Datuk Seri Najib Razak speaks during the Performance Management and Delivery Unit Annual Report at Angkasapuri yesterday. In the live telecast, he said he ran a transparent government and ignored calls for his resignation. – The Malaysian Insider pic, April 29, 2015.Datuk Seri Najib Razak must be the most shameless prime minister in the world to have labelled himself as running a transparent government despite various unanswered questions surrounding his administration, the DAP said today.
Its national publicity chief, Tony Pua, said Najib must live up to that claim after declaring it publicly on television yesterday.
"If Najib is serious about being 'transparent' and not just interested in engaging in political rhetoric, then he must immediately respond to the specific allegations made by Sarawak Report and New York Times," Pua said.
Whistleblower site Sarawak Report wrote an expose saying that state investor 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) signed a scam with PetroSaudi International in February this year.
It added that more than two months later, Najib's administration had refused to shed any light on the agreements and the billions of ringgit transacted.
Pua said Sarawak Report had established that of US$1.83 billion (RM6.49 billion) which was transferred to Petrosaudi between September 2009 and March 2012, at least US$1.45 billion was siphoned directly or indirectly by businessman Jho Low’s companies, Good Star Limited and Abu Dhabi Kuwait Malaysia Investment Corporation.
Pua added that the Times in February exposed Najib's wife Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor's purchase of jewellery in Hong Kong between 2008 and 2009.
He added that the report also highlighted Rosmah's son Riza Aziz's cash acquisition of a US$33.5 million condominium in New York and another US$17.5 million luxury bungalow in Los Angeles.
He added that at the very least, 1MDB must be made to respond immediately with solid facts to dispel the allegations that billions of ringgit were transferred to Jho Low’s companies and that bank accounts in BSI Bank in Singapore did not hold the purported amount.
He said was not much Malaysians could do if the prime minister chose to ignore valid criticism and not resign.
"However, the least he could do is to stop making a fool of Malaysians, and start giving some straight answers as a 'transparent' government should," Pua said. – April 29, 2015.
