KUALA LUMPUR, March 21 — Dewan Rakyat Speaker Tan Sri Azhar Azizan Harun said today that he has received Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s explanation on his remarks that 1MDB debts were not paid with taxpayers’ money.
But Azhar said he needs more time to vet the Pekan MP’s lengthy reply and decide whether or not the latter misled Parliament on this matter.
He said he met Najib last Tuesday morning and was given a long and detailed written explanation on the latter’s previous remarks about the sovereign investment company’s debt in the Lower House.
Azhar said he also shared Najib’s explanation with Damansara MP Tony Pua who had accused the former prime minister of misleading the House.
He added that Finance Minister Datuk Seri Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz has also been consulted on this matter.
“This matter is difficult as it involves very detailed and specific facts and I need to really look into it properly to see if the facts spoken were misleading or not,” Azhar told Jelutong MP RSN Rayer today when asked why Najib had not given a clarification on his earlier remarks.
Azhar said he will furnish the Dewan Rakyat with all the information after feedback from Pua and Tengku Zafrul.
But Rayer pointed out that Tengku Zafrul had contradicted Najib’s remarks a day after the latter made the allegedly misleading statements in the House.
Rayer insisted that Najib be referred to the Rights and Privileges Committee.
“Pekan used very specific words in his statement. He didn’t say the 1MDB debts were not paid, he said the principal debt for 1MDB wasn’t paid,” Azhar replied Rayer.
“The answer given by the finance minister the next day was that Malaysia has paid the interest whereas the principle will be paid in May once the first bond matures. So there lies the dispute.
“That’s the issue now and that is why I gave Damansara time to reply before I make a decision,” he added.
On March 2, Najib said in Parliament that not a single sen of public funds has been used by the government to repay the principal amount of 1MDB debts.
He said this is because various entities, including Goldman Sachs, audit firms KPMG and Deloitte, AmBank and the US Department of Justice had returned 1MDB funds totalling RM23 billion to Malaysia.
This was refuted by Tengku Zafrul the next day where he called Najib’s claims “baseless” saying that the federal government will begin servicing the principal debt once the bonds issued by the sovereign fund and its subsidiaries mature, at least two of them by May this year.
The debt servicing will continue to be paid until 2039.
He said the first tranche of payments will start May 11, 2022, for bonds issued under 1MDB Energy Limited and the 1MDB Energy (Langat) worth RM7.3 billion.
Pua had motioned for Najib to be disciplined under the Parliamentary Rights and Privileges Committee under Standing Order 36 (12) of the Dewan Rakyat over the remarks but Azhar refused to and asked Najib to reply by the next week
Following his remarks, Azhar said he had written to Najib to seek clarification on the matter and asked the former prime minister to give a reply.
Najib was then reported by the press saying he would only do so next week but only after the March 12 Johor election ended.
Pua argued that Najib had no reason to ask for a time extension since he is not contesting a seat in the Johor election.
