Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Taek Jho Low the Trojan Horse?

Is Jho Low a Trojan horse?
NO HOLDS BARRED
Monday, 25 July 2011

NO HOLDS BARRED

Raja Petra Kamarudin

“Jho Low pays record price for NY condo, nearby to Rosmah's favourite jeweller,” said Wong Choon Mei of Malaysia Chronicle on 21 July 2011. In that story she goes on to say:

Remember Jho Low? Yes, apart from Paris Hilton, whizz-kid Jho is also very close to Prime Minister Najib Razak's wife Rosmah Mansor. In fact, the 29-year old Penang boy has just bought a super-luxury penthouse in New York at a sky-high price that has set tongues wagging amongst the property agents there.

Incidentally, the condo is just a 10-minute walk from Rosmah's favourite jewellery retailer Jacob & Co, from whom she has been reported to have bought a RM24.4 million ($8 million) 'natural fancy blue-gray cushion-cut’ diamond ring.

And in case Rosmah, who is not known to be fond of exercise, prefers to be driven, Jacob & Co at 48, East 57th Street is just a 3-minute whizz away by stretch limousine.

Business ties

Jho is also connected in some way - directly or indirectly - with several very important investment and financial entities.

These include Najib's prized RM15 billion 1Malaysia Development Berhad, the RM10 billion Terengganu Investment Authority, UBG which is the former banking arm of Sarawak Chief Minister Taib Mahmud's family business, as well as the oil-rich Mid-East firm PetroSaudi.

No, this is not a business article to unravel the amount of filth contained within the dealings of this nest of firms. Malaysian Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim said it best when he described 1MDB as Najib's political "slush fund" to prop up Taib and his cronies.

Some in the financial circles even say the complex paper trail that surrounds the firms' inter-dealings would surely provide an ideal way to launder some of the possibly illicit money that may flow through the network.

Read more here: http://www.malaysia-chronicle.com/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=16215:remember-jho-low?-this-is-what-he-has-been-doing-lately&Itemid=2

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What makes this revelation even more interesting are the four links Malaysia Chronicle added below that story under the sub-heading of ‘Related Story’:

1. Who is he? M'sian billionaire splashes RM14.5bil on super-yacht

2. The Rosmah ring: 24mil RM or US$, tupperware party or VVIP exhibition

3. Rosmah in hot soup over gargantuan RM24.4mil diamond ring

4. VIDEO Rosmah's RM24.4mil diamond ring

Wong Choon Mei is known to be closely linked to PKR leader, Tian Chua. It seems as though Malaysia Chronicle is suggesting that Jho Low, who is in turn closely linked to ‘First Lady’ Rosmah Mansor, is not only the man behind the purchase of the most expensive yacht in history but is also the man who couriered that very controversial ring to Malaysia.

According to the whispers in Putrajaya, Jho Low sent the ring to Malaysia for Rosmah to look at and whether it has now been sent back to New York, as alleged, or is still in Malaysia, is not known. And, if it has been sent back to New York, whether this is because Rosmah did not like it or whether it is because of the controversy surrounding this ring -- and therefore it is too hot to allow it to remain in Malaysia -- is also not known.

Whatever it may be, Jho Low’s name seems to be linked to not only the purchase of this very expensive super-luxury New York penthouse but also to the yacht and the ring.

Anyway, that is what they say and we only go by what they say, whether this is true or not. But what we do know, and this is a fact, the 3M team of Mahathir-Muhyddin-Mukhriz are going to town on this issue.

Jho Low is close to those who walk in the corridors of power, in particular the ‘First Family of Malaysia’. And anything he does will always be linked back to the ‘First Family’. There is no avoiding this.

Is Jho Low just too stupid? Does he not know that he is under close scrutiny and anything he does will lead back to Rosmah’s and Najib’s door? And do Rosmah and Najib not know that the 3M team is gleefully awaiting his downfall so that a new ‘First Family’ can be installed in Putrajaya?

When Najib cancelled his one-week holiday in Europe and rushed back to Malaysia after meeting the Pope in Rome (and which Najib publicly thanked Rosmah for her ‘sacrifice’) we already smelled a rat, a big smelly rat.

Why would Najib cancel his holiday and rush back to Malaysia unless there was some sort of major emergency? And an emergency this serious can only mean his throne is under threat.

And, lo and behold, when Malaysia Chronicle came out with this story of the super-luxury penthouse in New York and linked this story to the story of the yacht and Rosmah’s ring, the whole thing became very clear.

We are probably seeing history repeating itself here. Back in the days of Abdullah Ahmad Badawi they used Khairy Jamaluddin as the catalyst to bring Pak Lah down. Now, the catalyst is Rosmah Mansor. And Jho Low’s stupidity is making this possible.

Why are Jho Low and Rosmah making it so easy for the 3M team to make their move? I would have thought that since Jho Low is now so high profile and everything he does makes the front page he would not want to do anything that attracts so much attention. And buying the most expensive yacht in history and a super-luxury penthouse in New York, plus sending a very expensive ring to Rosmah by courier, is certainly the height of stupidity.

I sometimes wonder whether this is genuine stupidity or whether Jho Low is a Trojan horse who is doing all this very cleverly and intentionally to accelerate Najib’s downfall. Why allow Najib’s enemies easy access to ammunition? Jho Low seems to be offering Rosmah’s and Najib’s head to their enemies on a silver platter.

The Umno blogs are working overtime to dispel talk that Rosmah bought that ring. This is actually true and the Umno blogs are not lying. Rosmah did not buy the ring. Jho Low sent it to her.

But why send the ring to Rosmah by courier? Surely a ring that expensive can be sent to Malaysia through other means and in secrecy. This is probably the most stupid thing Jho Low has ever done (if it was stupidity in the first place and not done on purpose). And with the story of that ring linked to the story of the record-breaking yacht and the super-luxury penthouse in New York, just doors away from the jewellers, the 3M team has everything it now needs to start working on an early retirement for Najib.

No wonder Najib had to cancel his holiday and rush back to Malaysia. Najib probably thought it would be safer to reclaim his throne before he finds it in someone else’s hands. And we do not need to be a Harvard graduate to figure out who this someone else is.