This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on October 8, 2019 - October 14, 2019

KUALA LUMPUR: Datuk Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi, a former chief executive officer (CEO) of Terengganu Investment Authority (TIA) and then 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB), agreed with the defence’s suggestion that he does not blame a former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak for trusting fugitive financier Low Taek Jho (Jho Low) and Casey Tang Keng Chee, formerly the 1MDB executive director of business development.

During Najib’s lead counsel Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah’s cross-examination yesterday, Shahrol said as the CEO, he was not to “do everything” but build a reliable team.

Muhammad Shafee sharply interjected: “But a CEO’s role cannot just be as a postman — relaying messages and assuming they are right. That’s what a postman does.”

“Well, a CEO’s role is to listen and understand the mandate given to him by the directors and/or shareholders. He is supposed to execute that mandate,” Shahrol replied.

“So, a CEO’s job is to understand the nature of transactions. You can’t say as a CEO — especially when you are trained in the military — that this was not your responsibility,” said the lawyer.

“I disagree,” the witness responded.

Shahrol added that he had placed his trust in Jho Low and Tang at the time as he felt his strengths were in building a team and looking at systems and processes.

“Someone would have had to help me with the fundraising aspect and it was clear to me that it was, at that time, in the good hands of Jho [Low] and Casey,” he said.

Muhammad Shafee later asked why the witness had placed his “explicit and implicit” trust in these two individuals, as well as his dependence on 1MDB’s board of directors, to which Shahrol said: “They were professionals.”

“From 2009 to 2015, you had complete trust in these gentlemen, because what they were doing did not seem ridiculous at the time,” said the lawyer.

“At the time, correct,” said the witness.

“If you had complete implicit and explicit trust in these individuals, would you blame my client for trusting Jho Low? You yourself got conned!” asked Muhammad Shafee.

“I wouldn’t blame him,” Shahrol responded after a pause.

“You can’t say he is a culprit in a conspiracy,” said Muhammad Shafee.

“It is not my place to say anything,” said Shahrol.

‘Jho Low’s role in 1MDB kept hidden to protect Najib’

Shahrol also testified that Jho Low’s involvement in 1MDB had to be kept under wraps because there were people within Umno unhappy about his direct access to Najib, and because such a revelation would affect the former prime minister’s position in the party.

“It became a problem when Najib became the sole shareholder of 1MDB and there were a lot of ‘dengki’ (envy) [among those within Umno] over Jho Low’s influence and access to Datuk Seri Najib.

“It made sense to me when Jho Low told me that his involvement needed to be kept low-key to not jeopardise Najib’s position in Umno. That was the explanation in 2010 and I accepted that explanation,” said Shahrol.

When Muhammad Shafee countered that “the whole world” knew of Jho Low’s involvement in 1MDB and that Shahrol and 1MDB (then TIA) director Tan Sri Ismee Ismail openly appointed Jho Low in 2009 as the fund’s adviser, Shahrol replied that “the context was different in 2009, 2010”.

“In 2009 to 2011, very few people knew he was playing a big role assisting Datuk Seri Najib in his relationship with the Saudis, Abu Dhabis, even the Chinese at that time (2011 to 2014),” said Shahrol.

Shahrol came to this conclusion after Muhammad Shafee questioned Shahrol’s claim that a reason Jho Low could not be surfaced was because his Chinese ethnicity would be detrimental to optics of Najib.

Muhammad Shafee: What is the problem of having Jho Low openly involved in 1MDB?

Shahrol: I asked him the same question early on and his answer was the optics, politically, would be bad for Najib.

Muhammad Shafee: The optics was because he is Chinese?

Shahrol: Yes.

Muhammad Shafee: What about Casey Tang? Was he Malay? What about Terrence Geh? [Jho Low] was from Wharton [School of Business]. What was Casey’s qualification? [Jho Low] was well qualified.