He said scandals relating to illicit financial outflows were the cause of the country’s present fiscal woes.
“The opposition did not care about the 1MDB scandal,” he said. “It was a huge scandal.
“This is the problem of people not wanting to face reality. You are just like an ostrich with its head in the sand. See no evil, hear no evil,” he said in the Dewan Rakyat.
He was replying to Ronald Kiandee (BN-Beluran), who had raised the issue of trade misinvoicing as a cause of the country’s high illicit outflows. He also asked if the ministry was taking steps to prevent this from happening.
Trade misinvoicing is the illicit movement of money across borders involving the deliberate falsification of value or volume of an international commercial transaction of goods or services by at least one party to the transaction.
According to Global Financial Integrity, it is one of the largest components of illicit financial outflows.
Lim (PH-Bagan) acknowledged that this was a factor in the country’s high illicit outflow. However, he said the problem of corruption could not be overlooked.
Shamsul Anuar Nasarah (BN-Lenggong) then urged Lim not to deviate from the question.
“Don’t you have any other points?” he asked, adding that Lim was only repeating the same thing over and over again. He also said that the case was already in court.
To this, Lim said it would be irresponsible of opposition MPs not to admit the problem with corruption, and that they were not doing their duties as parliamentarians.
“Do not run away from the truth,” he said. “What happened was a mega scandal. Many coverups were done, but some quarters refuse to admit this.
“Regardless of whether through the courts, or in this lower house, we are committed to finding the truth on 1MDB to ensure that justice is served for all Malaysians,” he said.