Amanah strategy director Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad said in a statement today the “callous response” of Apandi in labelling the DoJ probe leading to assets forfeiture as ‘insinuations’ of criminal wrongdoing against Prime Minister Najib Razak was “simply incredulous”.
Apandi had dismissed the latest suit by US authorities over 1MDB, calling it a repeat of last year’s case in which Washington sought to confiscate more than US$1 billion in connection with the sovereign wealth fund.
He had said that neither Malaysian nor international authorities investigating 1MDB had furnished any evidence of misappropriated funds.
“At no point in the civil claims is the prime minister named as a defendant or has been alleged to have committed any wrongdoing,” he had added in a statement.
Dzulkefly said the latest filing of the DoJ put funds allegedly embezzled from 1Malaysia Development Bhd at US$4.5billion. The DoJ is now seeking to seize US$1.7 billion in assets it says were bought using money stolen from 1MDB.
1MDB, and government ministers, have consistently denied there has been any embezzlement.
Dzulkefly said if Apandi’s stand wasn’t sufficient to “humiliate us as a sovereign nation with at least some semblance of rule of law,” the prime minister’s aide and 1MDB added insult to injury by accusing the DoJ of having ulterior motives and of going beyond just assets forfeitures.
Noting that people had been prosecuted and jailed in other countries over 1MDB transactions, Dzulkefly wondered if Malaysian cabinet ministers were “outlawed” from reading the latest 251 page complaint of the DoJ, or, for that matter, the many news reports and writings on 1MDB.
He said the latest exposure of wrongdoings and the reaction of Malaysian officialdom had brought infamy and shame to the nation.
He added that the DoJ had shed light on where some of the US$620 million ‘returned donation’ to the ‘donor’ (of the US$680 million that Najib had received) had actually gone.
He said the DoJ lawsuit mentioned that US$2.73 million from the US$620 million “returned donation” was used to buy jewellery, including a 22-carat pink diamond and necklace for the wife of a person named as ‘MO1’.
Asking whether the public should take this “ignominy” lying down, Dzulkefly noted that even the earlier statement from the Conference of Rulers for an effective legal resolution to the 1MDB debacle had come to naught.
He said if cabinet members and those in the Umno supreme council had any moral compunction, they should “immediately act to mitigate the nation from experiencing a perfect storm of scandals or (going) into a tailspin”.
“Removing Najib is surely an option, though arguably not in the best political and electoral interest of the opposition fraternity.”
Drzulkefly said if all else failed, the public would have to wait for the 14th General Election and convincingly reject the Barisan Nasional government.