Guilty of negligence, yet PM dodges 1MDB scandals

DAP’s Tony Pua says PM is either complicit in the company’s hanky-panky or guilty of gross negligence and incompetence in managing 1MDB.

PETALING JAYA: Tony Pua has said that the prime minister cannot continue to disassociate himself from the gross failings of 1MDB in light of the current revelations detailing how the company played a role in an elaborate scam to siphon money.

He said this in response to recent documents involving a US$1billion Petrosaudi investment transaction that was exposed by the Sarawak Report and which pointed clearly towards “an elaborate scam to siphon money from 1MDB into a Swiss bank account owned by Jho Low’s private company”.

The MP for Petaling Jaya Utara said, “Even if the Prime Minister is indeed not complicit in the serious hanky-panky in the Company, he is guilty of gross negligence and incompetence in managing 1MDB under his Ministry.”

Condemning Najib’s continued assertion that 1Malaysia Development Berhad was in “sound financial health” Pua pointed out three facts that were in direct contradiction to the PM’s statement namely that the company was unable to repay a RM2 billion loan without “begging” billionaire Ananda Krishnan for help; that 1MDB had requested for a RM3 billion emergency bailout fund from the Cabinet; and that 1MDB was unable to show proof that it had US$1.1 billion (RM3.9 billion) parked anonymously overseas after disposing of its Cayman investments.

“How can the Finance and Prime Minister allow the 1MDB shenanigans to sink to the current level of RM42 billion in debt while becoming practically insolvent?,” Pua asked.

He also pointed out Najib’s attempt to dismiss the Sarawak Report as being politically motivated, saying that in his triple roles of PM, Finance Minister, and Chairman of the 1MDB Board of Advisors, it was irrelevant whether this was so and that Najib was duty bound to get to the bottom of the scandal.

“I, for example, would seek to expose all corrupt activities of the ruling government to remove them during the next general elections. What is more important, is whether the documents and email communications are genuine,” Pua said.

He added that if indeed the documents proved to be genuine, then the government must answer for the “brazen abuse of power” and added that Najib cannot continue to distance himself from 1MDB by claiming he was not directly involved in its day-to-day operations.

Throwing his support behind DAP elder statesman Lim Kit Siang who has called for a Royal Commission of Inquiry into 1MDB’s RM42 billion debt, Pua added that the move was important so the truth would come out and that the “crooks behind and abetting the scams will be punished and put behind bars”.