Tell Najib to go on leave and get help from Dr M, Pak Lah, Kit Siang tells Muhyiddin
(Malay Mail Online) – Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin should do the right thing as the country’s second-in-command and ask Datuk Seri Najib Razak to go on leave amid allegations that state-owned 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) had channeled US$700 million (RM2.6 billion) into the prime minister’s personal bank accounts, Lim Kit Siang said today.
The DAP parliamentary leader said it is the proper thing for Najib to follow the example of his peers in developed parliamentary democracies and take a leave of absence until such serious allegations are cleared.
“In the circumstances, Muhyiddin should personally meet up with Najib today to ask him to go on leave and to let a three-man committee of national elders, comprising two former Prime Ministers Tun (Dr) Mahathir (Mohamad) and Tun Abdullah (Ahmad Badawi), and former Deputy Prime Minister, Tun Musa Hitam, to decide whether and the conditions on which Najib should return to resume as Prime Minister before resolution of the WSJ allegation,” Lim said, referring to the Wall Street Journal.
“Alternatively, Najib should agree to the convening of an emergency meeting of Parliament next week in view of the unprecedented political crisis facing the country arising from the WSJ allegations,” the Gelang Patah MP added.
In its report today, the WSJ, citing documents from Malaysian investigators currently scrutinising the troubled 1MDB’s financials, claimed that the money trail shows that some US$700 million were moved between government agencies, banks and companies before it ended up in Najib’s accounts.
These documents, the international business paper claimed, include bank transfer forms and flowcharts put together by investigators to shed light on 1MDB’s cash flow. The paper said this is the first time a direct connection to Najib has been established in the probe on 1MDB.
WSJ, which claimed to have viewed the documents, said investigators have discovered that there were five separate deposits from two sources made so far into Najib’s accounts.
The paper added, however, that the original source of the funds is unclear and that the investigation does not show what happened to the money after it was deposited into Najib’s accounts.
The largest two transactions, it said, were for US$621 million and US$61 million allegedly made in March 2013, shortly before the tumultuous Election 2013 in May.
A Malaysian government spokesman, however, told the paper that Najib has never taken 1MDB funds for personal use.
1MDB is currently under probe for alleged impropriety by a number of agencies, including the Auditor-General’s Department, the police and Bank Negara Malaysia.
An interim report on the A-G’s probe will be submitted next Thursday to Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC).
