Pakatan to get Interpol help for return of ‘stolen’ money

The opposition also calls for 1MDB to be put into administration.

KUALA LUMPUR: Opposition Leader Wan Azizah Ismail announced today that Pakatan Harapan would seek Interpol’s help in an effort to repatriate assets allegedly stolen from the Malaysian public.

She said the opposition would also try to get the help of official regulators of foreign countries in “identifying, freezing and repatriating” the assets.

Wan Azizah was speaking at a press conference where she distributed copies of Pakatan’s “Alternative Budget 2015.”

Among other things, the booklet called for the separation of the Finance Minister’s and Prime Minister’s portfolios under different persons. Wan Azizah said this was to prevent the “excessive concentration of power” in one person.

She spoke at length about the 1MDB scandal, noting Pakatan’s booklet called for the company to be put into administration.

She said 1MDB lacked “a real strategic purpose” for its existence since Malaysia already had enough sovereign funds, such as Khazanah Nasional, PNB and EPF.

“Maintaining its existence would create heavy reputational costs for the country,” she said.

She alleged that the Najib administration was “actively obstructing” investigations into 1MDB affairs in its “desperation to conceal the truth.”

She praised the Bank Negara Governor for showing impartiality in the central bank’s investigation into 1MDB and her “professionalism in managing national monetary matters.”

“As such,” she added, “we will support any move to retain Tan Sri Zeti Akhtar Aziz as Bank Negara Malaysia Governor for a further two years.”