1MDB financial scandal: More lurid details from Leisnner?

KUALA LUMPUR Feb 28 -  For the past few decades, Malaysia's corporate sector is relatively quiet devoid of any soap dramas.

In 1981, the murder of Bank Bumiputera Finance accountant Jalil Ibrahim in Hong Kong linked with the Carrian Group investigations hogged the newspapers' headlines.

Admittedly, when the 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) financial scandal began to unravel, nobody would have thought it would spring a surprise to become the salacious plot that everybody would have known by now.

But to recap, who would have thought that Astro Malaysia Holdings former chief executive officer Datuk Rohana Rozhan's name would crop up amid the investigations in dramatic fashion.

Goldman Sachs Asia head Tim Leisnner had alleged in court in New York, US that he had bought Rohana a RM40 million property in London, England so that she will not spill the beans on his role in the 1MDB kerfuffle.

Netizens were merciless

As soon as Rohana's alleged involvement in 1MDB was viralled, naturally netizens were enraged and bemused at the same time.

Netizens' can be a cruel, merciless and a venomous lot.

Rohana was memed, trolled, lampooned and castigated by netizens from all walks of life.

Not surprisingly, Rohana was the third most trending on Twitter on Thursday.

"Siapa bilang gadis Melayu tak menawan," a netizen likened Rohana's fling with Leisnner in Jamal Abdillah's ever green song.

But perhaps, one corporate communications practioner said it best on her Facebook account : Does anybody feel betrayed?

"Rohana is one of the few Malay corporate ladies who made it in a male dominated world only for things to turn this way," she said.

So naturally all the power ladies in the social media sphere felt down.

A head turner among the press

For the record, Rohana was eye candy and it was no secret that every male reporter swooned at her charming smile during press conferences.

Some even volunteered to cover her press conferences and were disappointed when their requests were turned down by their editors.

"Hate her or love her, her mugshots will always light up the drab business pages," said a former NSTP pixman.

Rohana should come clean

At the height of the expose, nobody seemed to know where Rohana was be it in the country or overseas.

She has also kept herself low until she issued a statement over the weekend that she will work closely with the authorities namely the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission.

Drama set to continue this week?

Now that Rohana has issued a statement, we can bet our lucky stars that more cats will be let out of the bag.

Question is, will there be anymore surprises and in what form? 

Will it be sleazy and salacious and who might the new players be.

Whichever way, the 1MDB has proven to be a juicy soap opera to be lapped up by newly converted fans and the bedroom secrets is definitely icing on the cake.

1MDB has evolved into a scandal of epic proportions and the larger than life Malay TV drama Megah Holdings pales in comparison.

Megah Holdings is a fictitious made-for-TV drama where backstabbing is rampant among its family members and friends to stay ahead in the corporate world.

Maybe in the future, the 1MDB fiasco can be immortalised and etch its place in history alongside the legendary 1980s TV series Dallas and Dynasty.

Indeed life imitates art and the 1MDB plot should be written into a movie script.

What's in store next? 

As the 1987 movie implies :  Sex, lies and videotape? The plot thickens - DagangNews.com