According to Straits Times, a press conference that was supposed to be held last night was postponed to 10 May at 11am after Najib failed to show up at the Putra World Trade Centre (PWTC).
Malaysia's Najib Razak, now forced from power, may finally have to answer the tough questions
Updated
Insofar that metaphors are needed to illustrate the graft and sleaze that accompanied the reign of Najib Razak, it is hard to see much beyond the 300-foot Equanimity.
The $250 million super yacht is lined with marble, teak and gold leaf.
It boasts a swimming pool, movie theatre and a beauty salon.
There is a helipad and a tender garage, and four of its 18 guests are accommodated in what the manufacturer describes as "VIP staterooms".
The FBI, which had the yacht seized in February in Indonesian waters, believe it belongs to a baby-faced financier, Low Taek Jho, a now infamous Najib confidante. He's known as Jho Low.
The Wharton School-educated private equity man first graced not the financial press however, but the society pages.
The 36-year-old stormed into gossip columns, glad-handing Leonardo DiCaprio and lavishing eye-watering jewellery on model Miranda Kerr.
In 2010, he was snapped at a St Tropez club dancing with socialite Paris Hilton. In one photograph he watches on, his shirt darkened with sweat, as Hilton uses her teeth to open a $1200 magnum of Cristal.
Low is now an international fugitive.
He has become a motif for one of history's most spectacular examples of political self-enrichment.
In total, investigators from Switzerland, Singapore and Manhattan allege $US4.5 billion ($6 billion) was filched from Malaysia's sovereign wealth fund, dubbed 1MDB.
US authorities believe that much of that money passed through Jho Low's hands — but not his alone.
I went to Malaysia for Four Corners in 2016 because credible reports were alleging Najib himself was handling staggering volumes of cash.
We were able to confirm those reports, and some, despite Najib always having denied any wrongdoing.
In March that year, we reported the precise details of hundreds of millions of dollars flowing into Najib's personal bank accounts from mysterious sources in Saudi Arabia and the British Virgin Islands: a series of deposits from 2011 to 2013 that ranged in size from $US24 million to $US49 million, and pledges for much more.
One personal letter we obtained promised a gift to Najib of $US800 million on March 1, 2013.
We revealed the codename used for Najib at AmBank — 'Mr X' — and the warnings issued by the bank to federal authorities, as its executives watched his accounts climb to a total of $US1 billion.
AmBank, which was majority-owned by Australia's ANZ, warned Malaysia's banking regulator that Najib's account activity was triggering money-laundering alarms.
The money was all moved after highly dubious transactions between 1MDB and a Saudi Arabian entity called PetroSaudi, ostensibly to develop lucrative energy projects.
The majority of the Malaysian investment flowed not into PetroSaudi, but into the coffers of third parties domiciled in tax havens. Rather than grow Malaysia's net wealth, the fund went backwards.
Meanwhile, Najib and his wife, Rosmah Mansor, were spending lavishly. She bought jewellery and designer handbags. He showered cash on political affiliates in the lead up to Malaysia's previous election in 2013, which he comfortably won.
The program we put to air, State Of Fear, traced this money, and a series of convulsions in the body politic of Malaysia.
We detailed three suspicious murders that many in Malaysia believed were related to attempts to protect the political status quo: the most shocking was the death of a prosecutor who Four Corners confirmed had been preparing to bring criminal charges against the Malaysian prime minsiter.
Kevin Morais' body was found in a drum that had been filled with wet cement.
The rule of law was disintegrating in Malaysia. And when we landed, there was already a febrile political environment.
So when I asked Najib how he explained the inexplicable — the flow of hundreds of millions of dollars through his accounts — I never believed we would get a satisfactory answer.
But Malaysia was a democracy, at least in name, and Najib had an obligation to face the toughest of questions.
He didn't much like it then, and he hasn't much liked it since, either.
Protests only intensified, long after Four Corners was safely home.
In one march last month, Malaysians bitter at the pillaging of their national wealth carried a papier mache model of Equanimity through the streets of Kuala Lumpur.
They waved banners with a skull-and-crossbones tricorn photoshopped onto Jho Low's gleaming brow.
With the earthquake victory of the Malaysian people, Najib Razak has been forced from power. And now, there's a real possibility that he'll have to finally answer Four Corners' question.
Topics: elections, government-and-politics, world-politics, malaysia, asia
First posted
Najib Razak, Malaysia's prime minister, delivered an address on Thursday after his ruling coalition lost its firm grip on power in an election.
The incumbent leader said he accepted the verdict of the vote, and asserted that there had been no fraud in the election. Najib said no individual party had achieved a simple majority, so it will fall to the country's king to decide who will be appointed the next prime minister.
Najib said, however, that there will be change for the country, and he is committed to ensure a resolution.
"I accept, and my friends also accept, the verdict that has been delivered by the people," he said, according to a translation of the address, noting that his coalition was committed to respecting the principles of democratic parliament.
"And because no party has gotten a simple majority, therefore the king will be making a decision as to who will be the prime minister," he added.
That sentiment was not well received by Mahathir Mohamad, who led his opposition coalition to victory over Najib's coalition.
Speaking at a subsequent news conference, Mahathir said: "There has been some delays over a lack of understanding of the constitution, but we'd like to make it clear that there is an urgency here: We need to form the government now — today," Mahathir said.
Despite various news outlets citing official sources saying there would not be a swearing in of a new prime minister on Thursday, Mahathir was adamant that the king needed to appoint him to the role immediately.
"We hope that by 5 o'clock today we will have a prime minister," he said during his news conference.
If sworn in, Mahathir would be the world's oldest elected leader. Mahathir led the Southeast Asian nation for 22 years anda return to the prime ministership ends the previously unbroken rule of Barisan Nasional (BN), the coalition that had governed Malaysia since independence from Britain in 1957.
The stunning election outcome was expected to ruffle financial markets that were expecting a comfortable win for Najib and the BN.
The national stock market will be closed on Thursday and Friday after Mahathir declared a public holiday, but the ringgit currency weakened in offshore trading.
—Reuters contributed to this report.
