This article first appeared in The Edge Malaysia Weekly on December 9, 2019 - December 15, 2019

Back in 2015, when some news media, including The Edge, reported on 1MDB’s questionable transactions, Datuk Seri Najib Razak denied numerous times that Low Taek Jho (Jho Low) had anything to do with the company. Najib even told parliament in March 2015, in a written reply to Wangsa Maju MP Tan Kee Kwong, that Jho Low was not involved and that all decisions were made by 1MDB’s board and management.

He told this to parliament just a few days after The Edge and Sarawak Report broke the story on how US$700 mllion of 1MDB’s money had gone to the bank account of Good Star Limited — a company controlled by Jho Low. The reports also showed evidence that Jho Low dealt directly with 1MDB executives in various transactions.

Najib is now singing a different tune.

In his sworn testimony as his own defence witness at the SRC trial last week, he told the court that he had roped in Jho Low to help build 1MDB’s business because the fugitive was well connected to royal households in the Middle East. He cited examples of what Jho Low did.

He said he never suspected that Jho Low had bad intentions and his defence now is that Jho Low and others did certain things without his consent and knowledge.

In trying to put up a defence, Najib has effectively admitted in court that he lied to parliament in March 2015, and on many other occasions since. If he was not telling the truth then, why should anyone believe what he is saying now?

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