(May 27): DAP today has demanded for an immediate halt to the parliamentary debate on the 11th Malaysia Plan to make way for Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak to provide a ministerial statement on his role in 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).

Its parliamentary leader, Lim Kit Siang, said this should then be followed by a two-day debate, tantamount to whether Najib still enjoyed the confidence of the Parliament.

He said Najib had been caught “red-handed” for saying that as the 1MDB advisory board chairman, he was not responsible for the management of operations within the state investment vehicle.

Now with leaked documents showing that the PM had the final say over any “financial commitment” undertaken by 1MDB's precursor Terengganu Investment Authority (TIA), Najib must give answers, Lim said.

"This will be the first time in the nation’s history that a prime minister has been caught red-handed in such a charade on a grand scale.

"In the circumstances, there should be an immediate halt to the parliamentary debate on the 11th Malaysia Plan.

"This would tantamount to a vote of confidence in Parliament as to whether Najib should continue as Prime Minister," he said in a statement today.

Lim cited recent reports that according to the leaked TIA Memorandum and Articles of Association agreement that was inked on February 27, 2009, the prime minister must give his written approval for any of TIA’s deals, including the firm’s investments or any bid for restructuring.

1MDB was incorporated in 2009, after Najib announced the decision to turn TIA into a federal agency.

If Clause 117 of the agreement remained unchanged, it would mean that the prime minister had given his consent to many of 1MDB's deals, including the decision to move US$1.1 billion from the Cayman Islands to a bank in Singapore, the deal with Mongolia-based company Gobi Coal & Energy Limited (GCE) and the sale of Tun Razak Exchange land to pilgrims’ fund Lembaga Tabung Haji, among others.

He quoted a statement by 1MDB president and group executive director Arul Kanda Kandasamy in The Malaysian Insider yesterday that “the requirement to obtain the prime minister’s written approval for any financial deals undertaken by 1MDB was never hidden from public knowledge”.

Lim also touched on the absence of Arul Kanda and former 1MDB CEO Datuk Shahrol Halmi from a scheduled Public Accounts Committee (PAC) hearing on the accumulated debt by the firm this week.

He noted that over the last two days, Arul who is supposedly overseas and could not attend the hearing had been unusually productive and accessible, making several media responses which raised the question whether he is really overseas.

Yesterday, Arul Kanda issued another statement to refute reports that 1MDB had only informed the PAC of the 1MDB duo’s no-show at the eleventh hour despite the notice to attend the hearing two weeks ago.

Arul said that it was only on May 21 that 1MDB received a letter from the Finance Ministry, appending the invitation sent by the PAC. – The Malaysian Insider