Public Accounts Committee (PAC) deputy chairperson Dr Tan Seng Giaw, who faced a barrage of criticism over his “Najib was not involved in 1MDB” remarks, has adamantly stood by his comments.

He, however, said he did not defend Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak or cleared him of any wrongdoing.

"Najib's name only appeared as the chairman of 1MDB's advisory board, thus I said he was not directly involved. He was only involved (in 1MDB) indirectly," he told Malaysiakini .

"If a man wants to do something bad, would he leave his trails with the local banks? He would have done so using overseas banks," he elaborated.

"But details from overseas banks were not available to us. They refused to give them to us. We had to draw our conclusion based on the evidence we had," he added.

As PAC deputy chief, he said his answers were reflective of the committee's overall findings when he was accosted by journalists for comments.

But he stressed that many issues surrounding 1MDB were left unanswered.

PAC's report on 1MDB, which held its former chief executive Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi and other top managers responsible, was presented to Parliament on Thursday.

Tan was slammed by netizens for saying that Najib was not directly involved in 1MDB, while his DAP colleague Tony Pua, who is also a PAC member, pointed out that the prime minister should be responsible for the mismanagement of the troubled state investment fund.

Some netizens demanded Tan to step down or to retract his remarks, while others accused him of betraying the voters.

The eight-term parliamentarian decried that he was unfairly criticised.

" Malaysiakini quoted me correctly, but (some media did) not. I was reported as saying Najib was not liable. But those who read the news just twisted my remark.

"My conscience is clear, I did not betray my constituents," said the Kepong parliamentarian.

"The main purpose of PAC's probe was to identify why 1MDB's debt accumulated to RM50 billion and find the person responsible for it," he explained.

"In this, I do not (personally) think we have completed our mission," he noted.

Both Kit Siang and Pua defend Tan

Meanwhile, Pua came Tan’s defence, saying that the evidence submitted by 1MDB did not link the scandal directly to Najib.

"But we cannot clear Najib as other evidence (on 1MDB's overseas transactions) was not submitted to us," he said.

Agreeing, DAP supremo Lim Kit Siang said, "I don't think anybody reading the (PAC) report can name him (Najib) directly. It does not directly implicate him, but there is also no exoneration whatsoever.

"Because of this, the whole thing is still very wide open. Suspicion remains very clear and evident."