The story of 1MDB as a history subject in Malaysian schools
In short, Terengganu’s RM1 billion a year oil royalty for the next ten years would be used as cagaran or collateral to raise RM11 billion and the money would be syphoned out and invested outside Terengganu. This was a brilliant scheme to steal another RM11 billion on top of the RM9 billion they already stole from 2000 to 2008 making it RM20 billion in total that would be syphoned out from Terengganu.
NO HOLDS BARRED
Raja Petra Kamarudin
Today, we are going to learn about the story of 1Malaysia Development Berhad or 1MDB.
In 2000, three months after the state of Terengganu fell to an Islamic government, the Prime Minister, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, terminated the payment of the RM1 billion a year oil royalty to the state. The RM2.5 billion a year oil royalty payment to Sabah and Sarawak, however, was not terminated because those two states did not fall to Islamic governments.
Since the payment of the oil royalty to Terengganu is a constitutional and legal obligation under the Petroleum Development Act 1974 and the 1974 and 1976 Agreements that Petronas signed with the Terengganu state government, the Terengganu state government brought Petronas to court.
In 2000, Mahathir stopped the oil royalty payments to Terengganu because the state fell to an Islamic government but the payments to Sabah and Sarawak continued
However, at that time, Malaysia does not practice separation of powers and independence of the judiciary so the court case got jammed up and went nowhere for many years.
Mahathir then appointed Idris Jusoh in the Prime Minister’s Department to manage for the RM1 billion a year oil royalty, which was then changed to Wang Ehsan, and Umno instead of the Terengganu state government decided how the money was to be spent.
It is not known how the more than RM3 billion or RM1 billion a year from 2000 to 2003 was spent or where the money went to because Petronas reports to only the prime minister and not to parliament or the cabinet. Under the Petroleum Development Act 1974, Petronas only answers to the prime minister and only the prime Mminister can see Petronas’s accounts books.
Patrick Lim bought lavish houses in Australia under his wife’s name for the prime minister
More than three years later, in 2003, Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, took over as prime minister. By then Terengganu had been robbed of RM3-4 billion. Abdullah’s advisers, Patrick Lim (who Mahathir called ‘Patrick Badawi’) and Kalimullah Masheerul Hassan (who Mahathir called ‘Muslim priest, Hindu God’), took over from Idris Jusoh as the new managers for the RM1 billion a year oil royalty.
Patrick and Kalimullah then arranged to syphon out about five billion or RM1 billion a year from 2003 to 2008. Some of the money was spent on the Crystal Mosque, the annual Monsoon Cup, and so on. Of course, all this did not come to RM5 billion but it was a convenient way to syphon out money without anyone realising.
Patrick then arranged to buy overseas properties, such as a lavish home in Perth, Australia, for Abdullah, which Patrick put under his wife’s name, Wong Mun Yee, also known as Cindy Lim, to avoid detection.
They syphoned out billions from Terengganu by building lavish mosques that the people do not need
In 2008, Patrick and Kalimullah advised Abdullah to start the Terengganu Investment Authority or TIA with a paid-up capital of RM1 million. The TIA would raise RM11 billion for investments, of which RM5 billion were to be government-guaranteed bonds while RM6 billion were bonds to be collateralised by oil royalty payments to the state of Terengganu.
In short, Terengganu’s RM1 billion a year oil royalty for the next ten years would be used as cagaran or collateral to raise RM11 billion and the money would be syphoned out and invested outside Terengganu. This was a brilliant scheme to steal another RM11 billion on top of the RM9 billion they already stole from 2000 to 2008 making it RM20 billion in total that would be syphoned out from Terengganu.
In 2009, Abdullah resigned under pressure from Mahathir and Najib Tun Razak took over as the new prime minister. The TIA was then revamped and changed to 1Malaysia Development Berhad or 1MDB.
So that, students, is the story of 1MDB.
