An Umno leader today lamented Dr Mahathir Mohamad's relentless attack against Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak over 1MDB's RM42 billion debt, asking why wasn't it an issue when the former premier lost billions of the nation's funds.

Terengganu Umno information chief Wan Abdul Hakim Wan Mokhtar said among the scandals involving Mahathir when he was prime minister were the RM30 billion lost by Bank Negara on the foreign exchange market and the bailout of Malaysia Airlines (MAS).

"Aren't this multi-billion ringgit scandals that have sacrificed the government's and rakyat's money?

"Just because Mahathir and (former finance minister) Daim Zainuddin did it it, it is okay?

"Or is it because there wasn't social media at that time?" he was quoted as saying by Umno-linked portal MyKMU.net .

"The value of RM30 billion at that time would be worth hundreds of billions today, far more than 1MDB's liabilities.

"Or has Mahathir forgotten about Tajuddin Ramli ( photo ) being instructed to purchase MAS' shares at RM8 per share just because MAS had RM600 million in cash reserves at that time.

"And ehen MAS almost went bankrupt, he (Tajuddin) sold MAS back to the government at RM8 per share even though the market value was only RM3 per share," he said.

Oilfields were 'not Terengganu's'

Wan Abdul Hakim also rubbished Mahathir's claim that 1MDB tried to use Terengganu's oilfields as collateral to obtain loans.

He said the oil fields belonged to the federal government to begin with and not with Terengganu.

"Therefore, it is inaccurate to say that Terengganu's oilfields could be used as collateral," he said.

He also added it did not matter what Mahathir thought about the current government as he was no longer prime minister.

"In Umno, all members have their own opinions but the president (Najib) will have the final say," he said.