Lim Kit Siang has claimed that Najib Abdul Razak has taken the unprecedented step of conducting a pre-trial defence through the media.

The DAP veteran said the former premier was doing this despite objecting to how his case was subjected to a trial by media.

Lim also said Najib resorted to the “most novel and unbelievable” claim that the US$681 million (RM2.6 billion) in his personal accounts were "contingency funds" from the king of Saudi Arabia, channelled through what he claimed was one of the latter's companies, Tanore Finance Corporation.

“This is a most peculiar time for Najib to come out with such a novel defence – when the Malaysian public can easily find answers to the 1MDB conundrum through two books available in the bookshops,” he said in a statement this afternoon.

He was referring to Sarawak Report editor Clare Rewcastle-Brown's The Sarawak Report – the Inside Story of the 1MDB Exposé and Billion Dollar Whale by Wall Street Journal journalists Tom Wright and Bradley Hope.

According to Lim, he had shown MCA deputy president Wee Ka Siong a copy of Billion Dollar Whale when he met him at the Subang Airport lounge yesterday but the latter was uninterested.

“I was surprised that he showed the least interest in the book on how a Penangite 'fooled Wall Street, Hollywood and the world' – as well as 30 million Malaysians – as if he knew all along about the enormity of the 1MDB scandal, as well as the financial scams and scandalous escapades of 1MDB mastermind Jho Low,” he added.

Lim was responding to Wee's statement yesterday that collaboration between Umno and PAS was unfeasible and would push Chinese and Indian voters towards Pakatan Harapan.

Wee said 85 of 222 parliamentary seats in the country consisted of more than 35 percent Chinese and Indian voters, and 69 of the seats were made up of more than 40 percent Chinese and Indian voters.

“A PAS-Umno cooperation is also not feasible for the 31 seats in Sarawak and 25 in Sabah. If Umno chooses to work together with PAS, BN can kiss these constituencies goodbye,” he added.

However, Lim said MCA, Umno, BN and even PAS can kiss their future goodbye if their leaders are not prepared to “apologise and repent for aiding and abetting” Najib in the 1MDB scandal.

“Their apologies and repentance are now all the more imperative with the law enforcement agencies closing in and with the 1MDB chickens coming home the roost,” he added.