Sabah state assembly speaker Salleh Said Keruak has once again come to the defence of his boss, saying Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak need not answer his critics on the 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) issue.

Salleh said Najib’s critics would never be satisfied with answers given by the prime minister, since they were only interested in sullying the good name of Najib.

"Anyway, is there any point in the prime minister doing what everyone is asking him to do: that is to explain what is happening in 1MDB? Even when he does, the critics are still going to reject his explanation.

"Is there any point for the prime minister to waste his time entertaining critics when whatever he says is not going to be accepted because they are criticising for the sake of criticising, and not for the sake of hearing the truth?" Salleh ( photo ) lamented in a statement today.

Salleh, a former Sabah chief minister, also slammed former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad for saying that Najib lost more than RM42 billion with 1MDB.

"The main criticism against the prime minister is that Malaysians are not being given details about 1MDB’s exposure to the RM42 billion. Some even do not understand the difference between exposure and loss and think that RM42 billion is what 1MDB lost.

"As Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said, whether money has been lost or not is not the issue because, during his time also, money had been lost.

“In fact, during Dr Mahathir’s time the government lost more than RM42 billion. The foreign exchange losses alone came to RM58 billion at today’s value, and added to the RM20 billion MAS disaster, that comes to RM78 billion," Salleh said.

'Najib has answered, time and again'

He also cited, as an example, the debt on which Najib and 1MDB had answered, time and time again, on the US$1 billion investment from Abu Dhabi to "save 1MDB'.

"But then, when it is explained that billions of dollars in investments from Abu Dhabi are coming in, with a first payment of US$1 billion, Tony Pua ( photo ) from DAP accuses 1MDB of borrowing money from loan sharks.

"So, you see, 1MDB’s critics do not seem to accept any explanation. They insist that RM42 billion has disappeared into thin air and that there is an attempt to ‘bail out’ 1MDB. Even when 1MDB explains that it is not a bailout, the critics still insist it is a bailout," Salleh added.

Yesterday, Umno-owned media Utusan Malaysia reported that Najib issued an ultimatum to his cabinet members at their meeting last Friday to resign if they do not support him on the 1MDB issue.

Najib has been hit hard by critics on his handling of national issues, some of whom rallied behind Mahathir in his scathing comments and blog posts.

On March 15, Salleh speculated that Mahathir has an ulterior motive to forcibly remove Najib as prime minister, rather than highlight national issues of concern to the people.