PARLIAMENT Parti Warisan Sabah (Warisan) president Shafie Apdal has hit back at those who criticised bailouts for Proton and Malaysia Airlines (MAS) when Dr Mahathir Mohamad was the premier.

He said unlike 1MDB - which is the brainchild of Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak - Proton and MAS had created thousands of jobs.

“Do we realise, that there are (so many) Proton cars on the road. 30,000 locals are its vendors.

“MAS can still fly today even though it is making losses. But how many thousands of our locals work under MAS?

“But I don't see this in 1MDB. I only see (1MDB chief executive) Arul Kanda Kandasamy working,” Shafie told the Dewan Rakyat today.

The former minister said this while questioning the return of investment received from the government pouring money into 1MDB.

"What returns on investment do we get out of this? This is what we want to ask.

"This practice needs to be questioned as it affects national revenue," he said.

Shafie, who was a former rural and regional development minister, was axed from the cabinet last year for criticising the handling of 1MDB.

The state investment firm had accumulated over RM42 billion in debt at one point, prompting the government to sell off assets in a debt rationalisation exercise.