Is Shafee setting stage for 1MDB duo to boycott PAC, asks DAP

Umno lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah has urged DAP's Tony Pua to step down from PAC, saying his presence may not ensure fair hearing for 1MDB. – The Malaysian Insider file pic, June 28, 2015.

Following Umno lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah's insistence that 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) critic Tony Pua step down as a member of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), DAP today wondered if this was a pretext for the company's two senior executives to boycott the inquiry.

With 1MDB's president Arul Kanda Kandasamy and former CEO Datuk Shahrol Halmi scheduled to face the panel in August as part of the bi-partisan committee's  probe into the debt-laden firm, DAP parliamentary leader Lim Kit Siang speculated that the duo could walk out of the hearing on grounds that Pua is "biased".

This would also provide an "excellent precedent" for Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak not to appear before PAC, he said.

Najib, the finance minister, chairs 1MDB's advisory board of directors, but PAC has yet to decide if it is going to summon him.

"Why is 1MDB and Shafee (and of course their principal Najib) so afraid of Tony Pua’s membership in the PAC to inquire into the 1MDB scandal.

"In fact, Najib, 1MDB and Shafee should welcome even more MPs like Tony Pua who has strong views and not a closed mind on 1MDB scandal, like PKR MP for Pandan, Rafizi Ramli, to come onboard the PAC hearing as 'guest PAC members' to demonstrate that 1MDB has absolutely nothing to hide," he said in a statement today.

Lim said there was no point of having a PAC filled with "Yes Men" probing into 1MDB's operations as this would affect the credibility of its findings.

Shafee had repeatedly insisted that Pua should stand down from the PAC to ensure the current probe into 1MDB could be conducted in a fairer and transparent manner.

His suggestion was dismissed by PAC chairman Datuk Nur Jazlan Mohamed, who told the lawyer not to meddle in PAC's affairs.

In coming to Pua's defence, Nur Jazlan had said his colleague had never used PAC's information on troubled 1MDB in his statements.

Instead, Pua had shone the spotlight on important matters related to the state-owned strategic investor.

Lim also expressed surprise over BN Backbenchers’ Club chairman Tan Sri Shahrir Samad for supporting Shafee's stand on Pua's presence in the PAC.

The PAC is appointed by Parliament to examine public accounts and to submit its report to the house.

"Is Shahrir seriously suggesting that if the PAC report on the 1MDB scandal is debated in Parliament, Tony Pua and other MPs from both sides of the house who have critical views of the 1MDB scandal should withdraw and not participate in the debate?

"If not, what is the basis to demand Tony Pua’s removal from the PAC’s 1MDB hearing?

“Shahrir should be thoroughly ashamed of himself for joining in the Shafee chorus to demand that Pua be dropped from the PAC’s 1MDB hearing."