8 perkara berkenaan Clare Rewcastle Brown

8 things about Clare Rewcastle Brown

FMT Reporters

 | July 22, 2015

An insight into what drives the Sarawak Report editor, as told to Esquire magazine.

(1) She’s just ‘a dreadful old do-gooder’

“It helps (that I) don’t have a nefarious agenda” although “they’re always trying to make one out about me,” she says.

(2) She knows (rich) Malaysian politicians

“I’ve learned that if you piss off rich Malaysians in positions of political power, they are ruthless and unscrupulous in what they are prepared to do to get their own back,” she says.

(3) She calls Malaysian corruption for what it is

“The corruption in Malaysia is blatant,” she says. “You don’t have to do that much research to see it.”

And then she says what has become blindingly obvious to most discerning Malaysians: The corrupt have got LAZY! “They … weren’t bothering to cover it up.”

(4) She wants to ask Dr Mahathir about it!

The question she would ask him:

“Look, you ran Malaysia with an iron first. Looking back, do you accept that you probably over-concentrated power and that you gave a very dangerous piece of machinery to whoever might succeed?”

She thinks Mahathir will be furious and annoyed that there has been such blatant corruption, and worse, that it was badly done!

(5) Her biggest fear is getting it wrong

“It’s what any investigative journalist lives in dread of: getting it wrong. You try to get it right on the big things, but you can often get it wrong on the little things.”

“It’s also easier to make mistakes in an environment like Malaysia, where there’s so little transparency.”

“But touch wood, I don’t think I’ve made any clangers so far on the 1MDB story.”

(6) Having a powerful brother-in-law helps

Former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown has been really encouraging, she says.

He told her, “Look, you should just say who you are and what you’re doing because that’s the best way to deal with them.”

(7) She’s driven by flower-power

“I grew up during the ’60s and ’70s and have a bit of an old-fashioned, flower-power attitude, you know: don’t mess with me, I’ve got rights. I see that eroding in the younger generation, in the UK too, and it troubles me.”

(8) Liberties have to be defended, she says

“Liberties have to be fought for and defended; otherwise, bullies will sneak in and nick ’em.”