DAP parliamentary leader Lim Kit Siang has questioned if the special task force will investigate Dr Mahathir Mohamad's claim that money purportedly deposited into Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak's personal bank accounts was used in the last general election.
"What is the response of the high-powered special task force on this revelation by the former prime minister?" he asked in a statement today.
Yesterday, Mahathir alleged that Umno was satisfied with the explanation that the money purportedly deposited into a personal bank account had been used in the last general election.
Although he did not mention whose bank account he was referring to, it is believed his remarks were aimed at Najib.
Following these claims, Lim ( photo ) said any cabinet minister who benefitted from the funds should not participate in any cabinet discussion or decisions related to 1MDB and The Wall Street Journal report.
"(They) would be tainted with a 'conflict-of-interest' situation," he said.
‘Replace task force with RCI’
Lim also said that replacing the special task force with a royal commission of inquiry (RCI) should be a serious consideration as the task force is too vague in terms of "reference, powers, scope, or even worse, its composition".
Initially, the task force was said to be made up of Bank Negara governor Zeti Akhtar Aziz, inspector-general of police Khalid Abu Bakar, Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) chief Abu Kassim Mohamed, and attorney-general Abdul Gani Patail.
However It was later clarified by the first three that Abdul Gani was not part of the team .
Lim said the question of whether the Attorney-General Chambers was part of the task force or not seemed vague, with many contradicting statements.
If the task force can't even answer such a simple and straightforward question, the people would not believe that it is serious in its investigations, he noted.
In fact, he said the agencies in the task force should be investigated for their "negligence and failure to act promptly to uphold the law".
‘Stop dragging feet’
In a separate statement today, Lembah Pantai MP Nurul Izzah Anwar has also called for the attorney-general to quickly charge the perpetrators in the 1MDB and WSJ report, instead of "dragging his feet".
"The 1MDB scandal has dragged on long enough," she said.
Otherwise, she warned, it was going to open up space for "bogus conspiracy theorists to rise to the fore and deflect focus from the almost RM2.6 billion money trail".
She also strongly criticised the Malaysian Communication and Multimedia Commission's (MCMC) action to block the Sarawak Report website.
"Only in cases of incitement to violence should any information be blocked from public view. The prime minister cannot escape full accountability to the public," she said.
Instead of blocking Sarawak Report , she said that Najib should be answering how he could gain personal access to such a large amount of money.
Nurul ( photo ) asserted national security mandates protection of national funds from excesses made by errant and irresponsible investments, even if supported by the government.
She added heads should roll for abuse of public monies, no matter how high their office.
However, she cautioned against using national security as an excuse for everything, giving the example of the hacking software used by various Malaysian government agencies to spy on the citizens.
In fact, she demanded that the Prime Minister's Office immediately respond to the hacking allegations.
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