Kit Siang resumes tirade on Najib ahead of Trump meeting

(FMT) – DAP supremo Lim Kit Siang today renewed his attack on Najib Razak ahead of the prime minister’s scheduled meeting with US president Donald Trump in Washington on Sept 12.

“Should Malaysians regard this Najib-Trump meeting in the White House on Sept 12 as an honour to Malaysia or an unmitigated national shame and disgrace to Malaysia?” asked the Gelang Patah MP.

He said if Najib had taken steps in the last two years to clear himself of the “charge” laid by the US Department of Justice (DoJ) over the 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) affair, his visit would not only be the greatest honour for him and the country but also a “triumph over Trump”.

Last month, Lim, who is the DAP’s parliamentary leader, had claimed that the visit would bring more shame to the country as Najib had not cleared himself of allegations of corruption in relation to the suit by the DoJ.

The DoJ has claimed that an unnamed Malaysian Official 1 (MO1) had been the recipient of US$731 million (RM3.1 billion at present), allegedly misappropriated from 1MDB.

In response, Umno treasurer Salleh Said Keruak had said on Aug 29 that such a statement was expected from a political novice but not from someone who boasted of being in politics for more than 50 years.

The communications and multimedia minister described Lim’s “open letter” the day before which urged the cabinet to veto against Najib’s meeting with Trump as “sadly amateurish”.

“It is obvious that Kit Siang is audaciously trying to divert the attention from the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) findings regarding the Bank Negara forex scandal of more than 25 years ago, which is very damaging to Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad,” Salleh said, referring to the former prime minister who ruled for 22 years till 2003.

In a statement issued after his speech at a Johor DAP election workshop in Batu Pahat today, Lim also accused Najib of seeming to have “sub-contracted” the task of fighting corruption to new Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) chief commissioner Dzulkifli Ahmad with a certain provision.

He claimed that the agency could pursue its anti-graft campaign by respecting “no trespass” boundaries around Najib and top government leaders, and also by not encroaching on the subject of 1MDB.

“Dzulkifli issued an unprecedented Merdeka Day message and urged Malaysians to reject graft and to appreciate the true meaning of independence and to free themselves from the culture of corruption that could destroy the nation,” he said.

“Dzulkifli should ask Najib when the prime minister is going to come clean on the 1MDB scandal, and state when MACC is going to launch a campaign to prove that Malaysia is not a global kleptocracy?” he added.

In its latest court filings in California, in June, the DoJ said it was seeking to seize US$540 million (RM2.3 billion) in assets including art works, jewellery, a yacht worth US$165 million (RM705 million), and film rights purchased with funds allegedly embezzled from 1MDB.

It followed the civil forfeiture suit by the DoJ in July last year, which sought to recover all the assets including but not limited to the Park Lane hotel in New York, a luxury hotel in Beverly Hills, condominiums in New York, a private jet, expensive works of art, as well as proceeds from the financing of Martin Scorsese’s movie “The Wolf of Wall Street”, which starred Leonardo DiCaprio.

The total value of the assets sought by the DoJ stands at US$1.8 billion (RM7.7 billion).