DAP parliamentary leader Lim Kit Siang believe that the corruption allegation against Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng may be an attempt to obscure the gathering storm over Prime Minister Najib Razak's donation scandal but believe that if it is so, it is not working.
"Had Najib’s strategists and minders prior knowledge of this gathering storm over Najib’s twin mega scandals? Was the onslaught against Guan Eng alleging corruption of his RM2.8 million bungalow purchase an attempt to deflect attention from developments in Najib’s twin mega scandals?" he asked in a statement.
He noted that the timing of the allegations against Guan Eng came as international developments saw more stones being unturned by investigators in probes related to Najib’s donation scandal, as well as local efforts to seemingly sweep the scandals under the carpet.
As an example, he pointed out that the note from Parliament Speaker Pandikar Amin Mulia to cease discussion of the RM2.6 billion “donation” scandal in the House on the grounds of sub judice, despite the speaker’s earlier ruling that he will not impose a 'blanket ban' but would decide on a case-by-case basis.
But such things won't matter, said the veteran politician, as the magnitude of Najib's scandal on the international stage can't be obscured by the allegations against his son.
"Dust over corruption allegations against Guan Eng’s RM2.8 million bungalow clearing up while monstrous sandstorm over Najib’s RM55 billion 1MDB and RM4.2 billion donation scandals building up to explosion point," claimed Kit Siang.
The DAP veteran argued that allegations that Guan Eng purchased the bungalow as a result of corruption arising from the sale of Taman Manggis land to KLDIC has been proven to be baseless, as the land had been sold by the Penang state government via open tender to the highest bigger.
He also set aside allegations that the state government had “robbed” the people of low-cost housing, claiming that declassified state exco meeting minutes of the Gerakan state government in 2005 and 2007, which showed that it was the state government then which had rejected the use of the Taman Manggis land for People’s Housing Project.
But the international storm against Najib, argued Kit Siang, is mounting, noting the new judicial inquiry into allegations of money-laundering by Luxembourg’s state prosecutor launching, covering payments totaling hundreds of millions of US dollars, against 1MDB;
He also aded that investigators in two countries, the United States and United Arab Emirates, believed that US$155 million (RM603 million) from 1MDB went to production company Red Granite Pictures to make the 2013 hit movie ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’, as reported by the Wall Street Journal .
United Arab Emirates authorities have issued travel bans on two former executives of the Abu Dhabi sovereign-wealth fund International Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC), and frozen their assets in an escalation of its probe into monetary transactions involving 1MDB.
Kit Siang sniped that “it never rains but it pours”, as befits Najib’s mounting woes, despite his attempts to sweep the scandal under the carpet at home.
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