Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad said they currently lack the manpower to investigate everyone in the previous government who is suspected of wrongdoing.

He said this in response to DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang’s call for several former high-ranking officers, as well as a former minister, to be investigated for their alleged role in the "Week of Long Knives" in July and August 2015.

“We find that the government who was defeated had many who committed crimes, but at this time, it is not possible for us to focus on them all because we lack manpower.

“Right now, we are focusing on the very serious cases such as the (former) prime minister who had caused a lot of the Retirement Fund Incorporated (KWAP) money to go missing,” Mahathir said in a press conference in Jasin, Malacca today, after officiating the Rumah Peduli Rakyat program there. 

Previously, Lim had called for former attorney-general Mohamed Apandi Ali, former minister in the prime minister’s department Abdul Rahman Dahlan, former chief secretary to the government Ali Hamsa and former Public Service Department director-general Mohamad Zabidi Zainal to be investigated.

“Was there an attempted coup against Najib involving charging him for corruption in the last week of July 2015, which was pre-empted by the sudden and unconstitutional sacking of the then-attorney-general Abdul Gani Patail (Apandi's predecessor)?

“It is time that all lights are focused on this mystery which is a blot on six decades of Malaysian democracy.

“Malaysians are in a parliamentary democracy and in the information era, and they are entitled to know what actually transpired in the cloak-and-dagger operations of the 'Week of Long Knives' in July/August 2015 in Putrajaya,” Lim (photo) had said.

Meanwhile, Mahathir also elaborated further on his earlier speech where he reminded civil servants not to be bound to the ruling party.

He said civil servants are allowed to join political parties but they should not be in leadership roles in the parties.

They should also remain impartial in carrying out their duties and not be influenced by their political affiliations, he added.

Mahathir also explained that those who have supported the current ruling party from the very beginning have the right to be appointed into government bodies and government-linked companies (GLCs).

They have worked hard for the success of the ruling party, he said, and they deserve it more than those who have not done anything to help the ruling party.

“Of course we will not appoint them as the chairperson of government bodies but they have the right to become members in government bodies and government businesses.

“If not, it will be that those who did not help get to reap the rewards while those who did help do not.

“That is not fair,” he said.

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Mahathir should present a White Paper on the 'Week of Long Knives'

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As 'ultimate boss', Najib influences KWAP - witness