Mahathir will debate anyone, wonders why Najib is afraid

Former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad is willing to debate with anyone from Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak's camp.

However, he said Najib and his "lieutenant" Nazri Abdul Aziz, should not be afraid of an old man like himself.

"Come la Nazri and Najib, what's there to fear? I'm an old man. Are you afraid of an old man?" Mahathir asked when met by reporters in Kuala Lumpur today.

He said this when queried as to whether he will accept special affairs department (Jasa) director Puad Zarkashi's offer to take Najib's place at the Nothing to Hide 2.0 debate.

Mahathir said he would accept any representative from the Najib camp.

The Nothing to Hide 2.0 forum organised by the Youth wing of Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu), at the Dewan Raja Muda Musa in Shah Alam, at 3pm on Aug 13.

Mahathir plans to grill Najib about how the latter received RM2.6 billion in his personal accounts.

Mahathir had claimed that the sum was misappropriated from 1MDB, a sovereign wealth fund initiated by the Najib-administration in 2009.

Najib, however, has consistently denied such allegations, claiming that the sum was a donation from the Saudi royal family.

Nothing to Hide 2.0

Attorney-general Mohamed Apandi Ali has affirmed this and cleared the prime minister of any criminal misconduct.

The previous "Nothing to Hide" forum was held at Putra World Trade Centre, Kuala Lumpur which also houses Umno's headquarters.

It was organised by a group known as SukaGuam as a platform for civil society groups, including Mahathir, to grill Najib. Najib had supposedly agreed to appear at the forum.

However, Najib did not turn up and Mahathir took to the stage instead to address the audience of approximately 2,000 people until the police stopped him from continuing his speech.

Police at the time cited security concerns as the reason for cancelling the forum.

Inspector-general of police Khalid Abu Bakar claimed Najib was unhappy with his move to have the event cancelled, but said he persisted for the sake of safety and security, as well as to preserve harmony. -Mkini