Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak is the one who has embarrassed the nation with the 1MDB imbroglio, said Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

"In other nations, a scandal like this involving a leader would have seen him resign and apologising.

"But in Malaysia, there are those who defend the leader without reason, just to safeguard their positions.

"It is Najib who embarrassed the nation with his 1MDB. Before this, the country has never been ridiculed with allegations that have gone unanswered," he penned in his blog today.

Mahathir was responding to Foreign Minister Anifah Aman, who accused the former premier of shaming Malaysia with his interview in the New York Times , in which he had attacked Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak.

Najib had previously accused Mahathir of masterminding the media attacks against him and fingered the former premier over the latest damning allegation by The Wall Street Journal .

The 'lewd' Wolf of Wall Street

The sensational expose alleged that Najib had received deposits of almost US$700 million into his personal accounts but which the prime minister has vehemently denied.

Mahathir has yet to respond to the allegation that he had masterminded the report.

Training his guns on Anifah, the former premier questioned if the foreign minister was ignorant of how 1MDB had put Malaysia in the spotlight.

"The whole world knows about Najib, Jho Low and 1MDB. This is because famous papers from Washington, New York, and London have published long articles regarding the 1MDB scandal, Najib and his lavish lifestyle, Jho Low and his best friend Riza Aziz, (Najib's) step-son who financed the lewd ' Wolf of Wall Street ' film," said Mahathir.

Mahathir said all these negative reports about Malaysia had surfaced even before he had criticised Najib.

"But Anifah is not ashamed with all these reports He has said nothing. [...] he should have questioned Najib about the scandals and foreign media reports.

"He should have also advised Najib not to befriend Jho Low and to bar his step-son from showing off like a rich man," he said.