The Edge boss denies political conspiracy to topple Najib
Published: Oct 12, 2024 2:54 PM
The Edge Media group owner Tong Kooi Ong has reiterated denial of involvement in any political conspiracy to topple former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak, at the height of the 1MDB scandal saga.
In an opinion piece written in the latest edition of the business daily, Tong (above) referred to claims purportedly made in business journalist Leslie Lopez’s new book “The Siege Within”.
Among others, Lopez reportedly claimed in the book that Tong and The Edge Media group CEO Ho Kay Tat were part of a group of conspirators who weaponised the 1MDB to topple Najib because he refused to give a daily newspaper licence to the publishing house.
Tong said that The Edge newsroom caught on to the 1MDB scandal in late 2012, and started raising questions about dubious transactions involving the sovereign fund early the following year.
Then, in 2014, fugitive businessperson Low Taek Jho (Jho Low) passed a message to The Edge through Lopez, with whom he was in close contact, to “stop questioning 1MDB”, Tong alleged.
“We knew Leslie (Lopez) had been in close contact with Low, which is not a bad thing if it is to be used as a source of information.
“But Low was the principal actor in the scam and a compulsive liar who was also brazenly throwing money at people whom he felt would be of use to him, as court cases in Malaysia and the US, and other documentary evidence have shown,” Tong wrote.
Painful separation
This eventually led to The Edge parting ways with Lopez, who was given a generous payout for his contributions to the company.
Following the separation, Lopez went around rubbishing The Edge’s reports about 1MDB, Tong further claimed.
“We chose to ignore it. We were, after all, good friends and it is rare to have amicable partings, so Ho and I took it as part of life’s journey.
“Hence, it was very painful to read the untruths and allegations Leslie (Lopez) made in his book ‘The Siege Within’ about us - that we were part of a group of conspirators who weaponised 1MDB to topple Najib because he did not give me a daily newspaper licence.”
Tong said if he was “unscrupulous” as Lopez had purportedly suggested, he could have asked Najib for some lucrative government concessions in return for staying off 1MDB’s tail, but he did not.
Not first major exposé
Tong further rubbished Lopez’s claim in his book that an article he wrote in July 2013 was the first “major exposé” on the 1MDB scandal.
In doing so, he pointed out that The Edge Weekly had on April 1, 2013, run a cover story on the scandal, when all other mainstream media were painting rosy pictures of 1MDB, and Low himself.
Even the KiniBiz news portal ran an article questioning 1MDB before Lopez’s write-up, Tong explained.
“Why is Leslie (Lopez) so desperate to claim something that is not his to claim? Is it because of his superiority complex? Is he sore that he was left trailing behind (for reasons best known to himself) while others worked relentlessly to expose Malaysia’s biggest-ever financial scandal, and was a big global story?
“Anyone who has read the few articles he wrote after he returned to work for ST (The Straits Times) in 2016 will notice how soft he had been on Jho Low. This is not the Leslie (Lopez) many of us knew,” Tong lamented.
Nazir Razak’s role
According to Tong, Lopez’s book also failed to mention the important role of Najib’s brother Nazir in unravelling the 1MDB scandal to prevent more billions from being stolen.
“Nazir played an important role behind the scenes and had warned his brother many times about what was happening. Nazir and I often engaged in what needed to be done.
“So, anyone who believes Leslie (Lopez) must also believe that Nazir aligned himself with Najib’s enemies to take down his own brother as prime minister.”
Nazir Razak
Tong urged readers to purchase The Edge group’s own book on the 1MDB saga, called “Behind the Stories”, and judge for themselves which book presents the true narrative of the scandal.
Instead of trying to whitewash Low’s role as the master planner of the 1MDB scandal, Lopez should instead convince the fugitive businessperson to turn up in court, whether in Malaysia, the US, or Singapore, where he is a wanted person, to face the music, Tong said.
This is the second time Tong had to issue a denial of political conspiracy linked to the 1MDB scandal.
In September 2015, he did the same following the publication of a front-page report in the New Straits Times entitled “Rewcastle-Brown: I will celebrate when Najib is Done”.
Tong urged readers to purchase The Edge group’s own book on the 1MDB saga, called “Behind the Stories”, and judge for themselves which book presents the true narrative of the scandal.
Instead of trying to whitewash Low’s role as the master planner of the 1MDB scandal, Lopez should instead convince the fugitive businessperson to turn up in court, whether in Malaysia, the US, or Singapore, where he is a wanted person, to face the music, Tong said.
This is the second time Tong had to issue a denial of political conspiracy linked to the 1MDB scandal.
In September 2015, he did the same following the publication of a front-page report in the New Straits Times entitled “Rewcastle-Brown: I will celebrate when Najib is Done”.
Leslie Lopez is still in cahoots with Jho Low
ReplyDeleteThe fact is, at the time Najib was the Uber-powerful Prime Minister who was abusing all the power of the Malaysian State apparatus to oppress the people who were trying to expose the 1MDB scandal.
ReplyDeleteNaJib was trying to pain a picture that 1MDB was merely a business issue , not a massive crime.
If there was the appearance of a conspiracy ,it was because the people trying to expose the crime had to operate as secretly as possible, under threat of police arrest and other forms of coercion by the Malaysian State under Najib.