The last five days must have been Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s worst five days in his entire life, which collectively should be worse than his darkest day of May 9, 2018 when he was toppled as the sixth Prime Minister of Malaysia and sent into the political wilderness.

On Friday, October 26, 2018, Najib’s house of cards propping up his claim that the international 1MDB corruption and money-launderintg scandal was fake news and a concocted internatuional conspiracy by his political enemie to topple him from power collapsed when Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Adel Ahmad Al-Jubeir met the Prime Minister, Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad and denied that Najib’s infamous RM2.6 billion in his personal bank accounts had come from Riyadh.

But the damage to Najib of this Saudi Arabian denial was nothing compared to Najib’s disgraceful interview with Al Jazeera, where Najib staged a walk-out after he was unable to answer with credibiility and authority difficult questions which the Al Jazeera interviewer, Mary Ann Joley, had put to Najib, whether on the 1MDB scandal; the RM2.6 billion donation in his personal banking account; Rosmah Mansor’s 22-carat US$27.3 million pink diamond necklace; fugitive financier Jho Low; his 38 criminal charges of corruption, criminal breach of trust and money laundering or the murder of Altantunya Shaariibuu, with the interview telecast worldwide on Saturday, October 27, 2018.

Najib’s Al Jazeera interview was particularly damaging as it served as concrete proof to the two million Malay voters who had voted for UMNO/Barisan Nasional in the 14th General Election on May 9, 2018 as to how wrong they had been in voting for UMNO.

As if these two events were not bad and fatal enough, worse was to come. Today, at the Anti-Corruption Summit 2018 in Kuala Lumpur, there were three blows to the solar plexus, viz:

· Dismissal by the Prime Minister, Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad of allegations that Najib’s 38 criminal charges of corruption, criminal breach of trust and money-laundering were politically motivated, as they are based on investigations by enforcement agencies tracing the 1MDB money and where it had gone through.

· Revelation by Tan Sri Abu Kassim, the head of National Centre for Governance, Integrity and Anti-Corruption (GIACC) and former Chief Commissioner of Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) that the MACC had in 2015 found that Najib’s claim that the RM2.6 billion he received was a donation from Saudi Arabian royalty to be false after a meeting with Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) and United States Department of Justice in Washington; and

· Announcement by the Attorney-General Tommy Thomas that the Malaysian Government would ask the UK courts to affirm that the country does not have to pay a US$4.32 billion sum to Abu Dhabi’s International Petroleum Investment Company or Aabar Investments PJS as Malaysia’s 1MDB was defrauded by Najib.

Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein reiterated today that his offer to track down fugitive financier Jho Low in China was because he wants to see closure to the 1MDB case.

He also said that UMNO MPs who have dignity will not leave the party.

Malaysians are bemused. How can UMNO MPs claim to have dignity when they continue to aid and abet in the 1MDB scandal which brought Malaysia the infamy, ignominy and iniquity of a global kleptocracy?

Is it possible to bring a closure to the 1MDB scandal until and unless Najib is prepared to come clean on the 1MDB scandal?

In his disastrous Al Jazeera interview, Najib had indirectly admitted to the moral, economic and political catastrophes of the 1MDB scandal.

Is he prepared to spare the country from further pain, agonies and sufferings and come out with a forthright and straightforward admission of his major role in the 1MDB scandal?

(Media Statement by DAP MP for Iskandar Puteri Lim Kit Siang in Parliament on Tuesday, October 30, 2018)