ISKANDAR Puteri MP Lim Kit Siang questioned if former premier Datuk Seri Najib Razak was “promoting national interest” in the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) financial scandal which was once described by former United States Attorney-General Jeff Sessions as “kleptocracy at its worst” causing the country to be in a RM39.38 bil debt.
The DAP veteran’s comment came following news that Najib had expressed his disappointment with the Court of Appeal’s decision in upholding his guilty verdict in the SRC International Sdn Bhd case which had further labelled him a “national embarrassment”.
“He (Najib) said that throughout his time in public office, he had placed emphasis on promoting national interest,” he remarked.
“To be sure, I checked the summary of the Court of Appeal’s Grounds of Judgement which had five paragraphs on the section on ‘The national interest defence’ which rejected Najib’s defence that all his actions regarding SRC were for the national interest, primarily relying on the testimony of former Attorney-General (AG) Tan Sri Mohamed Apandi Ali, former Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) chief commissioner Tan Sri Dzulkifli Ahmad and former Treasury secretary-general Tan Sri Mohd Irwan Serigar.
“The Court of Appeal stated the general law that the opinion of any person, even if that person is the former AG, is not relevant in any court proceeding.
“Furthermore, the Court of Appeal also found that ‘it would be rather absurd for the Government to guarantee a loan to a government-linked corporate body knowing well that the corporate body does not have the ability to repay the loan or service the interest’.”
Appellate court judge Justice Datuk Abdul Karim Abdul Jalil in leading the bench further mentioned that it would certainly not be in the national interest to have a stable of insolvent companies, with full Government exposure to the loans taken by these companies which is simply bad financial management of public funds.
“The Court of Appeal found that Najib was ‘actively involved in ensuring that the Retirement Fund (Incorporated) (KWAP) loans were disbursed to SRC,” Lim added.
“However, after the funds had been disbursed, Najib ‘became indifferent to the whereabouts of the funds and did not inquire from the SRC as to what had happened to the funds, nor how it was utilised and for what purpose’.”
Concurring with the Court of Appeal’s judgment labelling Najib a “national embarrassment” Lim noted that he had received a written reply to his parliamentary question from Finance Minister Datuk Seri Tengku Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz that Malaysia owes RM39.38 bil as a result of the 1MDB scandal.
“Was Najib ‘promoting national interest’ in the 1MDB scandal which was described by the former United States Attorney-General Jeff Sessions as ‘kleptocracy at its worst’ causing Malaysia to be in debt which have to be paid by future generations?
“Maybe [he] can clarify.” – Dec 9, 2021
