On national television yesterday, Prime Minister Dato’ Seri Najib Abdul Razak said he was not implicated by the Public Accounts Committee’s investigation on 1MDB.
“I urge everyone to read their report. We need to ask ourselves some key questions: Firstly, did any paragraph claim that I stole 1MDB funds? Absolutely not. Secondly, did the report state I committed a crime? Did I do any wrong? The answer is no.”
If there is an award for the best half-truth for 2018, then surely the above claims by the Prime Minister would rank right up there.
I am a PAC Committee Member and I have definitely read the PAC Report. Yes, the PAC Report didn’t say Dato’ Seri Najib stole money from 1MDB. However, the PAC Report also didn’t say that the Prime Minister didn’t steal money from 1MDB.
The Prime Minister’s role in the monstrous RM50 billion scandal was never mentioned in the PAC Report simply because the PAC was never allowed any opportunity to investigate Dato’ Seri Najib Razak!
And yet despite PAC never ever investigating the origins of the RM2.6 billion ringgit, Dato’ Seri Najib Razak has the cheek to tell Malaysians throughout the country that the PAC has “cleared” him of any wrongdoing.
Let me explain why Dato’ Seri Najib Razak was never investigated by the PAC.
Firstly, while the former PAC Chairman Datuk Nur Jazlan agreed that we should summon Dato’ Seri Najib Razak to question him on his role in 1MDB. This is especially since the Treasurer-General, Tan Sri Irwan Serigar testified to the PAC that not only he was completely unaware of what took place in 1MDB, Dato’ Seri Najib Razak was responsible for all major decisions made by 1MDB.
However, when Datuk Nur Jazlan was replaced, and the new PAC Chairman Datuk Hasan Arifin, the new Chairman rejected all attempts to summon the Prime Minister to testify to the PAC. The BN members of the PAC blocked all such attempts with the excuse that “Prime Minister is not involved” or “Dato’ Seri Najib Razak isn’t relevant to the investigation”.
Secondly, I urge all Malaysians to heed the advice of Dato’ Seri Najib Razak to read the PAC Report. The scope of investigations was limited strictly to reviewing the financial statements of 1MDB. There was no scope given for investigating the purported RM2.6 billion “donation” that went into the personal bank account of the Prime Minister. See pg 6 of the PAC Report – attached.
Finally, as I have repeated many many times, and as Dato’ Seri Najib, Arul Kanda and 1MDB ignored as many times, 1MDB never submitted its financial statements of its overseas bank accounts to the Auditor-General (AG) and the PAC. This is despite repeated requests by both the AG and the PAC over a period of nearly a year.
Without these crucial documents and evidence, how in the world could the PAC ever claim that Dato’ Seri Najib never took money from 1MDB?
All the above raises the ultimate question – will the proposed new “Fake News” law bar the Prime Minister from propagating more lies and half-truths? Or will the new law endorse official government’s fake new, and punish everyone else who points out the naked emperor?