MP SPEAKS | Umno secretary-general Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor said that BN must counter the perception created by the opposition on 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) to win back Selangor.

He claimed the 1MDB issue had been solved, and Umno now must fix the wrong perception that the opposition had created.

"The 1MDB issue has been solved. The bad perception was created (by the opposition) to confuse the voters. So, Umno has to step in to clear the confusion," he said after opening the Petaling Jaya Utara Umno division meeting in Ara Damansara yesterday morning, according to an online news report.

If only Umno and BN’s problems in Selangor were merely as simple as “perception”. Indeed, if that was the only problem with 1MDB, it would have been extremely easy to fix.

The challenge for Umno-BN, if Tengku Adnan hasn’t realised by now, isn’t a mere problem of perception. It is the problem that their attempts to fake facts have gained no traction, especially in Selangor where the thinking electorate do not fall, hook, line and sinker, for BN’s lies.

The people of Selangor, what more in Petaling Jaya Utara, can see with their own eyes how Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak and 1MDB are hiding from “sensitive” questions about the RM50 billion monster scandal.

Why else would the speaker of Parliament reject nearly all questions with regards to 1MDB, even as innocuous as seeking to know the current value of 1MDB’s ‘unit’ investments previously held with the now-defunct BSI Bank in Singapore?

Why else would the prime minister not answer as to why is it that attorney-general Mohamed Apandi Ali claimed that the charges laid out by the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) were “politically motivated”?

It also isn’t a question of perception when 1MDB repeatedly failed to fulfil its obligations to repay its agreed instalment to Abu Dhabi’s International Petroleum Investment Corporation (IPIC) amounting to billions of ringgit.

Selangorians not so dumb

The people of Selangor are not so dumb, as to not be able to see the fact 1MDB has suffered billions of ringgit in losses, as a result of a kleptocratic BN administration which will lead to Malaysians footing the RM42 billion 1MDB bill.

They can read between the lines when the prime minister failed to deny or explain the US$732 million (RM2,6 billion) which had been deposited into his personal bank account in AmBank since the US DOJ exposed that the funds originated from 1MDB.

They can also deduce intelligently when his wife, Rosmah Mansor, failed to explain or deny allegations of the acquisition of a US$27.3 million 22-carat pink diamond ring/necklace [by a certain ‘Mrs Malaysian Official 1'] after the latest allegations by the DOJ.

Hence the biggest problem the BN administration faces isn’t a question of perception. The biggest 1MDB problem facing BN is the people are staring at the bare indisputable facts which the BN leaders are only trying to sweep under the carpet.

Most importantly, we are confident that the people of Selangor will support the Pakatan Harapan coalition comprising Bersatu, Amanah, PKR and DAP, and reject all other parties who fail to crusade against the single largest case of robbery and kleptocracy in the history of Malaysia.

TONY PUA is DAP national publicity secretary and Petaling Jaya Utara MP.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.