I am prepared to champion and defend the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak, if he can prove that he is a “scapegoat” of the RM2.6 billion and RM50 billion 1MDB twin mega scandals which are the major causes of the prolonged crisis of confidence, both national and international, which had hounded Malaysia with such serious adverse economic consequences, whether the devaluation of the Malaysian ringgit, the plunge in the Malaysian stock market, the fall in Malaysia’s international reserves, the flight of foreign capital and the avoidance of Malaysia as a destination by foreign investors.
I am reminded of the saying that with such friends, one does not need enemies when I read what the PPP President, M. Kayveas said at the PPP Deepavali Open House in Brickfields, Kuala Lumpur yesterday.
Kayveas made the astonishing claim that Najib is being made the 1MDB scapegoat when the company’s management should have taken full responsibility for the poor performance of the government investment fund.
This was exactly what the then Deputy Prime Miniter Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin had proposed, suggesting to Najib that the Barisan Nasional federal government should sack the entire board of the debt-laden 1MDB, but Muhyiddin was sacked as DPM instead!
It was not only Muhyiddin himself who was sacked, even the Attorney-General Tan Sri Gani Patail was sacked, and several top officers on important agencies were arrested or transferred at short notice, and the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) blocked for three months from continuing its 1MDB investigations.
Who became the 1MDB scapegoat – Najib or Muhyiddin, Gani Patail and even myself?
It would appear that except for the leaders of the Barisan Nasional leaders, Malaysians know that a full investigation into the twin mega scandals would mean a full investigation into Najib himself, because no one else apart from him had been so intimately involved with the ins-and-outs of the twin mega scandals.
One can say without fear of contradiction that there is on one in the country who is more knowledgeable and involvled than Najib about the two scandals and any investigation into the twin mega scandals without investigating Najib is an utter waste of time.
However, if Najib can prove to me in the next five days that he is in fact the “scapegoat” of the twin mega scandals, I am prepared to champion and defend him.
Otherwise, Najib should go to Parliament on Monday on 16th November when Parliament reconvenes for the last of the three-day Ministerial winding-up of the 2016 Budget debate to “come clean” and give full and satisfactory accountability for the two greatest financial scandals in the nation’s history.
(Speech at the DAP “Solidarity with Lim Kit Siang and Mana RM2.6 billion?” kopitiam ceramah in Kudat on Wednesday, 11th November 2015 at 12 noon)
Lim Kit Siang