KUALA LUMPUR  (May 26): DAP’s Tony Pua has questioned as to why the government allowed 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) to remain in operation for so long if the government did not believe it “was a good investment”.

In a statement today, the Petaling Jaya Utara MP asked why was 1MDB allowed to incur up to RM55 billion of debt and become the single biggest financial scandal in the history of Malaysia.

He said this in response to Deputy Minister of Finance Datuk Johari Abdul Ghani’s reply in Parliament yesterday that “the government has never claimed that 1MDB was a good investment”. 

Johari had added that it was the wrong business model, weak management and poor governance were the three reasons that (contributed to) 1MDB's lack of competitiveness.

“If Datuk Johari’s assertion is really true, then the BN Government must be the stupidest Government in the whole world for sticking with the 1MDB investment despite knowing that it is not a good investment,” said Pua.

He added that after years of gloating about 1MDB, Johari had “the cheek to come to Parliament to tell Malaysians that “the Government never claimed that 1MDB was a good investment”.

Pua, who is DAP national publicity secretary said that for years, ever since he submitted his first question on 1MDB in Parliament on March 2010, the standard “copy and paste” replies by the Prime Minister’s Department and the Ministry of Finance was to say that 1MDB will be the “strategic enabler for new ideas and sources of growth” which will “drive sustainable economic development by forging strategic global partnerships and promoting foreign direct investment”.

He stressed that in October 2014, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak himself told the Member of Parliament for Bagan, Lim Guan Eng that: “1MDB had never missed its obligations to fulfil its financing schedules. 1MDB’s financial position remains strong, supported by strategic assets with proven track records as well strong growth opportunities.”

Pua said this was repeated in Johari’s predecessor Datuk Ahmad Maslan’s replies in Parliament to him on 6 November 2014 which claimed that “1MDB’s financial position remains strong, supported by strategic assets with proven performance records, on top of solid growth opportunities.”