The 1MDB saga never ends. Now PAS information chief Nasrudin Hassan is asking for a Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) to be set up to investigate 1MDB “professionally” and “transparently”.

Nasrudin is “peeling an onion” to buy time or to truncate the clamour for actions against the alleged baloney in 1MDB.

Who is going to head the proposed RCI on 1MDB? Nasrudin himself? What else have we not done on 1MDB as far as investigations are concerned?

If Nasrudin knows anything at all, he should know by now what we need in regard to 1MDB are real actions backed by impartial government institutions to carry them out. There is no need for another “impartial” or “professional” inquiry or investigation.

In this regard, I think it is equally unwise for Pakatan Harapan to ask for a RCI on 1MDB in response to the government’s proposal/decision to set up a RCI on the forex trading losses of decades ago.

Why peel the layers off another onion when we peeled so many layers off before?

What happened to the task force of the “Three Tan Sris”? Yes, we remember the Tan Sris of the Attorney-General’s Chambers, the police and Bank Negara Malaysia. Surely there were findings and conclusions gathered that were useful.

What happened to the “bipartisan” and “impartial” Public Accounts Committee (PAC)? Surely there exists a wealth of information there which can be used by the enforcement agencies.

What happened to the Auditor-General’s Report on 1MDB? Our former auditor-general has retired and a new one has been appointed. So far, have the findings been deliberated, disclosed and actions taken? What could a new RCI on 1MDB achieve if it ends up like the Auditor-General’s Report?

What about the court cases related to 1MDB that were heard in Singapore and the filings by the Department of Justice in the US? What about the gifts that were handed over to the DoJ by those who purportedly received these from individuals related to 1MDB? Have we not a large pool of baseline information and evidence that we can use and work on? What could a new RCI do except to reinvent the wheel?

By the way, why did Nasrudin want to send a memorandum on 1MDB to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission?

Did he not read the statement earlier by MACC that the police would be conducting the investigation on 1MDB, not MACC? What will MACC do with the memorandum from PAS? Send it to the police? Maybe the police will in turn send it to the AG or BNM.

TK Chua is an FMT reader.

With a firm belief in freedom of expression and without prejudice, FMT tries its best to share reliable content from third parties. Such articles are strictly the writer’s personal opinion. FMT does not necessarily endorse the views or opinions given by any third party content provider.