Arul Kanda said: “We are obliged to explain (1MDB issues) to the people through any means. And during the election campaign, the opposition leaders will use the 3Rs — reuse, retell and rascal (sic) — false things about 1MDB. So we must explain them all.”
As president and chief executive of 1Malaysia Development Berhad, he was a spokesperson for the company. His tour was not politically motivated, he said, but a counter-campaign against lies spread during the election campaigns of opposition politicians contesting the general election.
Arul said he was disappointed with the absence of opposition politicians in the audience, despite having invited them to attend forums held in their bastions such as Penang, Subang and Shah Alam.
Just bad business decisions, otherwise 1MDB is okay
Arul told the crowd that 1MDB’s problems were purely “business problems”, which he said was also the finding of the parliamentary Public Accounts Committee.
He said PAC members included some of 1MDB’s staunchest critics, such as DAP’s Tony Pua.
“Not everything is bad in 1MDB. We have done a lot of corporate social responsibility work, giving RM690 million to the needy all over the country.
“There is no hiding, no cover-up about whatever we are doing. The PAC has found us to have used a wrong business model and much more, which are all business problems.
“The 1MDB PAC report is available online for download for all to see,” he said.
1MDB does not need GST money to resolve its problems
Arul said 1MDB’s assets had a current value of RM43 billion, and its debts at RM31 billion. He said the debts would be easily settled and there was no need for the government to use GST revenue, as the assets were more than enough to pay off the debts, he said.
He said opposition claims of a criminal investigation into 1MDB in Singapore and Switzerland were not true: only bankers and banks had been found guilty.
As for calls by former ministers Rafidah Aziz and Rais Yatim to reclaim assets listed in suits by the US Justice Department, Arul said it would be premature.
“The suits were filed in July 2016; until today there has been no decision by the courts. So long as there is no conclusion to the case, we cannot say if it (allegations made in the suit) are true or not. Because we do not know. Those are allegations.
“We should not make speculations on the case when it has not even begun in court,” he said.
He brought up the example of the criminal trial faced by Penang chief minister Lim Guan Eng and pointed out that not even one person from Barisan Nasional had said Lim was guilty. “Right? Because the case just got to court. But why in the case of (the US suits) everyone is saying we are guilty? Do you see the double standards and hypocrisy there?”