Najib’s Baseless Claims In Parliament That The People Did Not Need To Pay A Single Cent Of Public Funds A Fantasy That He Must Withdraw And Apologise.

Minister of Finance Tengku Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz agrees that it is baseless for former Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak to claim that not a single sen of public funds has been used by the government to repay 1MDB debts.

Najib did not admit that these funds were returned to Malaysia in the form of penalties for defrauding 1MDB monies with Goldman Sachs paying back USD 3.9 billion for their nefarious role and wrongdoing in their issuance of a USD 6.5 billion bond for 1MDB, which was misappropriated. Clearly all these payments are insufficient to pay back the total amount of principal and interest for 1MDB debts amounting RM 52  billion, of which the principal amount is RM32 billion.

Now it is Najib’s word against a former Minister of Finance and the current Minister of Finance that rejects his fantasy that the people do not have to pay or bear the 1MDB debts. Does his fantasy reject his conviction in  December last year when the Court of Appeal upheld a conviction against Najib with a 12 years in jail sentence and RM 210 million in fines over corruption and money laundering linked to funds misappropriated from a 1MDB unit?

The government has repaid RM13.3 billion of 1MDB’s debt so far, with RM38.81 billion still outstanding as of Dec 31 last year, according to the Finance Ministry. Najib needs to apologise and retract his false and baseless claims in Parliament.

Lim Guan Eng

Secretary General of DAP