MACHAP, March 3 — Datuk Seri Najib Razak is an “ídiot” for claiming that Putrajaya has yet to pay “a single sen” of 1Malaysia Development Berhad’s (1MDB) principal debt, former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad remarked today.
Expressing “disgust” with Najib’s remark in Parliament yesterday, Dr Mahathir highlighted Najib’s “shameless” attitude towards the wrongdoings committed after his sentencing and conviction by the High Court.
“I am sickened by Najib’s remark in the Dewan Rakyat claiming that the government did not pay anything for the 1MDB debt.
“Eee bodohnya (how idiotic). Don’t need to repay debt, this is Najib.
“Najib’s an extraordinary person. When you become a thief and you are sentenced by the court to 12 years’ imprisonment, he has the guts to say, ‘What is there to be ashamed of?’
“If any of us are unashamed after committing such acts, then our society is doomed,” he told an audience who showed up for his ceramah at Felda Ayer Hitam here.
The veteran statesman went as far as to say that if Najib were to streak in public, the latter would respond coyly in a shameless manner as well — in reference to Najib’s popularised term “Malu apa bossku?” (What is there to be ashamed of, boss?).
Dr Mahathir, who was recently discharged from the National Heart Institute (IJN) after undergoing an elective procedure on January 9, made his maiden appearance on the campaign trail for the Johor elections as Parti Pejuang Tanah Air (Pejuang) chairman today.
In his ceramah, the Langkawi MP stressed the importance of a new state government clean of corruption compared to the “kleptocratic” Barisan Nasional (BN) administration which he alleged was still conspiring with Najib.
Dr Mahathir was stumping for Pejuang’s Johor chief and Machap candidate, Datuk Shahruddin Md Salleh, who will be taking on former state executive councillor Datuk Onn Hafiz Ghazi (BN) as well as Sekolah Menengah Agama Arab Almasriyah headmaster Azlisham Azahar (PN) and R Sangaran (Muda).
Najib, who has been convicted of multiple charges of corruption and power abuse involving funds worth over RM40 million embezzled from SRC International, said in Parliament yesterday that no public funds were used to repay 1MDB’s principal debt.
He argued that most of the funds to service the debt would have come from entities like Goldman Sachs, audit firms KPMG and Deloitte, AmBank and the US Department of Justice (DoJ).
These institutions had returned some of the funds embezzled from the firm totalling RM23 billion to Malaysia. SRC International was a former subsidiary of 1MDB.
The Malaysian government has repaid RM13.3 billion of 1MDB’s debt so far, with RM38.81 billion still outstanding as of December 31 last year, according to the Finance Ministry.
