It is too late for Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin to admit 1MDB was the cause of the “catastrophic” downfall of Umno and BN in the 14th general election (GE14), says DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang.

In a statement today, the Iskandar Puteri parliamentarian said Khairy's post-election mea culpa was too little, too late.

Lim said this in response to an interview with Khairy that was published by the South China Morning Post (SCMP) yesterday.

In the interview, the former youth and sports minister said the collective failure of government ministers to exert sustained pressure on their leader over the 1MDB scandal may have caused their “catastrophic” defeat in the election last month.

Lim said Khairy had validated the indictments and condemnations of the Pakatan Harapan leaders on 1MDB issues.

"But as Khairy has now admitted, there was not even a bleat from any one of the 730-odd Umno/BN candidates about the evil and monstrosity of the 1MDB scandal," he said.

He questioned the steps Khairy, Umno, and BN would take to redeem themselves in the wake of the general election.

"What redemption over the 1MDB scandal is Khairy (photo) and the entire Umno/BN coalition capable of performing post-GE14?" Lim said.

He asked if Khairy will propose electing a new supreme council at Umno’s coming annual general assembly, which could demonstrate the party's contrition over 1MDB by adopting a resolution to apologise for the 1MDB scandal.

"Will all Umno/BN MPs support a motion in Parliament calling for a full investigation of the 1MDB scandal to cleanse or purge Malaysia of the infamy, ignominy and iniquity of the 1MDB scandal?" he added.

In the SCMP interview, Khairy - who has been entrusted with reforming the party - acknowledged that Umno was in danger of irrelevance if its three million members resisted structural changes.

“We perhaps missed an opportunity, all of us, to convey the truth of the gravity of the situation,” Khairy said.

“All of us stopped or did not convey what we felt were sentiments on the ground and what we felt were the true concerns of the voters,” he added.

“At some point there was a line drawn, that’s it, no further questions, no more discussions about this (1MDB) and that was that,” the Rembau MP said.

“After a while we just went with it and look at where we have ended up."