How did 1MDB’s CEO manage impressions of culpability in an accountability interview?

Abstract Scandalous revelations invite public scrutiny and strong oppositions that harm the hegemonic grip of the elites. When this happens, damage control discourses are deployed to quell public discontentment. One measure taken by the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) sovereign wealth fund in 2016 to address its corporate and political scandal was to accept an independent radio station’s invitation to participate in what is labelled here “an accountability interview.” To show how the CEO successfully managed and evaded impressions of culpability in this complex and adversarial interview, I adopt membership categorisation analysis. The analysis reveals how the CEO successfully downgrades morally and ethically wrong behaviour, associates the interviewers with bad behaviour, and reframes perceived abnormalities as usual practices. This research is driven by two purposes: i) to demystify the complex communication of 1MDB and the CEO’s methods in navigating around tough questions; and ii) to contribute to the growing field of accountability interview analysis, especially in the South-East Asian region, as micro-interactional accountability interview studies tend to lean considerably toward western data and perspectives.