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The scandal surrounding One Malaysia Development Berhad – or 1MDB – tore Malaysia’s financial system to its core and reverberated across financial markets around the world for a decade, resulting in the imprisonment of former Prime Minister Najib Razak.
A lot of to ask about the scandal remain unanswered, including who else was responsible for the billions of dollars siphoned out of the country. It’s a topic that Malaysian journalist Leslie Lopez covered in his first book, “The toppings inside.”
1MDB remains a story of cover-ups and deceit that involved the glitterati of Hollywood, investment bankers in New York and the luxury yacht in the Arabian Sea.
Lopez, a multi-award-winning journalist, says it is a story that still needs closure and that too many people in power would rather see the biggest financial scandal in Malaysian history than simply disappear.
That would also allow those who contributed to the scandal to continue unchallenged, including former central bank governor Zeti Aziz and infamous Malaysian businessman Low Taek Jho, who remains an international fugitive.
“The Siege Within” also portrays former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamed as the main architect of a political system that paved the way for a criminal like Najib to “lie, cheat and steal his way to power” through a system that protected him from scrutiny and persecution .
A fully independent investigative commission with legal backing would help and “The Siege Within” would be a must read for prosecutors, based on an archive built up by Lopez since 1MDB was launched as an investment fund by Najib in 2008.
Lopez spoke to The Diplomat’s Luke Hunt about his latest work and the problems Malaysia continues to face – including a lack of separation of powers and the absolute, unchecked authority his country’s prime ministers have enjoyed in recent decades.
“The Siege Within” is also getting great reviews and despite the difficult media landscape in Malaysia, it is available in all major bookstores.