KUALA LUMPUR, July 28 — Former minister Tan Sri Rafidah Aziz reminded the Cabinet of its collective responsibility to uphold the public’s trust and urged the leaders to desist from speaking or doing anything that could further “hurt” the country further in the face of the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) controversy.

In her Facebook posting this morning, prior to the Cabinet reshuffling exercise by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, the former International Trade and Industry minister also advised the administration not wash their hands off things ‘when it does not look good’.

“Do not do anything anymore to hurt this country of ours, no washing your hands off things when they don’t look good, you all, together and collectively, must uphold public trust.

“You are all collectively responsible, talk and act responsibly, remember that it is a collective accountability, get the problems sorted out… together… as a credible and trustworthy team,” Rafidah wrote, in the posting addressed to the Cabinet and Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition parties supreme councils.

Najib this afternoon announced the removal of Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin as his deputy and Education Minister, owing to the latter’s public criticism of Putrajaya over its handling of debt-riddled 1MDB.

The reshuffle also saw the removal of Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal, another open critic of 1MDB, as rural and regional development minister and the elevation of Datuk Nur Jazlan Mohamed, who heads the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) investigating the firm, to deputy home minister.

“I can accept differences of opinion and criticism as part of the decision-making process. But as Cabinet members, differences of opinion shouldn’t be expressed openly that can affect public perception towards the government,” Najib said during the press conference in his office in Putrajaya after the cabinet reshuffling announcement.

“The decision to replace Muhyiddin was a very difficult one, but I had to do it so a strong team can move forward.”

Muhyiddin had during the weekend urged Najib to satisfactorily explain the 1MDB controversy, claiming that he and other ministers were unaware of the “real facts”.

This resulted in a rare public rebuke from the Prime Minister’s Office yesterday, which urged Muhyiddin and other members of the administration not to pre-judge the ongoing investigations on 1MDB.

Fresh after the announcement, supporters thronged to Muhyiddin’s residence in Bukit Damansara here as a show of solidarity to the Pagoh MP and former Johor mentri besar.

Apart from the removal of Muhyiddin, Shafie and several others in the federal administration seen to be critical of Najib’s handling of 1MDB, the prime minister also appointed four new members from among the PAC that is currently probing the state-owned firm over its multi-billion ringgit dealings.

This morning, the chief secretary to the government announced in a statement that Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail’s tenure as Attorney-General (AG) had been terminated due to “health reasons”.

Prior to the termination of his tenure — which took effect on July 27 — Abdul Gani was leading a multi-agency special taskforce investigating allegations that US$700 million (RM2.6 billion) had been misappropriated into Najib’s personal bank accounts through 1MDB.