When one’s head is on the chopping block

THE 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) scandal has resulted in many casualties, not least a 60-year-old ruling party and government, but also the good name of an illustrious family whose patriarch was the country’s much loved second prime minister.

Revelations in the trial of former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, that senior civil servants were pressured into amending the 1MDB audit report, also seems to put paid the long and exemplary career of two men – former chief secretary to the government Tan Sri Ali Hamsa and former auditor-general Tan Sri Ambrin Buang.