Going Missing

NEED TO KNOW

Going Missing

Malaysia has become notorious for losing things.

First, it was Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, a Boeing 777 that disappeared with 239 people on board while flying to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur in March 2014. Then it was a billion U.S. dollars – or at least $731 million – missing from a government investment fund called 1 Malaysia Development Berhad, or 1MDB.

The prevailing suspicion is that MH370’s pilot deliberately flew the plane into the sea, and the country’s Prime Minister Najib Razak deliberately made the 1MDB money disappear into his pockets.

Neither mystery looks likely to be resolved to universal satisfaction. But the 1MDB scandal, far from ending Najib’s 40-year career in politics, looks to be propelling him to grab more power, according to the New York Times.

For his part, Najib admits that hundreds of millions of dollars moved from the government fund to his personal account. But he...