Dr M: We're not out for revenge against BN ministers

Pakatan Harapan chairperson Dr Mahathir Mohamad has said that Harapan will abide by the law and avoid “seeking revenge” if it wins the 14th general election.

The coalition's prime ministerial candidate confirmed this in his response to a Facebook user named Indera during a policy talk on the cost of living in a Facebook Live session today.

Indera had wanted Harapan, should it win the next general election, to conduct a forensic audit on every BN minister and "confiscate their riches and return them to the rakyat".

However, Mahathir said that Harapan would respect the rule of law.

"We don't have the intention to get revenge. We will hold on to the rule of law.

"If the law says that those who steal money must be brought to the courts, then the courts will decide and mete out the punishment accordingly.

"This is our way of doing things. It is not our style to pile pressure on certain people, like what is happening now," Mahathir said.

Harapan’s approach is unlike that of the Inland Revenue Board (LHDN), which Mahathir claimed was imposing additional taxes on certain quarters.

"Despite businesses having receipts that show that they have never evaded taxes, the LHDN will force them to pay or they will be blacklisted, have their books seized and many other punishments.

"This is not stated in the law. (So) we are not out to get revenge. We want to respect the law and we will stay with the rule of law."

Mahathir insisted that neither the prime minister nor the government would be the ones punishing wrongdoers.

Recovering 1MDB's money

Earlier, during the Facebook live session, Mahathir said the first thing Harapan planned to do if it were to replace the current administration would be to get back "1MDB's money" currently with the United States government and in banks in Singapore.

"We also know that billions are with (Prime Minister) Najib (Abdul Razak), (his wife) Rosmah (Mansor), (businessperson) Jho Low (photo) and a few others, and they won't return them as long as they are in power, but we can force them to do so."

The US Department of Justice has so far filed three civil forfeiture suits against assets allegedly purchased with money misappropriated from 1MDB.

In the civil forfeiture suits, "Malaysian Official 1" was mentioned multiple times, whom Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Abdul Rahman Dahlan later revealed to be Najib.

However, Najib has consistently denied using public funds for personal gain.

Meanwhile, commenting on the influx of foreign workers, Mahathir admitted that something must be done to decrease the number of foreign workers in the country.

The Harapan government, he said, would look into the matter on a case by case basis of entrepreneurs who truly depended on foreign workers.

"We won't get rid of seven million foreign workers at once. We will listen to the appeals by local entrepreneurs and we will try to solve their problems if they need foreign workers."

Apart from this, Mahathir believes that the country's foreign direct investment (FDI) must be reviewed as there were FDIs that solely depended on foreign workers.

"Why should we accept foreign direct investment which uses foreign workers, who will send their income back to their countries?

"It's better that we don't have industries that solely depend on foreign workers. We must choose industries that will have more locals who will be trained according to their expertise," he said.
 

- Mkini