(January 15): New 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) chief Arul Kanda Kandasamy has a lot more to explain about its redeemed Cayman Islands funds, such as where the money is now parked and the exact amount received in cash, the DAP said today as it urged for greater transparency in the newly-minted chief executive officer's handling of controversies plaguing the troubled investment fund.

DAP national publicity secretary Tony Pua said Arul had yet to explain what he meant by saying that 1MDB had "redeemed in full" the US$2.318 billion (more than RM8 billion) which the company had invested in a Cayman Islands registered fund.

"It will certainly raise the public’s confidence in 1MDB if the new CEO could be more specific if by 'redeemed', he meant that the proceeds from the disposal of the investment in Cayman Islands have already been “received” by 1MDB," Pua said in a statement today.

"Arul should also confirm the actual amount received in cash by the company. Such disclosure will certainly go a long way towards lifting the secrecy veil over the various mysterious actions of the company over the past 5 years," the Petaling Jaya Utara MP added.

Pua said it was not clear where the redeemed funds actually were and noted that business news portal Kinibiz.com had pointed out that Arul's statement did not specify "where the money is currently being held".

The opposition lawmaker was responding to Arul's statement on January 13 that 1MDB had redeemed the funds invested by it in a Cayman Islands registered fund.

Pua, however, noted that the statement came soon after Arul in an email interview with The Malaysian Insider had said that more time was needed to repatriate the funds because of the "size and nature" of the investment. Prior to that, 1MDB chairman Tan Sri Lodin Wok Kamaruddin had also said that the funds would only be redeemed "in the coming months".

The strategic investment fund, the brainchild of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak and owned by the government, was to have brought back its Caymans funds before the end of November as agreed with its auditors, Deloitte Malaysia.

Pua had earlier questioned if 1MDB had misled Deloitte over the timeline of the repatriation of the funds because of the delay.

With a lack of details now, Pua said, Arul would be doing himself "great injustice if he doesn't wipe the slate clean and increase transparency to rescue and rebuild the troubled company".

In his email interview with The Malaysian Insider, Arul had rebuffed critics of 1MDB for making "politically driven" attacks against the company.

He did not name Pua, but said that the fund's critics did not understand the "genuine business considerations" that 1MDB had to consider.

Pua today, however, said Arul should be more transparent and noted his weak answers in a recent exclusive interview given to business weekly The Edge.

"Arul failed to reply key questions convincingly on the mess that 1MDB is in," Pua said, noting his flat denials or evasive answers to questions on the fund's inability to repay its loans and about the price at which 1MDB bought its power assets.

"Arul is not hired to play politics but to put 1MDB back in shape. If critics like myself get our facts and figures wrong, feel free to shame us with the right facts and figures. Let these facts and figures speak for themselves instead of attempting to taint the critics," said Pua.