An opposition leader has urged the Information Department to print a million copies of the Conference of Rulers’ concern about 1MDB, rule of law and national unity, to be distributed to the public nationwide.

DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang said the government and Malaysians should support the rulers with regard to their statement.

“The statement highlighted three national issues which haunt and hound thinking and patriotic Malaysians who want to save Malaysia from hurtling down the slippery slope towards a rogue state.

“For a start, to save Malaysia and support the rulers' statement, the Information Department should print a million copies of the statement on Oct 6 on their concerns for mass distribution to the public throughout the country.

“Will Mohd Salleh Said Keruak as the minister for communications and multimedia do so?” he asked in a statement today.

Lim also noted that four days had passed since the rulers made their stand, and the government’s response went through various combinations and permutations.

“From the initial one of shock and attempt to minimise the adverse impact of the rulers' statement by virtually blacking out the statement in Umno-controlled media.

“The daze-and-haze of the Cabinet at its Wednesday meeting where the statement was not discussed and no reciprocal action plan produced.

“The belated realisation that the statement was too potent to be ignored giving way to a campaign to defang its most biting and adverse effects,” he said.

Lim pointed out that the first official response came from Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi some 48 hours later.

Zahid, he said, issued a statement that meant nothing at all, “waffling through the minefields of the rulers’ statement – using a lorry of words to say nothing.”

Following this, he said Umno vice-president Hishammuddin Hussein remarked that the rulers’ stand cannot be interpreted as expressing lack of trust in Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak’s leadership.

As for Salleh, Lim noted how the communications and multimedia minister said giving prominence only to the portion on 1MDB had placed the rulers in a “political crossfire”, when the rulers had also mentioned other issues.

“He (Salleh) asked why the impression was being created that the rulers' statement is only concerned about “a single issue”?

“Good question. Can Zahid and Hishammuddin answer Salleh?” Lim replied.

Taking a swipe at BN strategic director Abdul Rahman Dahlan, Lim said the minister made the most “unstrategic statement” that the rulers’ stand was in line with what the government wanted regarding the probe on 1MDB.

“If so, why did the Umno-owned and controlled Utusan Malaysia dismiss the rulers' statement to page 4 without prominence whatsoever, while giving front-page treatment the same day to a report on PKR's so-called troubles over the formation of Pakatan Harapan?

“It is a terrible indictment on the education system of the country and the educational standards of our leaders that the 36 ministers in the Najib Cabinet cannot understand what is being said in the rulers' statement,” he added.