Ghosts From 1mdb Era Haunt Malaysian Football

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Back in 2015, the first cracks in the 1MDB façade appeared when The Wall Street Journal alleged that US$700 million (RM2.6 billion) had been transferred into the personal bank accounts of then-prime minister Najib Abdul Razak. He raged, blustered, and threatened to sue, but never followed through.
Others who dared to report the money trail were not so lucky: The Edge and The Edge Financial Daily saw their publishing permits suspended for three months by the Home Ministry, then under Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.
In a surreal twist, then attorney-general (AG) Apandi Ali subsequently declared there was “no evidence” of misappropriation. Yet the US Justice Department soon dropped a bombshell - its exhaustive report branded 1MDB the “greatest kleptocracy” in modern history.
Locally, a task force comprising then AG Abdul Gani Patail, MACC chief Abu Kassim, Bank Negara governor Zeti Akhtar Abdul Aziz, and then inspector-general of police Khalid Abu Bakar was hastily assembled, only to be dissolved after Malaysia’s own “night of long knives.”
Two senior officials paid the price: Apandi’s predecessor Gani was marched out of office, while Abu Kassim was quietly dispatched to academia.
What followed in the interim is what they call history, but 10 years later, the sequence of events appears to be resurfacing.
No comparison
Drawing parallels between the humongous amount stolen from 1MDB and the situation that the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) is in should be no comparison.
However, the reputational damage caused by government officials involved in forgery and fraudulent documents is immeasurable, and it will continue to undermine the country’s standing for a long time to come.
When the scandal broke with the findings of the International Federation of Association Football’s (Fifa) Disciplinary Committee last month, the MACC declared it had not opened an investigation paper yet on the alleged document falsification in the registration of seven “heritage” players.
“So, it's up to Fifa whether they will consider or not (the appeal submitted by FAM). But, for now, the MACC will not investigate this case as it is more about Fifa’s action.
“We have also taken into account the verification made by the Home Ministry in connection with the seven ‘heritage’ players,” said MACC chief Azam Baki.
The police also played the same tune in not investigating the alleged forgery of documents involving Malaysia’s “heritage” football players, citing “no elements of a criminal offence”, it said in an email to Urimai secretary Satees Muniandy, who had lodged a police report.
Damaging indictment
But on Tuesday, Fifa kicked the ball back into Malaysia’s court, indicting Malaysian personalities for this farce.
Besides using words like “cheating”, “fraud”, forgery, and other derogatory terms, this is what the Appeals Committee said about Malaysian birth certificates: “…the Malaysian certificate is manifestly unreliable. It contains minimal information, omits essential details such as parental names and residential address, and even lacks an issuance date.
“These deficiencies, combined with the admission by the FAM that the item is forged, lead the committee to conclude that the Malaysian certificate cannot be trusted.“
What was more damaging was that the report noted that the FAM secretary-general acknowledged that members of the FAM administration had “engaged in handling and formatting certain copies of birth certificates… including the altered content”, which constitutes a direct confession of document tampering.
This is nothing short of an admission of sorts, which FAM submitted in its appeal.
The committee concluded: “Finally, given the nature and gravity of the offences - particularly the forgery of official documents, the committee directs the secretariat to adopt the necessary steps to notify the competent criminal authorities in Brazil, Argentina, the Netherlands, Spain, and Malaysia.”
Forgery, it said, constitutes a criminal offence in these jurisdictions, adding that the relevant authorities must be informed so that appropriate criminal investigations and proceedings may be pursued.
Paralysed institutions
So, what are the police and MACC waiting for? FAM’s own secretary-general has admitted to document manipulation. Fifa has already called it fraud. Yet Malaysia’s institutions remain paralysed, as if hoping the scandal will blow over.
The irony is thick: police may have to investigate their own boss – Home Minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail - while independence and neutrality hang under a cloud.
Parliament too cannot escape scrutiny. Didn’t Saifuddin mislead the House by claiming discretion over residency requirements, while sidestepping the language test? And what of the false documents themselves - explicitly flagged in Fifa’s findings?
Home Minister Saifuddin Nasution IsmailThe matches between 1MDB and FAM are undeniable - deny, deflect, and dismantle accountability.
However, the solution to this entanglement remains simple: All officials within and outside the government and FAM, involved in creating or submitting false documents, must be held accountable. Status, titles, and prefixes before their names should never be considered.
Even those who abetted explicitly or covertly, by endorsing such deceit, should not escape scrutiny. If the forgery of official documents does not warrant a criminal investigation in Malaysia, it begs the question: what does?
This scandal goes beyond football - it is a litmus test of whether our institutions have learned from history or remain trapped in its failures. To ignore it is to be complicit - and to commit a travesty of justice. - Mkini
R NADESWARAN says the only way for some form of redemption is to identify, punish, and isolate the miscreants who have brought the country’s reputation to rock bottom. Comment: [email protected]
The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of MMKtT.

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