[UPDATED] Imagine if Najib is still PM: Muhyiddin

KUALA LUMPUR – Datuk Seri Najib Razak (Pekan-BN) continues to be a favourite political target over his involvement in the 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) scandal.

The latest attacker appears to be former prime minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin (Pagoh-Bersatu), who seems to have no qualms taking his coalition ally to task. 

Muhyiddin said it is fortunate that Barisan Nasional (BN) lost in the last general election, suggesting that the situation involving one of the world’s greatest financial scandals would not have been resolved had Najib remained in power. 

The Bersatu president said after BN’s historic fall in 2018, the then government had set up a special task force to recover money and assets lost through 1MDB. 

He said this was continued when he later became the prime minister in March 2020, after the fall of Pakatan Harapan. 

“I understand that as of today, over RM20 billion in 1MDB funds and assets have been seized by the government and placed in a trust fund which will be used to service the 1MDB debts,” he said when debating the royal address in the Dewan Rakyat today. 

“Imagine if Pekan is still the prime minister. I don’t think he would have established the special task force to recover the stolen money and assets, because the one stealing them was him. 

“The country will be damaged if leaders don’t hold on to the principle of integrity. What more when a case is globally known as the biggest scandal of the century, involving the plundering idiot who is described as a national embarrassment?” 

Najib has been on the receiving end of brickbats of late after several allegations made by former Goldman Sachs banker Tim Leissner in an ongoing US trial surfaced. 

He has already been found guilty of corruption and sentenced to a 12-year jail term and fined RM210 million over his role in former 1MDB subsidiary ARX International Sdn Bhd, but has yet to serve his sentence pending appeal. 

Amid heavy criticism, Najib had, during a debate in Parliament on March 2, said not a single sen of public funds was used to repay the principal amount of 1MDB debt. 

He had said that various other entities have already returned 1MDB-related funds and assets totalling RM23 billion to Malaysia.  

The following day, Finance Minister Datuk Seri Tengku Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz rubbished Najib’s claim as baseless, saying the government has already started servicing the interests and that the only reason the principal debt has yet to be repaid is because it has not matured. 

Today, Muhyiddin similarly took aim at Najib over his remark in the Lower House, which the former described as “false and confusing”, and stressing that all 1MDB debts were guaranteed by the government. 

“When 1MDB failed to repay its debts and interests totalling over RM50 billion, then the government has to pay for it,” he said. 

"Perhaps what Pekan meant was that since the government has managed to seize some of the stolen money and assets, then these can be used to repay the debts.” 

Muhyiddin, however, said some of the recovered assets were not purchased for investment, which was the function of 1MDB, but rather to enrich those close to Najib. 

Among others, he added that the assets include a luxury yacht valued at US$130 million, a US$35 million private bombardier jet, US$17.5 million house in the affluent Beverly Hills, and a luxury US$35.5 million condominium in New York. – The Vibes, March 7, 2022