Today, spokesmen for the present administration (most of whom were up to their necks in 1MDB) have taken care to praise themselves for the latest settlements achieved from outfits like AmBank and Deloitte who have paid out large sums as an admission of guilt and complicity in 1MDB.

However, Sarawak Report can confirm that this platform has never received one word of official gratitude as the billions pour into Malaysian coffers (sadly with a total lack of transparency since the backdoor coup government comprising many of the original crooks responsible took over).

Yet, without journalists taking the enormous risk and effort (quite apart from the personal expense) to probe this largest ever financial scandal and then to publish the truth in the face of gross lies by the politicians, bankers, accountants, PR executives, regulators involved, not a single ringgit would have been returned to the Malaysian public and the racket would have continued to bleed the nation.

The beneficiary of the rectified situation, for now the backdoor PN government, prefers to take the credit entirely for itself:

Finance Minister Zafrul Abdul Aziz said the settlement with Deloitte marks another success in the government’s continuing recovery efforts against parties involved in 1MDB, SRC and related entities.

“The Malaysian government is determined to ensure that appropriate actions are taken against all individuals or entities involved, directly or indirectly, in the global 1MDB scheme,” the minister said.

The Finance Ministry said that Deloitte’s settlement represents the largest 1MDB-related settlement by an audit firm in Southeast Asia. [Malaysiakini]

The situation is far more reprehensible, of course. Because at the very moment that the unelected Mr Zaifrul is patting himself on the back for the efforts made by others his coup government is doing its utmost to once again intimidate, fine and persecute the very journalists in Malaysia and elsewhere whom they have to thank for the shower of gold.

In the face of great personal danger journalists in Malaysia doggedly reported on findings by Sarawak Report as this platform unravelled the gross illegalities by banks, accountancy firms and others assisting a kleptocrat PM who presently sits on the backbenches of Zaifrul’s own government (had that government not illegally suspended Parliament altogether).

The Editor of this blog was the first to bite the bullet and to take on the immense risk of accusing powerful and wealthy institutions across the globe of being corrupt, whilst the likes of insiders such as Mr Zaifrul (sitting pretty at CIMB) kept silent.

Sarawak Report was the first to point a finger at Deloitte, the first to point a finger at AmBank and major shareholder ANZ, the first to point a finger at Goldman Sachs and the first to point at finger at Zaifuls friends from Abu Dhabi. We were also, of course, the first to point a finger at Najib Razak and Jho Low.

Sarawak Report was also the first to point a finger at PetroSaudi, the first to point a finger at Edmund de Rothschild bank, the first to point a finger at Wolf of Wall Street, the first to point a finger at Elliot Broidy and the democrat Frank White. The list goes on, but save it to say that without this publicity, which was then taken up by the independent media in Malaysia the corruption would have certainly continued.

Mr Zaifrul and his insider friends, who knew plain well that the system was corrupt, did absolutely nothing to point it out and just sat pretty in their well paid jobs.

And now that they have bought the overturning of a government that was elected by the people to reform the system, this Zaifrul and his colleagues are back to the same old tricks that previously protected the corruption that created 1MDB.

Journalists are being threatened once more. The Multi-media Act and Sedition laws and all the rest are being used to silence and cower the press and publishers and ridiculous libel actions are being entertained by the courts launched by public figures against the media for doing their job.

Sarawak Report itself has been faced with a slew of legal actions both criminal and civil, launched by public and elected officials in Malaysia and accused to INTERPOL of terrorist activity for its revelations of thefts and corruption over 1MDB.

That so far has amounted to the thanks and reward that this platform and other brave Malaysian journalists have received for uncovering 1MDB from the political classes who now prefer to congratulate themselves.

Likewise, what praise and reward has gone to the MACC and other investigators and the officials from the brief elected PH government who bravely undertook to investigate these thefts? Very little it would appear.

Fortunately, the vast majority of Malaysians know exactly to whom they owe the recoveries from 1MDB and who not. Hopefully, the voting public have also taken the vital lesson to heart that a free media must be championed, protected and appreciated by the people for the role it plays in keeping the rule of law and Malaysia’s deeply threatened democracy alive … for now.