of the controversial purchase of the TRX land until the Tabung Haji deal was exposed by a third party.

If Wee’s words are worth their salt, and he does not later tell us that his words were being wrongly reported, then there is really serious problem which Najib will have to answer, not only to Umno leaders in closed-door meetings, or to Dr Mahathir, but the rakyat (Muslims and non-Muslims).

There is no reason that in a matter of this nature one, including the prime minister, should hide behind the veils of the Official Secrets Act (OSA). Of all persons, the prime minister should represent a government that has the integrity to lead.

If the cabinet is supposed to be the highest government authority in the country, yet despite it involving such a huge sum of money, why has the finance minister (or even his second finance minister) failed to consult the cabinet, especially when Tabung Haji’s fund is involved and the amount is nothing less than a hundred million Ringgit?

This is what happens when the prime minister also holds the finance portfolio. The lack of transparency exercised by the finance minister is simply deafening, and this should be a cause for great concern for Wee and his fellow cabinet ministers, if they have any principles at all.

This is the time for resignation of cabinet ministers en bloc. Those who stay together with a sinking ship will only sink together.

Even the biblical Abraham’s nephew, Lot would not have saved himself if he had not escaped from Sodom and Gomorrah. If resignation is not an option, why did Martin Luther ‘resign’ from the priesthood of his days to start what was later known as the Reformation?

Resignation is the only dignified decision one can make, when there are issues of lack of integrity and transparency in the most senior cabinet member. There is no justification for being in a cabinet where you know something is not right, but still allowing it to happen under your nose.

In short, after revealing that cabinet ministers were not given the privy of knowing about the sale of land by a government-linked body owned by the Finance Ministry to Tabung Haji, if he is a principled man (and I certainly hope so), Wee should be the first one to tender his resignation.

The other person who should resign is Minister in the Prime Minister’s department Paul Low ( photo ), who stands for the big ‘I’ for integrity, especially after Transparency International Malaysia, of which Low was formerly its president, has again issued a statement urging Najib to abandon his finance portfolio.

Integrity has to begin at the top and seen through one’s own actions; anything other than that is but window-dressing.

While writing this piece, a friend sent me out of the blue a Whatsapp message which Low should heed: “I was visiting SIB. Agreed... perhaps he (Low) was put in cabinet for a purpose... to appeal to the Christian voters. He should take a tougher stand to protect our rights...”

If even TI-M’s repeated urging for Najib to immediately step down as finance minister was not heeded in the past, Low should know that no amount of pep talk would help the Barisan Nasional government to regain the people’s confidence.

The fact that Najib has already been holding the post for six years - in the grand tradition which was first started by Dr Mahathir himself - is already a good reason for anyone to realise that Murphy’s law has reared its ugly head - things that can go wrong will go wrong.

Where do we go from here?

The question is now asked if the cabinet can continue to support the 1MDB, especially after the expose has been made public.

Najib said that he will not be forced to step down, unless he is pressured by people within his party and the rakyat.

Incidentally, in the last general election, Najib’s administration only scored a 47 percent popularity vote, and performed even worse than Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. Tell me, is the rakyat therefore with him or with the imprisoned opposition leader, Anwar Ibrahim?

The 1MDB-Tabung Haji controversy is entirely about good governance and integrity which is seriously lacking. Najib should realise that it is not only Dr Mahathir who is concerned but Malaysians at large, whose future may be at stake if the country’s finances continue to be managed in the way it is not supposed to be.

The Tabung Haji board, in particular the trio who also represented the 1MDB, should have been up-front and reported the purchase of the TRX land, instead of keeping silent until the controversy emerged.

If such a controversial transaction can happen with Tabung Haji funds, there is nothing sacred any more. One will immediately think what about the coffers of other government-linked institutions, especially Petronas, the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) and the pension funds?

Who else can we trust? Is it true that only one percent of the country’s population is below the poverty line? Is it true that the country’s finances are still in good shape despite all the signs that make us wonder where we are heading to as a nation?

If yes, why does a hospital in BN-controlled state Perlis have to be scrapped and why is the rakyat now being burdened by a consumption tax despite all the protest on the streets?

Since Najib has said that the parliament is not a rubber stamp for the government’s decision, maybe it is time for a motion of no confidence to be tabled against Najib and parliamentarians allowed to grill him over this controversial transaction? This is, after all, a subject that is close to the hearts of the rural Malays, who form the voters’ bank for BN.

For a crucial issue like this, does it not make sense that only a two-third majority will determine if Najib enjoys the rakyat’s support? If he cannot give a good answer to 1MDB saga, he should voluntarily cease to be the prime minister or, like in the United States, be impeached from his most senior post.

As rakyat, we are also losing our patience over the number of controversies surrounding our prime minister and his wife. It is time for Najib to prove his own worth, but as it is now, I think he is putting too much of his attention trying to rescue 1MDB than to solve the major issues affecting race relations and religious harmony in the country.

STEPHEN NG is an ordinary citizen with an avid interest in following political developments in the country since 2008.