‘OFFICIALS LEAKED INFO’
Whistle-blowers were household names, says co-author
WELL-KNOWN senior government officials during the time when Datuk Seri Najib Razak was prime minister were the whistle-blowers in the 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) scandal.
Wall Street Journal (WSJ) journalist Tom Wright said these officials were household names who risked great personal danger to share documents related to 1MDB with the United Statesbased daily.
“The people (senior government officials) put their trust in me for this book, and did so with great danger to themselves. If I were to talk about it in general terms, it would give an idea of (their identities). They are very senior government officials. I’m talking about bold-faced names, not talking about mere bureaucrats, but they are household names.
“They knew what was going on and that it wouldn’t see the light of day. That’s how we (WSJ) got a lot of documents on this at the initial stage. Now, we have interaction with the government of the day (the Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad-led administration), on what’s going on and how to get (fugitive businessman) Jho Low back. That interesting situation has not been resolved yet.
“That’s going to be for the paperback,” he said.
He was responding to Deputy International Trade and Industry Minister Ong Kian Ming at the launch of the book, Billion Dollar Whale, at Kinokuniya bookstore in Suria KLCC here yesterday.
Ong wanted to know who the government officials were, which Wright declined to reveal.
Penned by Wright and fellow WSJ journalist Bradley Hope, the book was sold out in bookstores nationwide two weeks ago.
That did not deter a large crowd from attending the launch, which saw a long queue of readers holding a copy of the book to be autographed by Wright.
Tension rose when Isham Jalil, a former special officer to Najib when he was prime minister, demanded that Wright show evidence implicating Najib in the scandal.
Wright replied that a lot of the reporting in the book was the result of ongoing investigations on the matter in the US and Singapore, among others.
A dissatisfied Isham cut Wright off, saying it was not the answer the former was seeking.
“I want to see evidence that can implicate him (Najib) directly because you talk about Jho Low a lot in the book. Is there evidence to implicate (Najib)?”
Isham was referring to businessman Low Taek Jho, who is wanted by the authorities probing into the 1MDB scandal.
When Wright said he thought there was evidence that would be unveiled in upcoming court cases, Isham again cut him off and demanded whether there was such evidence.
“I am not a prosecutor, my friend,” said Wright, who then took questions from other people to defuse the situation.
Present were former international trade and industry minister Tan Sri Rafidah Aziz, Damansara member of parliament Tony Pua Kiam Wee and former Bersih 2.0 chairman Datuk S. Ambiga.