KUALA LUMPUR, June 22 — Opposition lawmaker Lim Kit Siang sought to up the ante on the federal government, questioning today the Cabinet’s protracted silence to damning allegations by international media on the debt-riddled 1Malaysia Development (1MDB) saga.

The DAP parliamentary leader noted that while two federal ministers have immediately written open letters to two US news companies last week over attacks against the Najib administration, the Cabinet has yet to refute the latest claim by Wall Street Journal (WSJ) that 1MDB was used as a tool to finance the Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition’s 2013 election campaign.

“In the style of the Open Letters by Anifah and Idris, one would have thought that a Cabinet Minister, probably the Second Finance Minister, Datuk Seri Husni would have been assigned the task of writing an Open Letter to Wall Street Journal to tear its expose into piece,” the Gelang Patah MP said in a statement.

In the WSJ report last Friday, it was alleged that the acquisition payments made by debt-laden 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) on several of its deals have been channelled back to special charities for BN's election campaigns.

The international business newspaper had cited the example of Yayasan Rakyat 1Malaysia (YR1M), which it said received RM35 million in donations from Genting Plantation soon after 1MDB's acquisition of Genting Sanyen.

Malaysia’s Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Anifah Aman had written an open letter to The New York Times on June 19, a day after the US daily ran an interview with Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, saying the latter’s criticism against Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak over 1MDB was due to a personal political vendetta.

Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department in charge of the government’s transformation agenda Datuk Seri idris Jala had similarly replied to Bloomberg columnist William Pesek’s criticism of Najib’s leadership in an open letter on June 20.

But Lim noted that Idris in his letter had avoided all comments in Pesek's article quoting AirAsia CEO Tan Sri Tony Fernandes about the government's “misguided priorities and its utter lack of accountability”.

“Can Najib explain what this imports, especially as his ‘Public Relations’ outfit has claimed that Najib has ‘Nothing2Hide’ on the 1MDB controversy?” he asked.

Yesterday, Lim had scorned Putrajaya's reported plan to hold a roadshow to explain the 1MDB controversy and other issues, saying the government should first confirm or deny allegations that the firm has been filling BN’s election coffers.

The DAP leader said the roadshow which, according to Umno deputy minister Datuk Ahmad Maslan yesterday, was to explain the 1MDB scandal and the Goods and Services Tax (GST), will likely fail like the recently cancelled "Nothing To Hide" forum.

The forum that was to feature Najib was called off at the last minute over security concerns after it was reported that former PM-turned-government critic Dr Mahathir, planned to turn up for the event as well.

1MDB, the state-owned firm that has racked up a debt of RM42 billion since its inception in 2009, is currently under investigation by three separate government agencies.