Mahathir missed full picture on 1MDB – Umno blogger

Former Youth exco man says only RM5.8bn of 1MDB debt guaranteed by government

KUALA LUMPUR: A former Umno Youth executive committee member said today that Dr Mahathir Mohamad had failed to provide a full picture about 1Malaysia Development Bhd.

Tun Faisal Ismail Aziz said Dr Mahathir had failed to note that 1MDB is a company with limited liability and the losses of the company were not borne by the government except for the bond guaranteed by the government.

He said Dr Mahathir did not state the fact that only RM5.8 billion of 1MDB’s debt was guaranteed by the government.

The rest was guaranteed by 1MDB itself, backed by assets, or guaranteed by its share partner, International Petroleum Investment Co PJSC, an investment company of the Abu Dhabi government.

He said Dr Mahathir in his blog had tried to give the impression that all of 1MDB’s debts were guaranteed by the government and that if 1MDB went bust, the government would bear the consequences, he said.

Writing in his blog, Tun Faisal said 1MDB had fully repaid a RM2 billion loan from Maybank and RHB in January and that the balance of RM3.5 billion had been turned into a long term loan ending August, 2024.

Tun Faisal was rebutting claims that 1MDB had failed to settle a RM5.5 billion loan from Maybank (58.9%), RHB (32.4%), Alliance Investment Bank Bhd (4.06%), Malaysia Building Society Bhd (3.24%) and Hwang DBS Investment Bhd (1.29%).

Some pro-Mahathir bloggers had tried to describe the failure to repay the debts as equivalent to the failure of Renong-UEM (during Dr Mahathir’s days in office) and had said 1MDB could cause systemic national financial and banking failure. However rating agency Moody’s had denied that 1MDB’s default would result in a systemic failure.

He said Dr Mahathir could also have overlooked 1MDB’s assets and investments in energy, including ownership of 15 power and desalination plants in six countries with a capacity of a clean generation of 5594MW.

The company was also involved in building three more power plants in Port Dickson, Malacca and in Kedah and had purchased a 125-hectare plot of land in Pulau Indah for energy-related projects.

- BERNAMA