GEORGE TOWN, July 8 — The Penang government agreed today to freeze all deals in the state involving 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) land, a move Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng said is meant to protect those currently occupying the plot.
When explaining the decision by the state executive council, Lim said that recent developments in the 1MDB controversy were grounds enough for his administration to take such action.
“The state government has power over transfer of land titles but we must look at the legal provisions first before taking further action,” he told a press conference at his office this afternoon, amid reports of a police raid at 1MDB’s office in Kuala Lumpur.
The DAP secretary-general added that the state executive council has also instructed the state legal advisor and the state secretary to look into the legal provisions on land issues.
“The state still has authority when a private party wants to transfer land title to another private party because the transfer of land title still needs to go through the state and the land office but we still need to look at the legal provisions first,” he said.
Lim also said the state has no direct or indirect dealings with 1MDB.
He said companies that intend to enter into a any deal with 1MDB or purchase the firm’s 234 acres of land in Air Itam should refer to the state’s decision on the freeze.
“To all companies that want to transact with 1MDB let this be a forewarning so don’t say we didn’t give any warning,” he said.
Back in 2013, 1MDB spent RM1.056 billion to buy a majority stake in the 234 acres of encumbered land in Air Itam.
There were no efforts to evict and compensate those still living on the land so far and no development applications submitted as yet.
In light of the latest revelations on1MDB, Lim said he will support any action to press for fresh elections at parliamentary level.
“Apparently, these funds were released before the general elections and the funds were used for the general elections, clearly the general elections were not clean,” he alleged, referring to claims that 1MDB money had been channelled into the private accounts of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak.
This means, he said, the legitimacy of the present federal government is questionable.
“There should be fresh elections so we can have a clean government, a government elected by a majority of the people,” he said.
In a report on Friday, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), citing documents from Malaysian investigators currently scrutinising the troubled 1MDB’s financials, claimed that a money trail showed that US$700 million (RM2.6 billion) were moved between government agencies, banks and companies before it ended up in Najib’s accounts.
Najib has denied taking funds from 1MDB for “personal gain” and his lawyers have since asked the WSJ to state if the newspaper is accusing the prime minister of misappropriating funds.
Aside from the special taskforce, 1MDB is also under investigation by the Auditor-General’s Department and Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee.
