THE Parliament should hold public hearings to determine how the 13th Parliament was prevented from exposing the 1MDB financial scandal and to ensure that Parliament will never be abused again to cover up financial scandals.
On Monday, I asked whether former attorney-general (AG) Tan Sri Mohamed Apandi Ali was capable of defending himself against the charge of being the worst AG in Malaysian history.
I also asked whether he would return the millions of ringgit he had extracted from the government in settlement of his lawsuit which he had instituted against the government for sacking him as AG, and told him to explain the “legal, ethical and monetary basis” for acting as lawyer for Jho Low, one of the key culprits responsible for the monstrous mega multi-billion dollar 1MDB financial scandal.
On Wednesday, I gave notice to ask the Prime Minister a Ministerial question, asking for details of the settlement of Apandi’s the suit against the government and Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad for his dismissal as AG in May 2018, and whether it was proper for Apandi to act as the lawyer representing Jho Low over the 1MDB scandal.
This question was not accepted for the three Ministerial questions slated for answer today as it does not appear in today’s Order Paper.
Although the question would not appear in Parliament today, Apandi has a public responsibility as the former Attorney-General to give answers.
Apandi had sued the Government for wrongful dismissal, alleging that he was entitled to special damages of over RM2.23 mil including loss of remuneration totalling RM1,285,213.68 from July 27, 2018 to July 26, 2021 (or RM35,700.38 in monthly remuneration over 36 months or three years) as AG.
Were Malaysian taxpayers paying for two Attorney-Generals from July 2018 to July 2021 – one AG in office and another AG out of office?
It has been a week since the 100-page judgement of Justice Datuk Azimah Omar in Apandi’s defamation suit against me was made public and Apandi has failed to answer the four questions highlighted by the Azimah judgment at the defamation hearing.
In fact, Apandi failed to answer these questions for the last two months since the judgement was announced on May 23, 2022.
The four questions which Apandi failed to explain, as highlighted by the Azimah judgement, were his failure to explain why:
- He (Apandi, when he was AG) absolved and exonerated Datuk Seri Najib Razak in the 1MDB scandal;
- He accepted the “fantastical” donation narrative without evidence;
- He closed investigations on the 1MDB scandal against advice of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) and his own internal task force; and
- He refused either to accept or offer mutual legal assistance from the Swiss Attorney-General and the US Department of Justice to investigate the 1MDB scandal.
When Apandi was AG for 33 months he played a critical role to cover up the 1MDB scandal.
During 2016 and 2017, the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) commenced thirty related civil forfeiture cases against a wide variety of real and personal property derived from the billions of dollars of ill-gotten gains of 1MDB scandal, but Apandi did nothing.
Can he explain why?
Apandi showed no interest in finding out who was “Malaysian Official 1”, although in he was described in the DOJ litigation suits in July 2016 as “a high-ranking official in the Malaysian government who also held a position of authority with 1MDB”.
Neither was he the least interested when the then Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Seri Abdul Rahman Dahlan admitted to BBC on September 1, 2016 that “MO1” was Najib.
Did Apandi ever ask Najib whether he was “MO1”? Or did every knowledgeable Malaysian know that “MO1” was Najib except Apandi?
The AG must answer not only for his role in covering up the 1MDB scandal but also whether the 13th Parliament was prevented from exposing the 1MDB scandal and became a party to the “cover-up” of the scandal because of a very biased Speaker. – July 28, 2022
Lim Kit Siang is Iskandar Puteri MP.
The views expressed are solely of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Focus Malaysia.
