A veteran opposition leader has taken a page out of Greek mythology to hammer home the point that Malaysia is in need of a new prime minister and finance minister.
Lim Kit Siang said this is fundamental for the herculean task of cleaning up the Augean Stables due to Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak’s “scandals”.
The past fortnight, according to him, had been disastrous for 1MDB, but also downright nightmarish for Malaysia.
Lim said the first episode was when the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) report on 1MDB was touted as an exoneration of Najib, but this was later proven to be untrue.
Secondly, he added, was when the Abu Dhabi-state owned International Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC) in a statement to London Stock Exchange on April 11 stated that neither it nor or its subsidiary Aabar Investments PJS had any links or received US$3.5 billion which 1MDB had paid to the phoney British Virgin Islands-incorporated Aabar Investments PJS Limited (Aabar BVI).
Following this, the DAP leader said was Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Al-Jubeir’s remarks regarding the donation to Najib.
Lim pointed out that the minister had previously said he did not think the sum was a political donation, but rather an investment by a private Saudi citizen.
“What is worse, a video then surfaced which demonstrated that Adel never admitted that the Saudi Arabian government was the ‘donor’.
“What a distortion in this second media scam. Al-Jubeir never made any admission or declaration that the donation came from Saudi Arabian government, only that he is aware of Najib’s claims that they were donations which came from Saudi Arabia – which is a world of a difference from declaring that the billions in Najib’s personal bank accounts were donations from the Saudi Arabian government,” he said in a statement.
Previously, it was stated that the donation was from a Saudi royalty and a letter from a Saudi prince confirming this was published by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
Serious implications
Meanwhile, Lim also cited IPIC’s second statement to the London Stock Exchange yesterday that 1MDB and its owner Malaysia's Ministry of Finance (MOF), had defaulted on US$1.1 billion it owed to the Abu Dhabi fund, raising the spectre of Malaysian market turmoil if 1MDB is unable to dig out from under its huge debts.
Following IPIC’s announcement, Lim said the Finance Ministry issued a statement noting the dispute over the loan but sought to reassure markets.
“The long and short of IPIC’s second statement to the London Stock Exchange and the MOF statement is that Malaysians are presented with a sudden financial crisis which would involve a RM14 billion bail-out by the Finance Ministry following 1MDB’s default of a multi-billion-dollar financial assistance arrangement.
“There are serious implications for the Malaysian government in the 1MDB-IPIC feud, as a default on the US$3.5 billion bond issue was likely to trigger so-called cross-defaults on the 1MDB’s other commitments, which stand at about US$5.1 billion.
“In countries where accountability, integrity and good governance practices are taken seriously in public life, the prime minister and finance minister presiding over such a mega financial scandal would have resigned,” he added.
Najib has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing or abusing public funds for personal gain. He has blamed these allegations on those conspiring to topple him from power.
Attorney-general Mohamed Apandi Ali has also cleared the prime minister.
