Is Najib facing a rebellion?

Kadir Jasin speaks of two recent developments that indicate not everyone in Putrajaya supports 1MDB.

PETALING JAYA: Veteran journalist and persistent 1MDB critic A Kadir Jasin appears to be suggesting that some kind of rebellion, maybe not amounting to a revolt, is possibly brewing in the halls of power against Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak.

In a blog entry today, he refers to two recent developments related to 1MDB – the reported Cabinet rejection of the company’s request for a cash injection to the tune of RM3 billion and the Public Accounts Committee’s call for an immediate audit of the company.

He offers conditional congratulations to the Cabinet. “A big thanks and kudos to the Cabinet if indeed it has rejected a request by 1Malaysia Development Berhad for a RM3-billion financing from the government,” he says.

Recent online media reports say the Cabinet rejected the proposal at its weekly meeting on Wednesday by not approving the minutes of the previous week’s meeting on the subject.

Kadir says he is trying to get confirmation of the reports from his contacts in the government.

“I am yet to receive any response to two SMS messages I sent to a minister and press secretary to a senior minister seeking confirmation of the Cabinet decision,” he writes.

“If the online media reports are true, the Cabinet action could be seen as signalling that the Prime Minister … no longer holds sway, at least not on the issue of 1MDB.

“This is a huge setback for him. I would not, at this point, speculate that there is an emerging revolt against his leadership.

He points out that 1MDB is Najib’s creation and it is owned by the Finance Ministry, which he heads.

He says the reported Cabinet decision “could add further burden on the already beleaguered Prime Minister”.

Kadir also takes note of a press statement issued yesterday by the Chairman of the Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee, Nur Jazlan Mohamed, an Umno MP.

Nur Jazlan urged the Auditor-General’s Department to carry out an immediate audit of 1MDB. He said the audit should determine the source of the RM2 billion 1MDB used to settle loans with local banks, its proposed plan to borrow RM3 billion from the Treasury, its dealings with PetroSaudi International (PSI) and whether the money it parked in the Cayman Islands has been brought home.