Hilarious, retorts Najib after Rafizi says he weakened national defence

 

PKR deputy president Rafizi Ramli (right) says the methods used to siphon money from the warship project were similar to those in the 1MDB controversy.

PETALING JAYA: Najib Razak had a two-word retort to PKR deputy president Rafizi Ramli who had claimed that national defence was weakened under Najib’s watch.

“That’s hilarious!” Najib responded in a Facebook post.

In return, he questioned what Pakatan Harapan (PH) had done to strengthen the nation’s defences when it was in power for 22 months.

“What did PH do? What assets were added? Was there an increase or decrease in the number of security officials?” he said.

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However, Najib did not respond to a threat by Rafizi that he would divulge details of shell companies used to launder money from the RM9 billion littoral combat ship project, which entails the construction of six corvette-class ships for the navy.

He said earlier today that he would provide details on the misappropriation of funds, including the establishment of shell companies to launder money. He said the methods used were similar to those in the 1MDB scandal.

Rafizi said that his upcoming expose on the LCS project would put the former prime minister in a spot.

Najib responded to Rafizi’s claim that the former prime minister had been “slandering others” about the sale of national assets, by pointing out that Khazanah Nasional had sold a 16% stake in IHH Healthcare Bhd to Japanese conglomerate Mitsui for RM8.42 billion and also disposed of RM364 million in CIMB shares.

He said the finance ministry under PH had wanted to sell a 28-storey office tower in Hong Kong belonging to China Evergrande Group for RM1.6 billion, and had held talks to sell a 60% stake in the Bandar Malaysia mixed commercial project for RM7.41 billion to property developer Iskandar Waterfront Holdings and China Railway Engineering Corp.

The LCS project was the subject of a report by Parliament’s watchdog, the Public Accounts Committee, which said that not a single ship had been completed despite RM6 billion being spent since 2011.

The report said then-navy chief Abdul Aziz Jaafar had testified that he wrote numerous letters to government officials to voice his concerns about the project. He said he sent two letters to Najib, who was the prime minister at the time. - FMT