The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the 14th Parliament has the opportunity to produce the most comprehensive, authoritative and up-to-date account on the 1MDB scandal, which has been described by the US Attorney-General Jeff Sessions as “kleptocracy at its worst” and which landed Malaysia with the international infamy of being regarded worldwide as a global kleptocracy.

It is not the job of the PAC to “resurrect and deconstruct” or even reconstruct the PAC Report on the 1MDB scandal of the 13th Parliament, or to persist in the pretence that the previous PAS Report had “cleared” Datuk Seri Najib Razak of any wrongdoing in the 1MDB scandal.

In fact, if the present PAC is going to do justice to the parliamentary motion in August directing it to “conduct again a detailed investigation on the embezzlement of monies and the scandal with regard to 1MDB and its related companies in order to restore the dignity of the Dewan Rakyat; and that all related information should be made public”, it will have to repudiate the previous PAC Report which was conceived to aid and abet Najib in the world’s “worst kleptocracy” and helped cement the world perception that Malaysia was unrepentant as a global kleptocracy.

If there had been no historic change of the Federal Government in Putrajaya on May 9, 2018, , the Prime Minister, the Cabinet, the Parliament Speaker, all government MPs and Barisan Nasional leaders would have used the previous PAC Report on the 1MDB as authoritative proof that Najib had been cleared of any wrongdoing in the 1MDB scandal, and that the entire 1MDB scandal was just :”fake news” and an international conspiracy against Najib and Malaysia!

This was why at the last meeting of the 13th Parliament in March/April this year, I had given notice to the Speaker to move a motion for Parliament to reject the PAC Report and on the need for a more comprehensive investigation into the 1MDB scandal to cleanse Malaysia of the infamy, ignominy and iniquity as a global kleptocracy.

My motion read:

“That this House rejects the Report of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on 1MDB tabled in April 2016 as unsatisfactory and not comprehensive enough and resolves that the PAC should conduct a fuller and more comprehensive investigation into the 1MDB scandal which had brought Malaysia the 3Is – infamy, ignominy and iniquity – of a global kleptocracy.”

I complied with the Parliamentary Standing Orders which requires MPs to give 14 days’ notice for any motion, but motion to reject the PAC report on 1MDB never saw the light of day, and I was instead suspended for six months in the 13th Parliament and the last few days of the 14th Parliament, I became a “parliamentary ghost”” when the Speaker and two Deputy Speakers (one of whom as Ronald Kiandee) could not “see” me although I was physically in front of them, disregarding my presence resulting in my being unable to speak or vote.

Will the PAC under Ronald Kiandee produce the most comprehensive, authoritative and up-to-date account of the 1MDB scandal?

In his Q & A with New Straits Times on Tuesday, where he announced that the PAC under him will “resurrect and deconstruct” the previous PAC report on the 1MDB, which he claimed – wrongly – had “cleared” Najib of any wrongdoing in the 1MDB scandal, Kiandee said he had read the book “Billion Dollar Whale”, describing it as a “a good read and it is related to what is being investigated by PAC”.

I want to ask Kiandee a direct question, whether he has read the earlier book on 1MDB scandal “The Sarawak Report – The Inside Story of the 1MDB Expose” by the
Sarawak Report editor, Clare Rewcastle Brown?

Anyone of who have read and digested the two books, Clare’s book and the “Billion Dollar Whale” by the two Wall Street Journal reporters, Tom Wright and Bradley Hope, would not be talking about “resurrect and deconstruct” of the previous PAS Report on the 1MDB scandal, but embark a demolition work to produce the most comprehensive, authoritative and up-to-date report on the 1MDB scandal, which would be the classic report on the 1MDB scandal – more comprehensive and authoritative than the 251-page kleptocratic litigation on 1MDB, Clare’s book and Tom Wright and Bradley “Billion Dollar Whale”” all added together!

The latest report is that the former PetroSaudi executive, Xavier Justo, who was once trapped and incarcerated in Bangkok, but whose cache of PetroSaudi emails led to the expose of the 1MDB scandal, is also writing a book of his 1MDB experience.

Will the PAC under Ronald Kiandee be able to produce the most authoritative, comprehensive and up-to-date report on the 1MDB crime, corruption and money-laundering scandal to cleanse Malaysia of the infamy, ignominy and iniquity as a global kleptocracy and be the first important step for Malaysia to transform itself from a global kleptocracy into a leading nation in integrity?

Even more pertinent, will Kiandee as PAC Chairman be able to rise from the 13th Parliament mindset and mentality to suppress all question, debate and discussion on the 1MDB scandal to fully reflect the 14th Parliament mindset and mentality to fully unravel the 1MDB scandal?

In the 13th Parliament, the 1MDB scandal was fake news which must be suppressed at all costs, but in the 14th Parliament, the 1MDB scandal is fully accepted as an international scandal and a national curse which must be exorcised if Malaysia is to restore her honour and pride in the international community and transform Malaysia from a global kleptocracy into a leading nation of integrity!

(Media Statement by DAP MP for Iskandar Puteri Lim Kit Siang in Gelang Patah on Thursday, 4th October 2018)