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When Malaysia’s sixth prime minister Najib Razak was sentenced to twelve years in prison and fined RM 210 million for stealing billions from the 1MDB state investment fund he had himself set up, it exposed a chain of events that began decades ago, and which continues to reverberate economically, financially and politically, bleeding the treasury and inflicting immeasurable pain on taxpayers for generations to come.

Malaysian journalist Leslie Lopez’s first book, The Siege Within, delves into the writer’s own archives of previously unpublished material to go back in time and show exactly how it was possible for a Malaysian prime minister to envisage his treacherous crime, and then to execute the dastardly deed. From its most ‘innocent’ beginning in a north Malaysian state, Lopez charts how Najib and his warlords set up the investment fund for the sole purpose of stealing from it.

Lopez’s literary debut goes on to show how 1MDB is not just about Najib. The book brings into sharp relief the Machiavellian schemes of a prime minister who sat at the top for more than two decades, and came back from retirement to become PM again in 2022, at the age of ninety-two.

The Siege Within paints Mahathir Mohamed as the chief architect of a political system that paved the way for a criminal such as Najib to lie, cheat and steal his way to power, a system which then protected him from scrutiny and prosecution.

One-time central bank governor Zeti Aziz, and the extent of her relationship with the man who delivered billions to Najib on a silver platter, Low Taek Jho, come under a forensic spotlight as Lopez exposes the shocking series of events that culminated in the monstrous enormity of Najib’s deeds. It also depicts how the earth shook for the main players—in Malaysia, Australia, Singapore, the US and Middle Eastern states—once news broke of the biggest case of corruption in world history.

The Siege Within is the untold story behind the political crime that continues to make world headlines, and why a nation so full of promise has been brought to its knees.
Leslie Lopez, a Malaysian citizen, has reported extensively on political and economic affairs in the region since the mid-1980s.

After brief stints with two local newspapers in Malaysia, Mr Lopez, 60, served as the Reuters correspondent covering Malaysia and Brunei before moving to Jakarta as the Indonesian bureau chief for the Business Times of Singapore. He returned to Malaysia to head The Asian Wall Street Journal news bureau in Kuala Lumpur in 1996. During his 10 years with this publication, Mr Lopez won awards for his reporting on the 1997 Asian economic crisis and the aftermath of Asia’s deadly financial tsunami. He also led the paper’s regional coverage on the growing threat from Islamic terrorists, breaking dozens of exclusive pieces that have helped bring greater understanding of the problems posed by religious militancy.

Mr Lopez joined The Straits Times of Singapore as the paper’s Senior Regional Correspondent in early 2007. His coverage of regional political and economic issues won him the award for Best Story for three years running. In 2009, Singapore Press Holdings, the island state’s largest news organisation, named him Journalist of the Year.

In 2012, Mr Lopez joined The Edge media group to push the organisation’s regional presence through The Edge Review, a weekly all-digital political and business publication specialising in key news developments in Southeast Asia. The Edge Review quickly stamped its mark as a premier publication, winning top awards for its business and political reporting on the region from the prestigious Society of Publishers Asia (Sopa).

Mr Lopez, who lives in Kuala Lumpur and travels regularly on reporting assignments, is currently writing for Singapore’s CNA Digital.

Authors

The Siege Within