Accused of being confused on differences between a criminal case and a civil suit, DAP stalwart Lim Kit Siang said that it was instead Umno minister Ismail Sabri Yaacob who is confused.

“It is Sabri who is very confused – whether deliberately or otherwise – over the DOJ-1MDB controversy,” claimed Lim, who throughout his statement referred to Ismail as Sabri.

Lim said this was because Ismail supposedly could not even tell the difference between a chicken egg and a turtle egg.

He said this in reference to Ismail’s reported denials of having consumed turtle eggs during an Umno-organised dinner in Sandakan sometime last year, following photographs of the function that went viral on social media.

“Imagine a minister who can be confused between a turtle egg and a chicken egg accusing me of being confused between a civil and a criminal case over the US Department of Justice (DOJ) billion-dollar forfeiture lawsuits on the 1MDB-linked assets…,” said Lim.

Ismail yesterday reportedly accused Lim of being confused as the DOJ report is a civil case related to money-laundering activities in the United States and as such, is beyond the jurisdiction of the Malaysian police.

Ismail Sabri, who is also rural and regional development minister, was responding to Lim’s initial statement accusing inspector-general of police Khalid Abu Bakar of practising double standards over the Malaysian Official 1 (MO1) issue.

Lim said the Bera MP should, however, disclose the outcome of investigations into the ‘turtle egg’ dinner before creating more confusion on the 1MDB issue.

“Sabri should tell Malaysians of the outcome of the investigations into the ‘turtle egg’ dinner of the Umno Beluran division meeting dinner at Restoran Indah Keranamu in Sandakan in August last year before he creates new confusion over the 1MDB global scandal which is clearly completely out of his depths,” said Lim.

He claimed this was because Ismail Sabri could not comprehend his statements and speeches on the 1MDB issue, since the reported admission by Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Abdul Rahman Dahlan.

Abdul Rahman in a Sept 1 interview with the England’s BBC said that Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak is the Malaysian Official 1 (MO1) who was mentioned 36 times in the DOJ report as having allegedly siphoned US$731 million from 1MDB into his personal bank account.

Lim also claimed that Ismail Sabri, in his “confused” state and in coming to Khalid’s defence, had failed to answer his question on whether police would be questioning Abdul Rahman for admitting that Najib was MO1.

He added that this was the same reason the police had interrogated DAP’s national publicity secretary Tony Pua for naming Najib as MO1.

“And if not (calling Abdul Rahman), why not and (what is) the reason for the double standard in upholding law and administering justice in Malaysia?

“Was the IGP confused between criminal and civil proceedings in the DOJ lawsuit, leading to double standard in the police treatment of Pua and Rahman Dahlan?” he asked.

Global spotlight

In hitting out at the IGP, Lim said Ismail Sabri would have urged the police to probe all possible criminal conducts highlighted in the DOJ report if it had implicated any opposition leader.

Lim also questioned whether Ismail Sabri is a “true patriot” who would support measures to restore Malaysia’s international reputation.

“Does Sabri agree that all Malaysian organisations, whether political, civic, religious, commercial or even communal and clan associations, should take a common patriotic stand in a national and international campaign to purge and cleanse Malaysia of the international indictment of an overnight global kleptocracy?”

Among others, Lim proposed that there should be a special Parliament session held this month to discuss Malaysia’s response to the global spotlight on 1MDB.

He also said Najib should take the lead and clear Malaysia’s name when speaking at the United Nations General Assembly at the end of this month.

This is on top of sending an all-party parliamentary delegation to the UN to assist in the move to clear Malaysia’s name, said Lim who challenged Ismail Sabri to bring up his proposals during this week’s cabinet meeting on Wednesday.