This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on November 14, 2018
KUALA LUMPUR: Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad has assured the public that those charged with stealing money from state fund 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) will get a fair trial, including former leader Datuk Seri Najib Razak, CNBC reported.
“We believe in the rule of law. Whatever the law says, we accept,” Dr Mahathir told CNBC in an interview on Monday.
“I must admit that, in the previous regime, there was an attempt to fiddle with the judiciary. But we want a free judiciary and we hope that they will not be biased,” said the prime minister.
On July 4, Attorney-General Tommy Thomas also gave his assurance that Najib would be given a fair trial in his criminal breach of trust and graft case.
Najib has said that the 1MDB-related charges brought against him were politically motivated — a claim that Dr Mahathir denied to CNBC.
“If he has to be trialled, he should be trialled. If he’s charged and he’s found guilty, then the rule of law will apply. If he’s found innocent, then the rule of law will also apply,” Dr Mahathir said.
To date, Najib has been hit with 38 charges of graft and money laundering relating to transactions amounting to RM2.6 billion that are linked to 1MDB. Najib was chairman of 1MDB’s board of advisers until it was dissolved in May 2016, when the finance ministry took over its remaining assets.
CNBC also reported Dr Mahathir as saying that he would be surprised if US President Donald Trump won another White House term in 2020.
He said he based that prediction on what he deemed a “poor showing” by the Republican Party in the midterm elections. On top of that, Dr Mahathir also said Trump’s leaving office would end any potential for the “very disruptive trade war” to continue in the years to come.
“As you can see from the midterm elections, he has not done so well. The chances of him getting a second term are a bit bleak at the moment ... I will be surprised if he’s re-elected after his poor showing in the midterm elections,” the 93-year-old leader said.
The November elections were widely seen as a referendum for Trump and his policies. The Republican Party — which controlled both the Senate and the House before the elections — lost the House majority to the Democrats.
“If Trump is not there, the other members of the US government, whether they are Republicans or Democrats, they will not continue with this very disruptive trade war,” Dr Mahathir added, referring to the tit-for-tat tariff fight between the US and China.
Trump’s presence in the White House will determine how far the ongoing tariff fight will go, the Malaysian leader said.
He added he was not sure the expected meeting between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Group of 20 meeting would yield any compromise or breakthrough in the trade tensions between the world’s two largest economies.
“With Trump, you can’t predict anything; we don’t know how he will react,” said Dr Mahathir.
This is not the first time the Malaysian leader has publicly criticised the American president. Dr Mahathir previously urged Trump to be “consistent” and also said the president’s style was hurting US efforts in Asia.