KUALA LUMPUR (July 27): Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said he had to read The Edge to get information on troubled state investment fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).
The deputy prime minister then questioned if news reports on 1MDB by The Edge could not be trusted, which source could people trust.
"I myself also found it difficult to understand what was going on with 1MDB, and so much so that I had to read The Edge.
"People tell me The Edge reports were not correct. So tell me, what is correct," he said when officiating a Cheras Umno division delegates event in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.
Muhyiddin said his Cabinet colleagues Datuk Seri Ahmad Husni Hanadzlah and Datuk Abdul Rahman Dahlan had issued statements to explain the 1MDB situation but it had done little to ease public scepticism on the matter.
"Who should tell you the truth? It is the prime minister. But he said wait for the PAC and audit report. So wait, wait and wait. I have yet to even read the (auditor-general's) interim report," he said, adding the best way to convince the public now was to make all reports on the matter public.
He said this will help regain public trust.
The Home Ministry has suspended the publishing permits of The Edge Weekly and The Edge Financial Daily for three months effective today following its coverage on the alleged wrongdoings by 1MDB.
A letter from the ministry stated that the publications' coverage of 1MDB was "prejudicial or likely to be prejudicial to public order, security or likely to alarm public opinion or is likely to be prejudicial to public and national interest".
Earlier this month, The Edge received a show-cause letter in which the ministry gave them seven days to explain why action should not be taken under the Printing Presses and Publication Act 1984.
The Edge was accused of publishing articles on the controversial state fund which were said to have created confusion and doubt about the Malaysian government and financial institutions.
The Edge will file a leave application for a judicial review today.