KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 3 — Umno and its leaders must emphatically condemn Datuk Seri Najib Razak for the 1MDB scandal if they hope to escape its fallout, said DAP’s Lim Kit Siang.
Responding to Umno deputy president Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan’s bid to distance the party from the growing charges linked to the state investment firm and the former prime minister, Lim said it was inadequate to simply insist Umno was uninvolved in the scandal.
“Many steps have to be taken before Umno can wash its hands of the 1MDB scandal — and the steps must include condemnation of Najib and the 1MDB scandal by Umno leaders as well as an Umno general assembly resolution to formally condemn and denounce Najib and the 1MDB scandal,” Lim said in a statement today.
The Iskandar Puteri MP noted that Opposition lawmakers had jeered his son, Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng, when the latter said yesterday the new administration was rescuing the country from the previous “kleptocratic” government under Najib.
This morning, Mohamad expressed sympathy for Najib but said the Malay nationalist party must not be dragged further into the 1MDB scandal that is under investigation in six international jurisdictions.
He insisted that the party was completely innocent in the matter, but did not extend the same exoneration to Najib.
The US Justice Department announced criminal indictments this week against former Goldman Sachs bankers Tim Leissner and Roger Ng, and alleged 1MDB mastermind Low Taek Jho.
This is a marked escalation of the DoJ’s previous kleptocracy action over 1MDB. Previously, the culprits had claimed that the scandal was not criminal in nature.
Najib is already facing 38 charges linked either directly or indirectly to 1MDB here.
