GEORGE TOWN: Denying that he was part of an internal plot in Umno to weaken the party president and prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, Datuk Paduka Khairuddin Abu Hassan who lodged a police report against 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB), said he was acting alone.

Khairuddin said he was not acting on anyone’s behalf in making the report against the debt-ridden sovereign fund, of which Najib is chairman.

Khairuddin insisted that there was was nobody “standing behind him” in what he described as his “personal struggle for the truth”.

“I have spelt out very clearly [before]. I acted alone based on my own principles... I stand alone in this,” he told The Malaysian Insider yesterday.

Khairuddin, reportedly a strong supporter of Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad who has been vocal in his criticism of Najib and the fund, said he was only acting for the sake of public interest.

Lodging the police report against 1MDB had nothing to do with Umno, its president or the finance minister, said the businessman who has been with Umno for more than 25 years.

“The public outcry has gone on for too long. There have been many queries from the public, the opposition and even three former finance ministers. Reports in business newspaper The Edge had also pointed out these issues.

“But 1MDB just kept mum. It denied nothing. Just imagine the RM41.9 billion debt recorded by the company. It is a public issue. If anything goes wrong with the board, it will affect the government and in turn, affect the people.

“Unfortunately, we don’t have leaders who would ... question the matter. We have leaders who ... refuse to hear what the people are saying,” he said.

Khairuddin is a cousin of opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, and was the publisher of the controversial book 50 Dalil Kenapa Anwar Ibrahim Tidak Boleh Jadi PM (50 Reasons Why Anwar Ibrahim Cannot be PM) that was used against Anwar before his sacking from the government and the sodomy charge in 1998.

In his police report last Friday, Khairuddin called for a “detailed and comprehensive” investigation, urging authorities to interrogate 1MDB’s directors, as well as representatives of any company that might be implicated in its scandals.

He said he had lodged the report against the company and its board of directors after studying various reports in national and international print and online media that “clearly proved” there were weaknesses in 1MDB’s management of taxpayers’ funds. Khairuddin said he was saddened that Penang Umno and party secretary-general Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor could not understand why he had lodged the report against the private company.

He said he had spoken with his state party secretary, Datuk Musa Sheikh Fadzir, and Tengku Adnan on Saturday and both had advised him to retract his police report.

“But my stand is clear. I fight for the people. My conscience is clear. We need good governance in government-linked companies.” — The Malaysian Insider

This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on December 15, 2014.