“Please show me proof that Najib had ever interfered in changing the type of the ship from Sigma to Gowind or that Najib had ever taken money from this project,” he wrote on Facebook.
His posting came in the wake of reports that DAP stalwart Lim Kit Siang had urged Najib to stop attempting to shift the blame for the LCS scandal to others.
In response, Najib said he would stop “if Uncle (Lim) and/or PH can answer these simple questions”, listing out six items for which he wanted answers.
He asked why PH kept silent on the LCS project while it was in power (2018 – 2020) when the first LCS was supposed to be delivered in April, 2019.
He also countered their criticism of the delays in the project by asking “What about year 2020 (Covid)? Year 2021 (Covid)?”, a period of pandemic lockdowns, when the project was suspended.
He also asked why were PH coordinating their efforts to make the LCS project a major issue right before the impending general election.
Najib said former defence minister Mohamad Sabu and his deputy Liew Chin Tong had previously said it was not the former PH government that ordered the project to stop but that Boustead Naval Shipyard Sdn Bhd (BNS) had run out of funds to continue the project.
Najib said Boustead Holdings made up 45% of the assets held by LTAT (the armed forces pension fund), and the fund had never once lost money in the entire nine-year period he was PM.
“But it registered big losses in 2018 and 2019 under PH when the economy and the share market tanked,” he said and asked what the PH government had done to help BNS and LTAT.
“How much funds or loan guarantees did the PH government provide to BNS to ensure this national strategic contract is resumed and progressing?”
Najib said one of the goals of the LCS project was to develop national capabilities in building and maintaining naval ships.
“If this project is not given to BNS owned by LTAT, then who is the next best consortium or company with the right industry experience as well as the necessary construction dockyards to give the project to?” he said.