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PKR: Why did Najib admit 1MDB failings?
Published:  Jan 25, 2018 9:37 AM
Updated: 1:55 AM

Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak's admission that there were failings in 1MDB has raised the suspicions of PKR secretary-general Saifuddin Nasution Ismail.

Saifuddin questioned the timing of the admission, and if there were any hidden motives behind it.

"Is he trying to show that he was not involved and wants to convince the people about it, especially since the 14th general election is expected soon?

"Is there a hidden motive? Or has he found a victim to become a scapegoat so that he can escape from the country's biggest scandal?" Saifuddin asked in a statement today.

On Tuesday, Najib said there were indeed "failings" in 1MDB, which prompted him to order an extensive investigation into the state investment fund.

“There were lapses of governance. There was a valid cause for concern," the prime minister had said.

Najib has denied any wrongdoing on his part in the 1MDB scandal, and attorney-general Mohamed Apandi Ali has also cleared him of misconduct.

However, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) claims that US$731 million allegedly misappropriated from 1MDB had been deposited into the accounts of an unidentified person, named in its court filings as “Malaysian Official 1” (MO1).

Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Abdul Rahman Dahlan has said that MO1 is Najib, but stressed that not being named meant that prime minister was not the subject of the DOJ's investigations.

Saifuddin said that if Najib was serious about his admission of failings in 1MDB, then the audit report on the firm should be declassified.

"With such a move, surely those responsible for the failings of 1MDB will get dragged to face justice, once the audit report is revealed.

"Najib himself has no reason to fear the audit report being removed from the OSA (Official Secrets Act 1972), for he himself has admitted there were failings in 1MDB," Saifuddin added.

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