PKR vice-president Rafizi Ramli will lobby to prevent 1MDB's sale of its Bandar Malaysia stake to the (Iskandar Malaysia Holdings-China Railway Engineering Corp) IWH-CREC Consortium.

In a statement today, the Pandan MP said he will be writing to Tabung Haji's (TH) and Retirement Fund Incorporated's (KWAP) management to urge them not to allow the sale to proceed.

In addition, he said he will be campaigning for the public to write in to TH and KWAP as well.

As for the March parliamentary session, Rafizi said he will be filing a motion to pressure TH and KWAP to exercise its right to claim the RM1.5 billion it lent to 1MDB.

"The transaction involves national security and defence since it would have an impact on the moving and upgrading of air force bases throughout the country.

"In view of the fact 60 percent of 1MDB's stake in Bandar Malaysia is subject to approval from TH and KWAP, I will be taking these actions (to stop the sale)," he said.

Rafizi was responding to 1MDB's rebuttal to him yesterday, where the state investment fund clarified that transfer of shares to IWH-CREC is conditional on the approval of the sukuk (Islamic bond) holders, namely TH and KWAP.

1MDB had raised RM1.5 billion from the issuance of the Bandar Malaysia sukuk in 2014, which among others, goes towards the cost of relocating the Sungai Besi Air Base that now sits upon the Bandar Malaysia project site.

One condition of the sukuk issuance however is that Bandar Malaysia remains wholly Malaysian-owned, but 1MDB has clarified that there is no breach of the conditions because the transfer of shares to the China-linked consortium is conditional on the sukuk holder's approval.

The company is to build and develop eight new airbases in total.

Believes 1MDB's funds dried up

Rafizi had previously taken issue with China's involvement in the sukuk sale , and among others had questioned would CREC take over the the construction works.

1MDB had rebutted that these are still undertaken by Malaysian contractors , but now, Rafizi maintained that China would still hold sway on the projects.

He said he believes that 1MDB's funds has dried up, and hence would have to resort to selling its Bandar Malaysia stake to IWH-CREC in order to raise funds to pay the contractors.

“If the IWH-CREC Consortium refuses to pay, or is late, or disagrees with the terms of the agreement, surely this would have an impact on the works to relocate and upgrade the air bases because without the injection of funds, 1MDB can't pay its contractors.

“Moreover if the sale is in the form of share holdings as announced before, the IWH-CREC Consortium is the majority shareholder in Bandar Malaysia and has the responsibility to complete the works. As the majority owner of Bandar Malaysia, surely the IWH-CREC Consortium has a say on the financial burden of the works.

“Without this sale, who would bear the outstanding cost of RM1.9 billion to complete the works? Would it be abandoned?” Rafizi said.

1MDB had previously stated that after the Bandar Malaysia equity sale, the government would still hold a 40 percent stake through Ministry of Finance Incorporated and 1MDB, while CREC would hold 24 percent .

Another 22 percent is held by Credence Resources, while the remaining 14 percent is held by Kumpulan Prasarana Rakyat Johor.