malaysia
Wall Street Journal like a ‘beauty queen with rashes’, says BN MP
Barisan Nasional MP Dr Noor Azmi Ghazali says The Wall Street Journal's reports on Malaysia are at odds with those of credit ratings agencies. – WSJ screenshot, March 10, 2016.The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) cannot be trusted as it sensationalises its reports to gain more readers, a Barisan Nasional MP said today, likening the business newspaper to a "beauty queen with rashes".
Bagan Serai MP Dr Noor Azmi Ghazali said WSJ's gloomy reports on 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) and the state of the Malaysian economy flew in the face of the high credit ranking Malaysia received from ratings agencies.
"Are we going to trust ratings agencies or WSJ? WSJ sensationalises the situation so that more people read its newspaper," he told the Dewan Rakyat when debating the Yang di-Pertuan Agong's opening address.
"WSJ is like a beauty queen. A beauty queen who is beautiful, dresses up beautifully, everything is beautiful. But when you look under her clothes, she has rashes."
The US-based newspaper was the first to report on the RM2.6 billion funds channelled into Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak's personal bank accounts in July last year. It has continued to report exposes on alleged wrongdoing by 1MDB with implications on Najib.
Noor Azmi said the ongoing “perception terrorism” could confuse Malaysians, in particular, youth.
Last month, Fitch Ratings affirmed Malaysia’s long-term foreign- and local-currency issuer default ratings (IDRs) at “A-” and “A” respectively with a stable outlook. (link to)
Standard and Poor's Rating Services also affirmed its “A-/A-2” foreign currency and “A/A-1” local currency sovereign credit ratings on Malaysia.
But Moody’s cut the sovereign rating outlook to stable from positive in January because of the negative impact of changes in the external environment on the Southeast Asian nation’s economic growth.
WSJ broke the news on the RM2.6 billion citing documents from “Malaysian investigators” which showed that the money was moved among government agencies, banks and entities linked to 1MD before finally ending up in Najib’s accounts.
But Attorney-General Tan Sri Mohamed Apandi Ali told a press conference in January that there was not enough evidence to charge Najib and that the funds were a personal donation from the royal Saudi family.
WSJ has maintained the funds originated from 1MDB-linked companies, and said it had the evidence to back this up. – March 10, 2016.
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