Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has ordered an immediate freeze on the sale or lease of government reserve land plots, including plots that are being alienated.
According to Anwar's political secretary Azman Abidin, 52 plots of government land in Kuala Lumpur – some reserved as green lungs and open spaces – had been alienated and leased to developers and businessmen between 2020 and 2022.
The land deals, Azman said, also involved land surrounding flood retention ponds.
Whether the rushed sale of these land plots involved any corruption is yet to be determined and will be revealed if MACC investigates if there were any shady deals to bribe top leaders.
“We are trying to right some of these land deals by cancelling them, but it is always a challenge when land premiums have already been paid,” The Star reported.
Azman said the only way out of the land deals where the premiums had been paid was to ensure that the conditions attached were fulfilled.
“Land was alienated with conditional approval and can only be sold if the conditions are met. The land surrounding flood retention ponds has certain technical requirements that must be fulfilled for the deal to go through.”
Thanks to the current PMX Government, there is an immediate freeze on some of the reserved land that was alienated during the PN Government-led Muhyiddin Yassin and Ismail Sabri Yaakob.
This brings to light that government agencies and departments need to enforce proper regulations when the approvals for the sale of reserve land originated from the top political leadership. Top civil servants blindly followed political leaders' orders, like in the case of the Bank Negara governor's directive needing to be followed.
Former Bank Negara Malaysia governor Zeti Akhtar Aziz told the Najib Razak 1MDB trial (27/7/23) that BNM had urged the then attorney-general (AG) to prosecute officers of the company but that this was not done.
Initially, she said BNM needed to learn about the movement of funds to entities unrelated to 1MDB. Still, following a tip-off, BNM investigated and submitted investigation papers (IP) to the then AG Apandi Ali.
Zeti said BNM had suggested that the AG charge senior officers of 1MDB under the Exchange Control Act for furnishing false information to the central bank in the company’s application for permission to make payments outside Malaysia.
“Despite all the damning evidence gathered and recorded by BNM in the IP, the then AG’s Chambers (AGC), for reasons unknown, had on Sept 11, 2015 said that the IP was to be classified as ‘no further action’ (NFA).”
Zeti said she pleaded with the AGC to reconsider the NFA status but has yet to receive a response.
She told the court the central bank did not know funds from the company were transferred to accounts of unrelated entities. She said BNM was also initially in the dark about funds in Najib’s account coming from 1MDB.
Zeti added that BNM received a tip-off on March 13, 2015, informing it that a large sum of 1MDB funds was remitted into the accounts of a firm (Good Star Ltd) owned by businessman Low Taek Jho or Jho Low.
“Based on the information received, I met the then inspector-general of police (IGP) Khalid Abu Bakar at my office on March 20 that year and disclosed this information to him,” she testified.
Freelance Writer M. Krishnamoorthy (www.imkrishna.net) is a media coach, associate professor and undercover journalist. He has freelanced with Bernama, NST, The Star, and Malaysiakini. He also freelances as a fixer/coordinator for CNN, BBC, German and Australian Television networks and the New York Times. As an undercover journalist, he has highlighted society's concerns going undercover as a beggar, security guard, blind man, disabled salesman and Member of Parliament.
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