MCA president Liow Tiong Lai dodged several questions today regarding Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak and his involvement in the 1MDB scandal in a press conference at the MCA headquarters in Kuala Lumpur today.

 

When asked whether Najib should make a public assets declaration in light of the allegations against him or take leave to ensure integrity in the investigations, Liow instead urged members of the public to remain calm and allow the various official investigations to proceed.

 

“I would like to urge the public to be patient and to be calm in facing these kinds of accusations […]

 

“We need a system. The government (has) unprecedentedly set up a special task force to look into the allegations of The Wall Street Journal . At the same time on the 1MDB, we have also the Public Accounts Committee looking into it.

 

“So the system is there. We should have confidence that the government is doing its best to ensure transparency (and) good governance. We are confident that the rakyat will be given the full reports into all these allegations,” he said.

He added that time should be given to allow the authorities to conduct a transparent investigation.

 

His statement echoes the reassurances of several ministers, including Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin ( photo ) and Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin Abu Bakar .

 

The special task force is comprised of the police, Bank Negara, the Attorney-General’s Chambers, and the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission.

 

There had been calls by many civil society groups , the Malaysian Bar , and members of the opposition for Najib to take leave pending the outcome of its investigations, in order to preserve the integrity of the task force.

Take leave

A straw poll conducted by Malaysiakini has also found that 18 out of 20 members of the public felt that Najib should take leave immediately, and many had expressed scepticism on whether the task force could act independently.

 

Najib is being probed for the US$700 million (RM2.6 billion) in 1MDB funds that was supposedly channelled to his personal bank account at around the time of the 13th general election.

 

The prime minister did not outright deny the allegations, but had threatened to sue The Wall Street Journal for its report highlighting the claim, and said that he did not take the money for personal use.

 

Meanwhile, Liow stressed appealed for the ‘media persecution’ against Najib ( photo ) to stop and to allow due process to take place.

 

“When there is any allegation, there must be a proper agency to look into it and make sure there is transparency in this. We should not allow this media persecution.

 

“Everyone can give their comments. Yes, we are a very democratic country. We can give comments and we can give views.

 

“But at the same time, there is a system. The government is actually doing our level best to make sure that we are accountable to the people. We are elected by the people and we should be accountable to the people,” he said.