Tom Wright and Bradley Hope from Wall Street Journal are not the only ones who have ample to say about 1MDB giga-scandal. Clare Rewcastle Brown of Sarawak Report also has her angle, and she says it all in her book, The Sarawak Report: The Inside Story of the 1MDB Exposé.
The book that Tom Wright and Bradley Hope wrote, Billion Dollar Whale mostly focuses on Jho Low, the invisible hand behind the 1MDB scandal, and how the current financial world regulation let him get away with all his ill-gotten gains up to a point. But this book is different; this book mostly focuses on Clare involvement with Malaysia, first with Sarawak and the corruption of ex-Chief Minister Taib Mahmud, then with the 1MDB and Najib. The book reads like a James Bond story, how Clare embarked on different adventures in the quest to uncover the truth, the exotic places she goes to in order to get a story, how she is being followed and monitored by Special Branch while having coffee, and how she watches her stories garner million of hits and the exhilarating feelings she experiences… all these make very good movie material!
So to a Malaysian and especially a Sarawakian, Clare’s book will feel more familiar, mainly because it features local casts and local development.
Without a doubt, Clare of Sarawak Report played a tremendous role in bringing the 1MDB to light and thus, the downfall of Najib. Malaysians owe this courageous woman tremendously. Who says woman can’t make a difference? Who says truth can be silenced by brute force? Clare demonstrated that as long as you have the truth, and you stand firm on your conviction, you can still triumph over all the evil forces, no matter how singular you are, no matter how strong they seem.
It is a lesson that we should hold dear. Always act on truth, always act on your conviction. In that case, even though you fail, you still put up a battle. You may fail, but you may also pave the way for right thing to see the light of the day.
Your effort will not go wasted even in the worst case scenario.
