(May 29): Cabinet members should be given enough time to study and understand the roadmap to save debt-ridden 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) before a decision is made on it, a senior DAP leader said today.

The party's parliamentary leader Lim Kit Siang said that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak and Second Finance Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Husni Hanadzlah should be "fair" to the 35-member Cabinet as 1MDB's success or failure rested upon their shoulders.

"Najib and Husni should be fair to their ministerial colleagues, who should be given adequate time to understand and study the Save 1MDB Plan before a Cabinet decision is taken as all the ministers have to bear collective responsibility for the success or failure of the plan once it is approved by the Cabinet," he said in a statement today.

"The Cabinet should not repeat the farce of its March 4 meeting when ministers went through the motions of being briefed by 1MDB and its auditors Deloitte, with few understanding what was going on, but they still prematurely and foolishly cleared the troubled fund of wrongdoing and issued 1MDB a clean bill of health and integrity."

Lim's comments followed an announcement by Husni yesterday that the Finance Ministry would be tabling a roadmap to counter negative perceptions on the strategic investment fund company at today's Cabinet meeting.

Husni said the plan would be able to solve the problems plaguing 1MDB in the near future.

"We must strengthen the 1MDB restructuring, matching its businesses with the financing made. Once it is done, it will be all right," he was quoted as saying by Bernama.

Criticism has been mounting over the Finance Ministry's wholly-owned investment vehicle, established in 2009, which has chalked up debts of up to RM42 billion.

On March 4, following months of allegations and accusations against the fund, the Cabinet was briefed on the company's accounts by 1MDB and its auditors Deloitte.

After the meeting, Najib issued a statement saying that the Cabinet expressed confidence that no wrongdoing had been committed within 1MDB, as well as its desire for the company to be allowed to implement the proposed outcomes of its strategic review.

In the same statement, however, he ordered the auditor-general to vet the state investment vehicle's accounts while the Parliament's Public Accounts Committee (PAC) also began investigations into the company last Tuesday.

Referring to the March 4 Cabinet meeting, Lim asked how the Cabinet could clear 1MDB of any wrongdoing if the ministers had no access to the company's documents of its transactions and deals.

"I dare say without fear of contradiction that the overwhelming majority of the 35-strong Cabinet are quite ignorant as to what is happening in the 1MDB scandal, although they are collectively responsible for it."

He said he did not think any one of them would be prepared to face two of 1MDB's strongest critics, DAP's Petaling Jaya Utara MP Tony Pua and Pandan MP Rafizi Ramli (PKR), in a public debate or dialogue over the 1MDB controversy.

"This has led to the shocking spectacle of Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin declaring, more than two months after the Cabinet meeting which cleared 1MDB of wrongdoing, that the 1MDB board should be sacked and the police called in to investigate it," the DAP parliamentary leader said.

In a leaked video recording of a recent closed-door speech to some Umno leaders and division chiefs, Muhyiddin said that 1MDB's board should be sacked and the police called in to investigate over the huge debts incurred within just six years of operations. He said failure to address the scandal could bring down the government.

"Muhyiddin was not the only one in the Cabinet who was quite lost in the maze of the 1MDB deals and transactions, as Umno vice-president and Rural and Regional Development Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal also confessed that he and his ministerial colleagues were just as unclear as the public over 1MDB’s controversial and opaque deals," Lim said.

Lim asked today if the Cabinet would be allowed to decide by vote if they supported Muhyiddin's call to sack the entire 1MDB board and for police to investigate the company, proving that Putrajaya was serious in getting to the bottom of the scandal.

"The 35 ministers in the Najib Cabinet should be given adequate time to understand and study what the Save 1MDB Roadmap implies, especially as they had so far been kept in the dark about the most vital aspect of the 1MDB scandal – that the prime minister is the final approving authority for all 1MDB deals, transactions and investments in the past six years.

"Why was this important aspect of the prime minister’s direct role as final approving authority of any 1MDB deal, transaction or investment not brought to the attention of the Cabinet, Parliament and the public?" he asked.

He urged Najib, who is also finance minister, to come clean with the Cabinet and "tell all" about his role and dealings in 1MDB since it began operations.

This includes the number of times each year since 2009 that Najib had acted under Clause 117 of the 1MDB M&A Agreement which stipulates that the prime minister must give his “written approval” for any 1MDB deals, including the firm’s investments.

Lim also said Najib should reveal the details of every such decision and whether the prime minister had personally given “written approval” under Clause 117 of the 1MDB M&A Agreement for deals between the state-owned company and PetroSaudi International, Good Star Limited, UBG, Goldman Sachs, Gobi Coal and Energy Limited, as well as the Cayman Islands fund.

The prime minister should also come clean on the sale of the Tun Razak Exchange land to Tabung Haji, as well as his relationship with billionaire Low Taek Jho, who owns Goldstar. – The Malaysian Insider