Report: Quit if you’re not with me on 1MDB, PM tells Cabinet
(Malay Mail Online) – As controversy rages on over the debt-riddled 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), Utusan Malaysia reported today Datuk Seri Najib Razak purportedly telling his fellow ministers to resign from the Cabinet if they disagreed with his stand on the state investment firm.
Citing an unnamed Cabinet source, the Umno-owned Malay broadsheet further reported that none of the ministers challenged the prime minister on 1MDB in last Friday’s meeting despite being given the opportunity.
“The prime minister asked any Cabinet member who was not with him on the 1MDB issue to resign but not a single person did so,” the source was quoted saying in the news report published today.
According to the news report, the incident had taken place right after Second Finance Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Husni Hanadzlah presented 1MDB’s roadmap to his Cabinet colleagues.
The prime minister’s surprise declaration comes after calls from several veteran Umno leaders, including Tan Sri Shahrir Samad and Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah who urged the ministers towards taking collective responsibility for the 1MDB controversy.
Shahrir, who is also chairman of the Barisan Nasional Backbenchers’ Club, told the ministers last Tuesday that those who disagreed with the Cabinet’s decision on 1MDB to relinquish their government positions.
Ahmad Husni had announced 1MDB’s rationalisation plan last Friday in which he reportedly said the investment firm is to receive US1 billion (RM3.6 billion) shot in the arm after sealing a deal with Abu Dhabi firm, International Petroleum Investment Company and its subsidiary Aabar Investments.
According to Husni, IPIC will make the payment by this Thursday and the money will be used by 1MDB to repay its RM3.5 billion loan ahead of a deadline set by a consortium of international of banks.
1MDB was incorporated in 2009, after the prime minister announced the decision to turn the TIA state fund into a federal agency.
Since then, 1MDB has been dogged by negative publicity over its finances and a debt pile that has reportedly hit RM42 billion, and most recently cash flow problems that saw it struggle to meet a RM2 billion loan payment.
