The DAP publicity secretary said Johari’s assertion in declining his invitation to address a dinner on why Pua should stop criticisms on the 1MDB issue had shown that he was trying to escape the challenge.
“I am disappointed, although not surprised by Dato’ Seri Johari Abdul Ghani’s immediate decline of my invite to speak at my fund-raising dinner,” Pua said in a statement.
Johari had reportedly responded to Pua’s invitation by saying that he was not the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM), police and investigation agencies.
He said the agencies should be allowed to do their work, stressing that he had not mentioned in the open letter to Pua to end his criticisms that the agencies should stop their investigation.
Pua asked why Johari was shifting his responsibility to these agencies when it was his sworn duty to administer his own ministry’s subsidiaries.
“Isn’t uncovering multi-billion ringgit hanky-panky within his ministry part of his minister’s scope of work?” Pua questioned, wondering if Johari dared not ask about the matter because he already knew the answer and did not want to “rock the boat”.
Johari was also quoted by Malaysiakini yesterday as claiming that “I have to do my job as a minister and I would do the best for the country”.
Pua accused him of wanting to escape the challenge by taking the moral high ground.
He asked if Johari with necessary access to all the documents and transactions within the Finance Ministry subsidiaries had figured out why and how 1MDB and its sister company SRC International allegedly lost “tens of billions of ringgit”.
Pua had yesterday issued the open invitation to Johari to give an address at a fund-raising dinner in his constituency on why he (Pua) should stop harping on the alleged 1MBD scandal. He said Johari would be given a full hour to speak uninterrupted to voters.