KUALA LUMPUR, July 25 — The federal Cabinet is operating without any “moral conscience or integrity” for allowing the suspension of two business publications and the blocking of whistleblower site Sarawak Report (SR), ostensibly for their stories on debt laden 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), an opposition lawmaker said today.

DAP’s Petaling Jaya-Utara MP Tony Pua claimed that the “more intelligent” ministers such as Umno youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin and Pemandu chief executive Datuk Idris Jala are surely able to “see through the facade of lies” glossing over 1MDB’s alleged financial transgressions.

“However, despite some presence of intelligence, there is clearly no moral conscience or integrity left in the souls of these Ministers.  They may not be stupid, but they no longer care for what is right or wrong,” he said in a statement.

“It appears to matter not that the country is being robbed, and the eye-witnesses and whistle-blowers are being shackled and punished.  They will not speak against corruption and injustice because they are only interested in preserving their own political status and power,” Pua added.

The DAP national publicity secretary said it was outrageous for Putrajaya to have ordered a three-month suspension of the printing permits for The Edge Weekly and The Edge Financial Daily on vague claims that the papers were prejudicial to “public order” or “national interest”.

He added that the ban on local access to SR’s website was equally unacceptable, as the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) had admitted it was a “preventive measure” despite not having proof of any wrongdoing by the site.

Pua claimed that there are far too many “facts” against 1MDB that were reported in the media but not debunked by Putrajaya, lending credence to the belief that the state-owned firm had been “disastrously managed”.

He stressed that the only way such exposes on alleged financial misanagement by the government would go against national interest is if the reports were based on lies and fabricated information.

“But if all these documents were indeed lies and fabricated information, why has 1MDB never disputed them and provided the un-doctored versions?

“As the 1MDB imbroglio boiled over, there was never once 1MDB specifically refuted the allegations by The Edge, or the Sarawak Report or myself.  The 1MDB executives have at best provided blanket or vague denials,” he said.

In a news release yesterday, The Edge Media Group publisher and chief executive Ho Kay Tat announced that the printing permits of the two publications will be suspended for three months starting Monday, with the possibility that the permits will be revoked if they do not comply.

Citing a Home Ministry letter, he said the ministry stated that the two publications’ reporting of 1MDB were “prejudicial or likely to be prejudicial to public order, security or likely to alarm public opinion or is likely to be prejudicial to public and national interest”.

Last Sunday, the MCMC said in a statement that SR was among websites that were blocked on grounds that they can “threaten the country’s stability” with contents that “cannot be verified and is being investigated”, after it received “information and complaints from the public”.