PUTRAJAYA (Feb 12): The sister of Terengganu’s Sultan Mizan Zainal Abidin, Datuk Tengku Rahimah Sultan Mahmud, told the High Court on Wednesday that the inception of 1Malaysia Development Bhd’s (1MDB) former iteration, the Terengganu Investment Authority (TIA), was the brainchild of her brother and fugitive businessman Low Taek Jho (Jho Low), and it was not initiated by former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak.

Testifying as a subpoenaed witness in Najib’s defence at the 1MDB-Tanore trial on Wednesday, Tengku Rahimah said that the idea of TIA was introduced to Sultan Mizan by Jho Low after the sultan had heard about Abu Dhabi’s state investment firm, Mubadala, and its sovereign wealth fund model.

“From my understanding, Tuanku Mizan’s idea of a sovereign wealth fund was to sustainably manage and grow Terengganu’s wealth, ensuring long-term economic benefits, and improved livelihoods for the people of the state,” she said.

Tengku Rahimah elaborated that Jho Low had played a key role in the early stages of TIA, proposing its establishment and identifying potential sectors for development.

“His initial focus was on tourism, leveraging Terengganu’s natural assets, particularly its islands. His ideas appeared well-conceived and credible, presenting realistic and achievable plans that could generate economic opportunities for the state. A blueprint was prepared for TIA, which, if I recall correctly, included a proposal to develop a water theme park in Tasik Kenyir,” she said.

She said that Jho Low had also suggested to the sultan that she become a director of TIA at the beginning of 2009, along with two other directors, Datuk Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi and Tan Sri Ismee Ismail.

Tengku Rahimah said that shortly after she became a director, Sultan Mizan had called her for a private audience and “unexpectedly” asked her to sign a resolution to suspend the Islamic Medium Term Notes (IMTN) programme.

“Taken aback by the request, I asked for the reason, but Tuanku Mizan simply instructed me to proceed with signing it,” she said.

Previous witnesses in Najib’s SRC International Sdn Bhd criminal trial had testified that Sultan Mizan grew dissatisfied with Jho Low when, in May 2009, the businessman had attempted to bulldoze the issuance of RM5 billion Islamic medium-term notes by TIA.

Shahrol, who was a witness in both trials, had previously said in the SRC trial that Sultan Mizan was upset and had referred to an “unsavoury character”, which Shahrol believed referred to Jho Low.

TIA was then federalised and became 1MDB under Najib’s ministry of finance.

Tengku Rahimah then said that she had attended a dinner in 2008 at Istana Terengganu on Jalan Kia Peng in Kuala Lumpur with her brother, where Najib was present.

At that meeting, she said her brother had started talking about his intentions for TIA, and Najib joined in, expanding on the topic.

“Yes, (Najib) could explain it on a macro level,” she said when asked on what happened at the dinner by deputy public prosecutor Ahmad Akram Gharib.

Najib’s lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah then asked her if TIA was “Najib’s baby”, to which she disagreed.

Najib is currently on trial for four counts of abuse of power and 21 counts of money laundering involving RM2.28 billion of 1MDB's funds.

The trial continues on Thursday before judge Datuk Collin Lawrence Sequerah.

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