Former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, seen here at a signing ceremony in Proton on Monday, is now ready to take on Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak in a public debate aired live on television. – The Malaysian Insider pic by Afif Abd Halim, June 18, 2015.
In a closed-door meeting with Umno-linked non-governmental organisations yesterday, Dr Mahathir was recorded in a video saying that Najib could ask him anything about his tenure as Malaysia's longest-serving prime minister, and that he could also ask Najib about anything.
“I want to ask Datuk Seri Najib, together with me to be on stage in front of television (cameras),” Dr Mahathir said to loud cheers from the group that attended yesterday’s meeting with the retired statesman at Perdana Leadership Foundation in Putrajaya.
“Najib can ask what I have done in the past, (claims) that I too had lost some money, he can ask (me) and I can ask him too,” he said in a video that was uploaded on YouTube yesterday by a user "Minaq Jinggo".
Dr Mahathir met a group of about more than a hundred people, according to a blogger who attended the meeting which focused largely on the former prime minister's views on Putrajaya's investment firm 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) and other political developments.
The former PM has been a staunch critic of 1MDB and its architect, Najib, who is also finance minister and chairman of the debt-laden firm's advisory board.
His challenge to Najib to a live debate follows the botched "Nothing to Hide" dialogue on 1MDB on June 5, where Najib was to have taken questions from NGOs on the matter. The prime minister did not show up after police shut down the event, citing a security threat.
Dr Mahathir, however, was present, and had spoken for about 10 minutes before police stopped him.
In the video of yesterday's meeting, the retired statesman brushed off an invitation by activist group Solidariti Anak Muda Malaysia’s (SAMM) inviting him to another #nothing2hide forum on his tenure as prime minister.
“This is not about me, this is about Najib, but to distract (the focus) on Najib, (they) want to ask me. I don’t want to answer,” he said.
“Both of us should be together on stage in front of all television cameras and broadcast it live throughout the country," he added, referring to himself and Najib.
Dr Mahathir also hit out at PKR activist and SAMM founder, Badrul Hisham Shaharin, also known as Chegu Bard, calling him an unimportant figure.
“Who is this Chegu Bard?”
“(He) is just a ‘kucing kurap' (stray cat) from PKR... tell him I don’t answer questions from ‘kucing kurap’”.
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