Former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak took up Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s challenge today and listed instances where Mahathir’s son and other cronies supposedly received sweetheart deals from the government while Mahathir was in office as prime minister.
Among others, he took aim at the business dealings of Mahathir’s sons, Mirzan and Mokhzani, and business tycoon Vincent Tan.
Furthering the chicken-themed tit-for-tat between the two former premiers, Najib remarked: “Don't talk about stealing or returning chickens. Under you, the entire henhouse was handed to the cronies to be slaughtered.”
He said that contrary to Mahathir’s claims that his children never conducted business in Malaysia during his premiership until he had resigned in 2003, his second-born child Mirzan had built up Konsortium Perkapalan in the 1990s.
The firm eventually needed a US$220 million bailout from the Malaysian International Shipping Corporation (MISC) when the 1998 financial crisis hit. MISC’s largest shareholder is Petronas.
“Wasn't MISC and Petronas reporting to you as prime minister at that time?” Najib queried.
In 1997, meanwhile, Najib said Mahathir’s fourth offspring Mokhzani bought a controlling stake in Hospital Pantai Group from Tan.
Najib claimed the group later won Foreign Workers' Medical Examination Monitoring Agency (Fomena) concessions as well as contacts to supply government hospitals.
He said Mokhzani’s Kencana Group also won a license to fabricate offshore structures from Petronas in 2002.
In 2003, Najib said Mahathir’s sixth child Mukhriz’s company Opcom was given a RM214 million contract by Telekom Malaysia.
He said the contract was a direct award without tender due to an instruction from the Finance Ministry (MOF) and was instrumental to Opcom’s successful listing later that year.
For the record, Mahathir had stepped down from his first premiership on Oct 31, 2003, but the MOF instruction to award the contract was dated Oct 7. Mahathir was also finance minister at the time.
Najib also alleged that the government awarded a 20-year exclusive concession for sports and football betting to a company owned by Tan without tender or cabinet approval in the months prior to stepping down from his first premiership.
“This concession could potentially be worth tens of billions of Ringgit but the awarded company only had to pay a fee of only RM20 million,” he said.
After Pakatan Harapan took power, Najib claimed the government had “rushed” the RM21.6 billion National Fiberisation and Connectivity Plan where Opcom would be one of the main beneficiaries.
The company’s share prices had jumped in wake of the announcement, he said.
Najib was making a point-by-point rebuttal to Mahathir’s blog post earlier today.
In his blog, the Langkawi MP maintained that Najib’s stepson Riza Shahriz Abdul Aziz had gotten a sweetheart deal when he was granted a plea bargain for his 1MDB-linked money laundering case.
"It is like stealing 10 chickens. You should give back all the 10. If you had had a feast of 9 chickens or you sold them to someone, it does not matter.
"The 10 chickens must be returned to the owner. Giving one back will still mean that the chicken owner has lost 9 chickens stolen by the thief," he said.
He also challenged Najib to give documentary evidence of contracts being given to his children, just as there was documentary evidence linking Najib to the 1MDB scandal.
"Please explain the sweetheart deals involving PM7 (7th prime minister) cronies. Did Riza Aziz buy or did my children buy? And who are the cronies?" he said.
In his response via his Facebook account, Najib had included the purported MOF letter instructing Telekom Malaysia to award the RM214 million contract to Opcom.
- Mkini
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