Wikileaks Says Najib, Pak Lah And Dr M Were Allegedly Involved In Banknote Scandal

Controversial site WikiLeaks has alleged that a gag order was issued in Australia to block reporting of any corruption cases involving several political leaders in the region, The Guardian reported.

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The Age newspaper in a report this morning said no Australian media organisation can legally publish the the document or its contents. The paper reported what Assange had said but provided no further details.

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"With this order, the Australian government is not just gagging the Australian press, it is blindfolding the Australian public,” he was quoted as saying. "This is not simply a question of the Australian government failing to give this international corruption case the public scrutiny it is due.

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The scandal involved the Reserve Bank of Australia's (RBA) subsidiaries – Securency and Note Printing Australia. Employees from both companies were alleged to have bribed foreign officials in Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam from 1999 to 2004 to win banknote printing contracts.

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It also claimed that the case had to do with allegations of multi-million dollar inducements made by agents of the Securency and Note Printing Australia, a subsidiary of RBA. The inducements would secure contracts for the supply of Australian-style polymer bank notes to the governments of Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam, according to WikiLeaks.

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Assange said the court order had been issued following the secret indictment of seven senior executives from the two subsidiaries.

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"This is an unprecedented act of censorship by Australian authorities concerning such a high-profile and multi-million dollar case," said the anti-secrecy group's publisher, Julian Assange.

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WikiLeaks revealed that 17 high-profile individuals on the suppression list included past and present prime ministers of Malaysia. Also on the list are Vietnamase President Truong Tan San, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and former Indonesian president Megawati Sukarnoputri.

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Besides Najib, Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and former finance minister Tun Daim Zainuddin were among prominent Malaysian politicians named in the injunction.

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Also named were former international trade and industry minister Tan Sri Rafidah Aziz and former foreign affairs minister Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar. It also included a sister–in-law of Abdullah, who is identified only as Noni in the injunction.

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On its website, WikiLeaks provided more information -- enough to see those responsible for breaking the order prosecuted in an Australian court, one expert said. "They [Wikileaks] have put themselves in the position of judge, jury and executioner," said Peter Bartlett, a media lawyer from Minter Ellison law firm in Melbourne. "The difficulty for the court is that WikiLeaks is not, of course, in the jurisdiction of Australia," he said.

"If Assange ever comes back to Australia, you would expect that he would immediately be charged with breaking a suppression order." Assange remains holed up in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London where he sought political asylum two years ago after publishing reams of classified U.S. documents online.

The bribery allegations first surfaced in 2009, which prompted the Australian Federal Police and Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) to begin separate probes.

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In 2010, the MACC detained three individuals linked to the supply of RM5 polymer notes following a report that Securency had offered bribes to Malaysian officials. All three, including a businessman, were charged with accepting RM11.3 million to secure the contract from Bank Negara Malaysia and to ensure that the government opted for the polymer notes.

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Former prime minister Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi had in 2011 denied allegations that the two Australian firms attempted to bribe him for a RM100 million currency contract during his tenure. The attempt is believed to be related to the deal to supply RM5 polymer notes that began circulating in 2004.

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The Centre to Combat Corruption & Cronyism (C4), is profoundly appalled at the revelations by WikiLeaks on a gag order and super injunction invoked by the Australian government on a multi-million dollar international banknote graft case, involving the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA), with no less than three generations of Malaysian prime ministers mentioned.

As such C4 urges for: The Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission (MACC) to immediately reopen the case, and investigate the latest information as reported by Wikileaks. An independent body to initiate fresh investigations into the roles of the three premiers mentioned in the gag order.

This must be thoroughly scrutinised and commitments made that information is not muzzled, and Malaysians are not kept blindfolded over the possible wrongdoings of our leaders. For the Malaysian government and Bank Negara to make public the full deal between the RBA and Malaysian companies involved.