Najib's query leads to shouting match when Guan Eng raises 1MDB

PARLIAMENT| Pandemonium erupted in the Dewan Rakyat during Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng's winding-up speech on the royal address when former premier Najib Abdul Razak asked him about the latest national debt figures.

Najib had earlier asked the minister to respond to Bank Negara's report that the national debt had increased by RM87.1 billion since 2017 to RM773.1 billion this year.

"I want to inform Najib (BN-Pekan) that the Pakatan Harapan government, since taking over on May 9, has not had any new mega-projects and any loans we made were because of development projects which were approved earlier ... under Budget 2018.

"When Harapan took over as the government, we had to follow the Budget 2018 which was approved in the previous year," Lim replied.

He said the projects were continued on the condition of being free of corruption and with reduced cost.

The minister added that if the cost of the projects were not reduced, the loans would have been much higher.

The shouting match started when Lim brought up the issue of 1MDB, claiming that the previous administration had hidden the debts of 1MBD by not including it in the official numbers.

Tajuddin Abdul Rahman (BN-Pasir Salak) demanded to know who "hid" the figures, while Khairy Jamaluddin (BN-Rembau) said the government is attempting to make it seem like the supposed RM1 trillion national debt is mostly due to the 1MDB scandal when it is related to other development projects such as the Pan-Borneo Highway.

Lim tried to respond to Khairy, but was constantly drowned out by interruptions from the opposition, including Najib himself, who said the country's deficit decreased every year while he was prime minister.

"Because the debt was hidden. It was hidden, do you understand," shouted Tony Pua (Harapan-Damansara) in response to Najib.

The Dewan Rakyat erupted into chaotic shouting again after this, forcing deputy speaker Nga Kor Ming to chide opposition lawmakers for interrupting Lim.

"The minister is trying to answer, but you are not giving him a chance to answer. It seems like this is being done on purpose," he said.

He called for everyone to stop interrupting and for those who were not interested in listening to Lim to leave the chambers.

With only four minutes left on the clock for Lim's winding-up speech, Nga ruled out any more questions.

When Lim eventually managed to continue his speech, another shouting match erupted over the sale of the Malaysia Building in Hong Kong.

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