PM Najib challenged to take up ex-MACC chief's call against graft

Prime Minister Najib Razak has been challenged to heed former Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) chief Abu Kassim Mohamed's urging for Malaysians to stand united against corruption regardless of political affiliations.

Gelang Patah MP Lim Kit Siang said Najib and his cabinet can do so by accepting the invitation to attend the 'Save Malaysia' roundtable conference next week.

“The issue is whether Najib and his cabinet are prepared to start the process to free Malaysia from the millstone of global kleptocracy, or whether they will go down in history as being responsible for (the) millstone ... and not prepared to do anything to remove (it),” said Lim in a statement today.

“I endorse the proposal by Abu Kassim Mohamed, that Malaysians must stand united against corruption, regardless of their political ideologies.

“Abu Kassim said that if corruption is used as the basis of politics, it will be difficult to resolve social issues.

“More than anyone, Abu Kassim should know what he was talking about,” said Lim.

However the DAP veteran was sceptical that the prime minister would accept the invitation.

“Almost everybody is saying that it is impossible that the prime minister will attend the 'Save Malaysia' roundtable.

“I agree that it appears to be quite inconceivable,” he said.

This, said Lim, was because it would involve Najib’s preparedness “not seen up to now, to open up the international multi-billion dollar 1MDB kleptocratic money-laundering scandal to national and international scrutiny to prove that it is not a scandal at all”.

This, he said, is despite the 1MDB scandal “making international waves and world headlines almost every other day”.

Yesterday, Abu Kassim, while addressing a congregation of 100 at Masjid Al-Ikhlas in Shah Alam said, "All communities must reject political ideologies (when it comes to fighting corruption) because if corruption is used as the basis of politics, it will be difficult to resolve social issues.

"We must stand together if corruption is to be eliminated."

Lim said the coming roundtable will be a test of whether the ex-MACC chief's words will be heeded.

“History will be the witness whether the last chance for all political leaders to stand united against corruption, regardless of their party affiliation and political ideologies, will succeed or fail,” he said.-Mkini