Imagine if Najib is still PM: Muhyiddin

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KUALA LUMPUR – Datuk Seri Najib Razak (Pekan-BN) continues to be a favourite political target over his involvement in the 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) scandal.

The latest attacker appears to be former prime minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin (Pagoh-Bersatu), who seems to have no qualms taking his coalition ally to task.

Muhyiddin said it is fortunate that Barisan Nasional (BN) lost in the last general election, suggesting that the situation involving one of the world’s greatest financial scandals would not have been resolved had Najib remained in power.

The Bersatu president said after BN’s historic fall in 2018, the then government had set up a special task force to recover money and assets lost through 1MDB.

He said this was continued when he later became the prime minister in March 2020, after the fall of Pakatan Harapan.

“I understand that as of today, over RM20 billion in 1MDB funds and assets have been seized by the government and placed in a trust fund which will be used to service the 1MDB debts,” he said when debating the royal address in the Dewan Rakyat today.

“Imagine if Pekan is still the prime minister. I don’t think he would have established the special task force to recover the stolen money and assets, because the one stealing them was him.

“The country will be damaged if leaders don’t hold on to the principle of integrity. What more when a case is globally known as the biggest scandal of the century, involving the plundering idiot who is described as a national embarrassment?”

Najib has been on the receiving end of brickbats of late after several allegations made by former Goldman Sachs banker Tim Leissner in an ongoing US trial surfaced.

He has already been found guilty of corruption and sentenced to a 12-year jail term and fined RM210 million over his role in former 1MDB subsidiary ARX International Sdn Bhd, but has yet to serve his sentence pending appeal.

Amid heavy criticism, Najib had, during a debate in Parliament on March 2, said not a single sen of public funds was used to repay the principal amount of 1MDB debt.

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