Nobody thinks Najib wants to be a Nixon

MP SPEAKS I do not believe that Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak is a crook, which is why he should come clean and full in Parliament this week to be accountable and transparent on the RM55 billion 1MDB and RM2.6 billion political donation twin mega scandals.

Najib should not only make full use of the ministerial winding-up on the debate on the motion of thanks for the Royal Address to give full and satisfactory explanation on the twin mega scandals, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) must shake off the cloud of doubt about its credibility and professionalism when a ‘cari makan’ chairperson had been foisted on it by conducting a full and comprehensive inquiry into Najib’s twin mega scandals.

The PAC should summon Najib as a key witness and give him an opportunity to answer all questions and doubts about the twin mega scandals. In fact, the PAC should take one step further - probe into all the information about the twin mega scandals which had appeared on the website Sarawak Report, highlighting those Sarawak Report articles and allegations which are baseless and untrue while confirming those allegations which are correct and factual.

In fact, the Najib government should unblock access to Sarawak Report as truth and honesty is the best defence to lies and falsehood. PAC should invite the Sarawak Report owner Claire Rewcastle-Brown to testify before the PAC, even paying for her expenses from UK and give her an assurance that no action would be taken against her by Malaysian authorities during her visit to Malaysia as guest and witness of PAC.

Several people had told me that Najib’s speech in Kuantan that he is not a crook is eerily reminiscent of the speech of the first US president to be forced from office, Richard Nixon, who said in a television appearance in November 1973 at the height of the Watergate controversy that he is not a crook - nine months before he resigned as US president to avoid impeachment proceedings in the Congress.

Nobody thinks that Najib wants to be a Nixon, and this is why I hope that he will finally break his silence on the past year on the twin mega scandals, and tell Malaysians and the world the truth so that Malaysia will cease to hog the top world spots whether for worst corruption scandals or examples of global corruption.

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LIM KIT SIANG is the MP for Gelang Patah and DAP's parliamentary leader. -Mkini