Page 77 of Behind Frenemy Lines

“Yes, but—”

“That’s state money being funnelled through Blackmount Capital and all those other companies,” I said. “That means it belongs to the people of Malaysia, not Jamaludin and his wife and his stepson and all their cronies. Who’s going to have to pay off the debts they’ve run up? Malaysians, that’s who. If the country wasn’t run by these self-interested jokers, maybe I wouldn’t have had to leave. I could be home right now with my parents, instead of knowing I’ll only get to see them once a year every year until they die.”

“I didn’t mean—”

But I was too angry to stop, all the old bitterness rising up in me. “I left because I was sick of being cheated by people like Jamaludin and bloody Shaw Boey. You don’t know what it feels like to have your future stolen like that. To have your home taken over by people who’re going to destroy everything good about it, and you’re powerless to stop it.”

“Kriya,” said Charles, his lips twisting. “I’m from Hong Kong. You think I don’t know?”

I shut up. After a moment, I said, “I’m sorry.”

“It was a stupid thing for me to say,” said Charles. “I only meant it wasn’t clear to me if you had any direct involvement. But you’ve got a conflict. Is that fair to say?”

“Yes. If you want to put it that way.” I certainly wouldn’t be able to act in the client’s best interests. I probably wouldn’t kill Jamaludin and his wife if I had the opportunity, but if I could slip something in their drink to give them explosive diarrhoea, I would.

Charles took a deep breath. “All right.”

I could tell he didn’t quite know what to do. It wasn’t the kind of work dilemma one ran into every day. There wasn’t going to be a firm policy on what to do if you objected to the firm taking on work for the corrupt PM of your country.

“I need to talk to Farah,” he decided. “If you’re recusing yourself, we might want to get another associate on board.”

That wasn’t what I had in mind. “We shouldn’t be acting for them at all. It’s a reputational risk for the firm. You saw what the article said.”

Charles hesitated. “We do already act for Blackmount. And there’s nothing to indicate this instruction is for the purposes of fraud. If there is a money laundering risk, that should come up in the checks.”

“They won’t be trying to launder money through us,” I said. Jamaludin and his crew would have made sure their money laundering was conducted through other, more amenable routes, with fewer hoops to jump through. And they wouldn’t have left obvious tracks for our CDD team to find. “That’s not the point of approaching a firm like Swithin Watkins. The point is to intimidate Helen Daley and anyone else who wants to report on their activities. They don’t have to win. The cost of defending the claim is deterrent enough, for an independent journalist. I mean, this is basically a SLAPP, isn’t it? A lawsuit designed to silence criticism.”

“The client’s within his rights to pursue the claim,” said Charles. “We advised to that effect. That’s what our note says. You helped draft it.”

“That was before I knew who I was advising!” I crossed my arms. “Charles, do you really feel all right being part of this? If we act for these guys, we’re conferring legitimacy on them. People will think Helen Daley must be a crank, if these big London law firms and banks and consultants are on Jamaludin’s side.”

“I understand the concern,” said Charles. “I’m not saying I don’t share it. But ultimately, it’s not for us to decide whether the firm takes him on. If there’s reliable evidence of what’s alleged in Helen Daley’s article, presumably it’ll come to be considered by the CDD team and the partnership. You are satisfied the allegations are credible?”

“Everyone in Malaysia knows what’s going on,” I said.

But all the reporting I personally had seen had been in blog and Facebook posts, and Malaysian online news outlets. All of these sources could well be dismissed as unreliable. In a country like Malaysia, where the mainstream media was subject to political control, it wasn’t easy to get reporting on the allegations in sources that a Westerner would consider to be authoritative. That was part of the reason why everyone was so excited about theGuardianseries.

“Zuri said she knows the boyfriend of the guy who was Helen Daley’s source,” I said. “Maybe she could put me in touch with him. He might be able to share proof.” A better idea came to me. “Or he could put me in touch with Helen Daley. If she blogged about being under threat of litigation, that might put them off actually suing. And it might make the case less attractive to the firm.”

The silence that followed made me realise that was not an idea I should have spoken out loud, at least to this audience. Charles was so shocked, it took him a moment to recover enough to speak.

“You can’t disclose client confidential information,” said Charles. “You’d be breaching privilege.”

It was as though I’d suggested we go out and find some baby seals to club for sport.

I said, “Charles, Jamaludin has had peoplemurdered.Shaw Boey was probably in on it too.”

Charles’s eyebrows drew together. “What do you mean by that? They’ve been convicted?”

“If you knew anything about how things work in Malaysia,” I said, “you wouldn’t be asking.”

“Even if he was a convicted murderer, he’d still be entitled to privilege,” said Charles. “It’s a fundamental right. The system only works if we, as lawyers, protect the process.”

“Does the system work?” I said. “If it means people like Shaw Boey and his masters can suppress reporting of their crimes, because they’ve got the money to throw around, that doesn’t say much for the system, does it? Everyone says English libel laws are a problem for free speech.”

“All right, but the answer isn’t to subvert the rule of law—”

“Oh, come on. Let’s not pretend this is about the rule of law. It’s about the fact Blackmount is going to pay full rates, no discount.”

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