Najib Abdul Razak today sought to engage with Chinese youths but some participants decided to slip in pointed questions to the prime minister, including one on whether he was really “Malaysian Official 1” (MO1).
These queries were not picked up by the committee in charge of selecting the questions but several of them were displayed in full view of the audience due to the format of the event.
Audience members were asked to send in their questions through social messaging app WeChat, which then appeared on a large screen behind the stage. The organisers then scrolled through the list in real-time to pick the questions.
During this process, several pointed questions appeared on the screen but were not posed to the prime minister.
These include the question “Abdul Rahman Dahlan, our senior government minister in cabinet, said ‘I agree that MO1 is the prime minister’. Is that true?”
The person behind the question, using the pseudonym ‘MO1’, appeared to have sent in the same question several times, but it was not entertained.
The US Department of Justice (DOJ) had listed MO1 as one the recipients of at least US$4 billion in funds allegedly misappropriated from 1MDB.
Najib had denied wrongdoing or taking public funds for personal gain.
CJ extension also raised
Another question which was also not posed to Najib was about the extension of Md Raus Sharif and Zulkefli Ahmad Makinudin as Chief Justice and Court of Appeal president respectively beyond their constitutional age limit of 66 years and six months.
The dialogue was organised by the Federation of Chinese Association Malaysia (Huazong).
One of the organising committee members later told Malaysiakini that they had refrained from choosing “pointed” questions.
The committee member added that some of the questions were gathered ahead of the event from association branches and other Chinese NGOs and sent into WeChat by the committee members themselves.
During the dialogue, Najib also touched on the issue of non-Muslim freedoms.
He said that even though Muslims do not drink alcohol, they should not impose on non-Muslims.
His comment came after a series of alcohol-related events faced difficulties in getting approval from the authorities, with a few being cancelled earlier this month.
“I am not saying Muslims should drink, no. Muslims have our own set of beliefs.
“But we cannot impose on non-Muslims. You have your set of values, your way of life. As long you don’t disturb us, we don’t disturb you,” Najib told a crowd of more than 500 people at the Wisma Huazhong in Seri Kembangan today.
He also criticised Muslim-only laundrettes, calling it “very wrong”.
Pictures of laundrettes serving only Muslim customers had caused an outcry after pictures of such signage went viral on social media in the last month.
“You can make (your own) choice. Let others decide (for themselves).
“That is our country. You want to pray, you can pray anywhere you like, whatever your belief,” he said.
– M’kini
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