The DAP secretary-general said finance minister Tengku Zafrul Aziz personally told him the Cabinet had approved it and there was no guarantee that Najib will not re-apply after the Melaka state election was over.
“Despite Najib announcing he will withdraw the application, a bloc vote in the Dewan Rakyat will guarantee that the former prime minister does not apply for the same benefit later on.
“His decision to withdraw the application for a piece of land in Bukit Petaling was for political purposes in the run-up to the Melaka polls today. The original decision of the Cabinet to approve is wrong and must be reversed,” he said in a statement today.
The Bagan MP added that the decision by the Cabinet to approve the application in the first place, makes a complete mockery of Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob’s Keluarga Malaysia concept.
“Keluarga Malaysia seems to only benefit the immediate political family of the government and not all Malaysians,” Lim said, adding that there has been mounting public anger over the matter.
Recently, finance minister Tengku Zafrul Aziz told the Dewan Rakyat that the government had received the “the claim” from Najib for a particular plot of government land.
Although the market value of the prime property has not been made official, reports have alleged that it is worth RM100 million.
Najib said yesterday that he was withdrawing the application as the matter had created an uncomfortable atmosphere among the people.
He said his office only asked to be given a residence after the last general election as allowed under federal law for former prime ministers. He added that he was then asked to choose from three plots of land.
Lim also called for a bloc vote on the High-Speed Rail (HSR) project, currently revived to terminate in Johor Bahru, instead of Singapore as earlier envisioned.
He said the endpoint plan was not practical and financially not viable as it would deprive the states of Melaka, Negeri Sembilan, Johor and Selangor from the economic spillover of having the train stop in Singapore.