MUCH has been said, speculated and analysed about 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB). Why the special interest, why some media outlets like The Malaysian Insider and The Edge Media Group at large are pursuing the matter relentlessly?

Our critics have even said there is a political objective to it. Well, it is not just The Edge Media Group which has demanded more disclosures and answers from 1MDB, but also Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Tun Daim Zainuddin.

Both men are no fans of The Edge Media Group and we have been critical of them when they were in government. But with regard to 1MDB, we are on the same page.

We want to prevent the RM48 billion liability of 1MDB from bringing the country’s financial system down.

As Daim said on Wednesday, asking questions and criticising the opaqueness of 1MDB is not about politics, it is about the interest of the country.

“This has nothing to do with politics. We can play politics with a lot of things but not this,” he said after addressing a Capital Market Conference organised by Affin–Hwang Securities.

And yesterday, Dr Mahathir demanded a special audit of 1MDB, adding that if the company owned by the Finance Ministry was doing fine, why would it need to borrow money from a businessman to pay its debt to the banks.

Dr Mahathir also noted that 1MDB had not revealed what it had done with the money it claimed to have redeemed from the Cayman Islands.

“Where is the money? They haven’t told us where it is. And if they do have it, why didn’t they use it to pay off their debts? They wouldn’t need to borrow from Ananda to do it.”

We say kudos to Dr Mahathir and Daim for being willing to speak out about 1MDB as their voice will carry the necessary weight for action to be taken to prevent 1MDB from becoming one major disaster for Malaysia. — The Malaysian Insider

This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on February 13, 2015.