PETALING JAYA, Aug 19 — PKR vice-president Nurul Izzah Anwar scolded Umno minister Datuk Abdul Rahman Dahlan today for issuing what she described as “flippant” statements about serious matters involving Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak.

Nurul Izzah told Abdul Rahman that his remarks in The Star last weekend regarding the draft charge sheet against Najib appeared to implicate the prime minister in possible acts of power abuse.

She noted the minister’s apparent about-turn yesterday, however, when the latter accused DAP’s Lim Kit Siang of spinning his comments published by the English daily.

“So suddenly, out of the blue, there are assumptions, theories, slip of the tongue and Freudian slips from Barisan Nasional’s strategic communications director?

“As a Cabinet minister, he must be investigated seriously as it brings us back to the main question now — was the charge sheet real? If so, who was lying?” Nurul Izzah asked at a press conference here.

“Don’t make flippant statements… you are implicating the prime minister, mind you,” the Lembah Pantai MP reminded Abdul Rahman.

Abdul Rahman, a Sabah Umno federal lawmaker, had yesterday labelled Lim a “master spinner” for failing to understand his interview with The Star.

According to the minister, he had never claimed the draft charge sheet was genuine and had only been speaking about possible theories on the document, as well as Najib’s decision to reshuffle the federal Cabinet and remove Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail from the office of Attorney-General.

In the interview that was published in verbatim last weekend by The Star, Abdul Rahman had admitted that he was not sure of the authenticity of the draft document although he said that it “could be there”.

Later, quoting from the new Attorney-General Tan Sri Mohamed Apandi Ali, he also said that the document may be part of a plot to criminalise Najib.

When asked to comment on the recent Cabinet reshuffle and Gani’s removal from office, Rahman cited the alleged plot against Najib and said that any politician would have taken such pre-emptive steps to cripple such an attempt.

Several opposition lawmakers later said that Abdul Rahman’s remarks suggested that the draft charge sheet had been genuine and that to stop the attempt to prosecute the prime minister, Gani was removed from office and the Cabinet was reshuffled.

DAPs Gobind Singh Deo yesterday urged local graftbusters to investigate Abdul Rahman's claim that Najib had ordered the recent government shake-up in a bid to remove those behind an alleged plot to unseat him by hauling him to court.

According to Gobind, who is also a lawyer, Abdul Rahman's remarks in The Star should be investigated for possible power abuse under Section 23(1) of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) Act 2009.

He also lodged a report with the MACC over the matter.