Reform movement Aliran has urged Deputy Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak to table Petronas' accounts in Parliament to substantiate his claims that the government will go bankrupt if oil prices are reduced.

Aliran president P Ramakrishnan, in a media statement, said Najib owes a duty to Malaysians to provide the accounts of Petronas so that the people can be convinced that he is justified in claiming that the "the country will go bankrupt" if oil prices are reduced.

On Monday, newspaper reports quoted Najib as saying that the opposition would bankrupt the country by reducing oil prices if it were to form a government.

Star reported that Najib said the call by the opposition to channel Petronas profits into subsidising fuel prices did not make sense as current oil prices were at a record high.

Whereas, New Straits Times reported Najib's statement that the government would need to forego development projects like building schools and universities to use Petronas' profits to reduce oil prices.

Ramakrishnan said it is "truly regrettable" that Najib did not provide any facts and figures to give credibility to his statement.

"Without these statistics it will be well nigh impossible for ordinary citizens to believe that Najib himself is not trying to fool the people," he said, adding that facts and figures are far more persuasive in convincing people to accept the line of argument that Najib was promoting.

'Extreme exaggeration'

Ramakrishnan was of the view that Malaysians, in the absence of Petronas accounts, have a right to dismiss Najib's claim as an extreme exaggeration by a politician who is unable to counter an argument with truth.

"Why must the earnings and accounts of Petronas be kept away from Malaysians? Why is parliamentary scrutiny into the accounts denied? What is the problem? Does this information come under national security that it cannot be divulged? Why should the Prime Minister alone be privy to this colossal wealth and fortune?" he asked

He said that Najib should stop fooling the people if answers to the questions cannot be made public.

On Najib's statement that the government needs to forego development projects to reduce oil prices, Ramakrishnan asked: "If indeed the profits were used for developmental purposes like building schools, can Najib please explain how come 1,555 national schools in the rural areas are without toilet facilities and 794 schools are without electricity as revealed by the minister of education last year?"

"Does it mean that Petronas did not make that kind of profit all these years in order to provide these facilities to the rural poor kids?"

Ramakrishnan stressed that it is a widely held belief that because there has been no accountability and transparency as far as the income and expenditure of Petronas are concerned, there has been unbelievable squandering and plundering of the nation's wealth.

"To preserve our dignity as a nation and to justify ourselves as a democracy, we must be ethical in all that we do," he said.

"Foremost in that, we must be transparent and accountable in all our dealings concerning the wealth of our nation. This demands that the accounts of Petronas must be subjected to parliamentary scrutiny."