One question which has been bugging today is why every Minister in Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s Cabinet must end up making dumb and asinine statements like the one by the second Finance Minister, Datuk Seri Johari Abdul Ghani on the Mahathir-Nazri debate on the 1MDB scandal.
Firstly, how can Johari claim that the Mahathir-Nazri debate on the 1MDB scandal has “nothing to do” with the government?
It is precisely because of the 1MDB scandal which has caused Malaysia to be ridiculed world-wide as a global kleptocracy, making Malaysians ashamed when abroad to declare that they are Malaysians as other questions like, who is MO1 and why the Malaysian government is doing nothing about the international 1MDB money-laundering scandal, will follow suit.
Secondly, how can Johari say that that the 1MDB scandal had been “debated extensively in Parliament” when MPs are not even allowed to ask questions about the 1MDB scandal, when almost every other day, the 1MDB scandal is continuing to make headlines in other countries almost every other day?
For the record, Parliament has never conducted any debate on the 1MDB scandal.
Yes, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) had conducted a probe into the 1MDB, but this was before the PAC had access to the latest information about the 1MDB scandal, in particular the US Department of Justice (DOJ) largest kleptocratic lawsuits to forfeit over US$1 billion 1MDB-linked assets in the United States, United Kingdom and Switzerland from over US$3 billion ill-gotten gains from 1MDB international money-laundering.
Malaysian Parliament was never given an opportunity to debate the PAC report on 1MDB.
The Auditor-General’s Report on 1MDB had also been classified under the Official Secrets Act and denied access to all MPs, except PAC members.
Furthermore, the PAC recommendations based on preliminary investigations into the 1MDB scandal had been ignored for almost a whole year – and the PAC Chairman dared not pursue the matter. Why?
I welcome the Mahathir-Nazri debate on the 1MDB scandal. I will personally attend the debate, even if it is held in Padang Rengas.
This debate will break the enforced firewall to prevent a healthy and democratic debate and people’s demand for accountability for the mother of all government scandals in the nation’s history.
(Speech at the Bakri DAP Branch “Voters Registration Within Two Weeks” coffee-shop talk in Bakri, Muar on Sunday, March 12, 2017 at 5 pm)