KUALA LUMPUR, June 30 — Former Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak must explain why he had not voluntarily testified before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) inquiry on the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) scandal.

In a statement released earlier today, Iskandar Puteri MP Lim Kit Siang also questioned why PAC chairman Datuk Hasan Arifin did not call Najib to testify, while Najib himself had not volunteered to testify during the inquiry in 2015 and 2016 in view of his strategic role in 1MDB.

“This is now for Hasan to explain, as well as for Najib to explain why he had not volunteered to testify before the PAC so that it could come out with an accurate and comprehensive report on 1MDB issue,” he said this in response to a Malaysiakini report in which Najib was quoted as admitting he should have been more open on the Auditor-General’s report on 1MDB.

Hasan was appointed as PAC chairman after the previous PAC chairman, Datuk Nur Jazlan Mohamed was made Deputy Home Minister in July 2015.

Lim said that Najib would have likely been summoned if Nur Jazlan continued as the chairman as he was diligent in pursuing the 1MDB scandal.

“Najib would have probably been summoned to testify before the PAC on the 1MDB issue if Nur Jazlan had continued as PAC chairman, but Hasan on his appointment as PAC Chairman in October 2015 set his face against any calling of Najib to testify before the PAC.”

Lim also stressed the PAC report had not absolved Najib of wrongdoing in the 1MDB case, contrary to what he had claimed.

“This is the fake news which Najib had been spreading in the past two years as the PAC report had not absolved him of wrongdoing in the 1MDB issue — which was why I had repeatedly challenged Najib and all Umno and Barisan Nasional Ministers and leaders to quote, chapter and verse, where the PAC report had absolved him of wrongdoing in the 1MDB issue,” said Lim.

Najib said he has expressed regret over not taking more steps to ensure good practices in relation to investment fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), noting that many things had gone “wrong”.

Najib reportedly said he would have on hindsight carried out 1MDB in a different way, admitting that taking on debts to fund 1MDB was not the best of decisions.

He also admitted that his administration then should have just made the Auditor-General’s report on 1MDB — which was placed under an Official Secrets Act seal — available to a parliamentary committee.

Najib explained that the Barisan Nasional (BN) federal government led by him had in 2016 decided to classify the Auditor-General’s report on 1MDB as a secret under OSA to avoid its contents from being “twisted” negatively by the then federal opposition.