Friday 29 Mar 2024
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(June 5): The former Umno man who lodged a police report against 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) last year has called Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak a "coward" for not showing up at a forum on the controversial state investment firm.

Former Umno Batu Kawan deputy division chief Datuk Khairuddin Abu Hassan also said Najib, who is also finance minister and chairs the firm's advisory board, was not fit to be prime minister.

Najib did not attend the event called "Nothing to Hide" which was supposed to be a dialogue session between him and NGOs, after the police cited security concerns and halted it.

But former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, Najib's fiercest critic, showed up after the organisers SukaGuam gave him an open invitation.

"There is no other security reason, Najib is a coward and is not qualified to be PM," said Khairuddin, who was sacked from Umno earlier this year for being a bankrupt. He has said that his sacking was due to his criticism of Najib and 1MDB.

"What security concern? Everything was peaceful today.”

Former political secretary to Dr Mahathir, Matthias Chang, who also attended the event, questioned the reason behind Najib's intention to attend the dialogue session in the first place.

"You call this event 'Nothing to Hide'. So does this mean there was something that was being hidden before, now that you need to come here and bare it all?" Chang asked.

"Dr Mahathir was given an open invitation to the event and he was here by 9am. I don't know why Najib didn't show up – but what was the need for the dialogue session in the first place?"

Perkasa chief Datuk Ibrahim Ali, however, supported the police's move to halt the event, saying that temperatures were running high and untoward incidents must be avoided.

"Even in a game of football, the referee blows the whistle wrongly, people get agitated. This is politics," he said.

"Malaysians, for them to become a civil society, have a long way to go.”

Police's move to stop the dialogue was also criticised by PKR Padang Serai MP N. Surendran, who said the police were overstepping their powers.

"How can a forum on the mismanagement of a public body be a threat to 'public peace and harmony'?”

The action of the IGP in stopping the forum was thus arbitrary, in breach of the rule of law and the right to freedom of expression under the Federal Constitution, Surendran said in a statement today.

1MDB currently sits on a RM42 billion debt and is subject to probe by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), the auditor-general, and Bank Negara as well as a joint investigation by the police and the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission.

Dr Mahathir had used 1MDB's woes as one of the main reasons to urge Najib to resign. – The Malaysian Insider

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