(July 28): DAP's Tony Pua fears that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak will escape charges over scandal-ridden 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) with the change of Attorney-General (A-G) announced today.

Pua, the party's national publicity chief and one of the opposition's staunches critics against the Finance Ministry-owned fund, said on Twitter and his Facebook page that there was little chance of Najib being charged with alleged misdeeds.

"The purge commences.

"The Attorney-General is replaced. Any flicker of hope that the prime minister might be charged for misdeeds is extinguished. Who's next?"

He also posted a news report of A-G Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail being replaced by Federal Court judge Tan Sri Mohamed Apandi Ali with immediate effect.

His comment on Facebook has garnered around 500 likes so far.

Commenters to Pua's post expressed shock, with some saying it was a ploy by the prime minister to escape being charged with any crime in relation to the 1MDB scandal.

Others urged people not to speculate on the A-G's replacement, since Gani was known to have had a kidney illness and was due to retire in October.

DAP parliamentary leader Lim Kit Siang also commented on the shock announcement on Gani's termination over health reasons, questioning whose services would be terminated next.

Lim said Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin's days were also numbered after he said Najib must explain claims in The Wall Street Journal that huge sums of money had gone into the prime minister's personal bank accounts.

Muhyiddin had also said Najib must explain the RM42 billion debt accumulated by 1MDB.

Lim added that this was the most fractured Umno and government in the nation's history.

"Who else, in the most fractured Umno and government in the nation’s history, are on the chopping block?

"We are living in interesting and dangerous times," the Gelang Patah MP said in a statement today.

The change of A-G comes amid an ongoing investigation into alleged scandals at 1MDB.

Gani had been one of four members of a high-level task force probing into allegations of financial wrongdoing, as well as claims that money flowed through 1MDB-linked entities before ending up in Najib's personal accounts.

The task force has frozen six accounts in relation to its investigation into the WSJ expose. – The Malaysian Insider