Former deputy prime minister Muhyiddin Yassin today questioned 1Malaysia Development Berhad's (1MDB) hesitation to sue the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), despite accusing the business paper of reporting false news and engaging in slander against it.
"Why are they afraid? Just take action and sue. We are not asking them to simply take action for no reason; we want to know if the story is true.
"As long as there is no action, it is the party (Umno) and the government that suffer as the public lose trust in them. Isn't that true?" he asked.
Muhyiddin, who was speaking at an event organised by a 'rebel' Umno branch in Taman Intan Duyung in Port Dickson this afternoon, urged 1MDB to take legal action and sue WSJ and its financial editor Ken Brown if what the business paper has reported is untrue.
He also took a jab at 1MDB, saying that the business publication was just waiting for their suit to arrive.
"They said last time they wanted to sue. When the supposedly false news broke, they did not sue. The people over there are waiting, asking when they are going to be sued," he sniped.
1MDB has threatened legal action against WSJ though until today, none has been forthcoming. This despite the business paper recently repeating its claim that the sovereign fund laundered money into Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak's personal accounts, as well as a series of covert election slush funds.
On Feb 12, Brown, in an interview with Australia's ABC News, had refuted Attorney-General Mohamad Apandi Ali's claim when recently absolving the PM of wrongdoings, that the RM2.6 billion deposited in Najib's personal bank accounts was from a member of the Saudi royal family.
Brown reiterated WSJ's earlier report that the money originated from 1MDB via a convoluted arrangement of transactions involving 1MDB subsidiaries and shell companies. -Mkini
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