‘The Edge’ owner agrees Najib a polite man, but says was not walked out politely after warning him about Jho Low

‘The Edge’ owner agrees Najib a polite man, but says was not walked out politely after warning him about Jho Low

The Edge’s owner Tan Sri Tong Kooi Ong at the Kuala Lumpur High Court November 21, 2022. — Picture by Sayuti Zainudin

Monday, 21 Nov 2022 2:37 PM MYT

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 21 — Financial publication The Edge’s owner Tan Sri Tong Kooi Ong agreed that Datuk Seri Najib Razak is a polite person, but disagreed that the then prime minister politely walked him out of the door during their meeting in 2015 on 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).

Tong was testifying as the 43rd prosecution witness in Najib’s trial, where Najib is facing 25 charges over the misappropriation of RM2.28 billion of 1MDB funds that were alleged to have entered his personal bank accounts.


Tong previously testified that Najib showed him the door at the latter’s private residence at Jalan Langgak Duta during the March 6, 2015 meeting, after he had alerted the then prime minister that something was wrong with 1MDB and that Low Taek Jho should be charged.

Tong described Najib as silently standing up and opening the house’s door near the living room where they were seated, confirming that the latter did not verbally ask him to leave.


But he disagreed that Najib was doing it as a polite gesture.


Najib’s lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah suggested that his client is “probably the most polite person you met”, which Tong agreed to. Tong confirmed Najib had “never” been rude to him.

Shafee then tried to suggest that Najib was politely accompanying Tong to the door, saying: “Can I suggest to you, you may have misinterpreted, because you were seated at the reception area, nearest to the main door, he actually walked you to the door and said ‘thank you’, he terminated the conversation? You understand?”

But Tong disagreed by saying : “I wish he did that.”

Shafee: But he didn’t tell you, ‘Tong, get out’.

Tong: No, he didn’t ask me to leave.

Tong then explained what had happened at the same March 2015 meeting, where he was showing explanations and evidence about how US$700 million of 1MDB funds had gone to Low’s company Good Star Ltd and which then led to Najib opening the door to have him leave.

Shafee: So what happened? What made you leave, did he walk you to the door?

Tong: After I explained to him the handwritten notes and what was happening at 1MDB and the problems arising thereof, he told me that he would close 1MDB.

Shafee: He would shut it down?

Tong: He would shut it down. I then proceeded to say, but somebody must be held to account and that person is Jho Low. In the documents, in the briefing note, I clearly showed the money was diverted to Good Star, and I clearly stated to him that it was Jho Low who owned Good Star — not PetroSaudi — so I basically then said that Jho Low should be held accountable and be prosecuted. From then on, he never said a word, he stood up and walked to the door. He opened the door, I stood up and then I left.

Asked by Shafee if Najib would walk him to the door every time he visited the latter’s house, Tong did not recall any other occasion when it was just him and Najib alone, and that there were many others present.

Earlier, Tong had said he and Najib had got to know each other sometime in the mid 1990s and agreed that their relationship could be described as “comfortable”, having explained: “To me, he is a friend, I had been to his house many times, besides Raya and so on, I’ve attended parties or birthday parties at his house and he has visited me once on Chinese New Year, if I remember correctly.”

Shafee suggested that Tong could have been “sensitive” to the fact that his briefing on 1MDB did not receive the response expected and that he could have “misinterpreted” Najib’s actions by thinking the latter was showing him the door, but Tong disagreed by saying, “In my mind, the gesture was not what you would have described.”

Asked how Najib had gestured him to get out of the house, Tong explained that it was Najib’s action of standing up without saying a word and walking to and opening the door, saying that it had “surprised” him.

Najib’s 1MDB trial before High Court judge Datuk Collin Lawrence Sequerah resumes this afternoon, with Shafee expected to further cross-examine Tong.