KUALA LUMPUR, May 19 — Datuk Seri Ahmad Shabery Cheek said today that before he considers whether to organise a debate between Datuk Seri Najib Razak and Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, he first wants to check if the latter had ever during his tenure debated those who ruled before him.
When pressed for details, the communications and multimedia minister refused to say if this meant he was willing to accede to calls for government to arrange the verbal showdown between the prime minister and Dr Mahathir.
“I need to check back on Dr Mahathir’s time, if he had given the same opportunity to others to debate on issues.
“To see if there were the same standards then,” he said in an event at the Royale Chulan Hotel.
Shabery did not state whether he is willing to organise the debate.
Last weekend, Dr Mahathir said he would like to debate Najib over the heavily-indebted 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), the company has amassed over RM42 billion debt.
The former prime minister had cited his dissatisfaction with how the government is dealing with the 1MDB fiasco as the primary reason behind his push for prime minister and Umno president Najib’s resignation.
This has led to divisions within the ruling party. Umno also recorded a significant drop in support during the two recently-concluded by-elections in Rompin and Permatang Pauh.
1MDB was incorporated in 2009, after the prime minister announced the decision to turn the Terengganu Investment Authority state fund into a federal agency.
Najib also sits on its advisory board.
Since then, 1MDB has been dogged by negative publicity over its finances and debt, and most recently cash flow problems that saw it struggle to meet a RM2 billion loan payment.
