Dr M: It's Najib who must be charged with sabotage

Former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad says it is Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak who should be charged with sabotage of the Malaysian banking and financial system.

In his blog posting today, Mahathir said 1MDB might sell the RM60 per-square-foot land it bought from the government at 5,000 percent above the purchase price and repay the loans.

However, he added, the fact remained that had 1MDB not been created, the huge sums of borrowed money would not have disappeared.

"For this, 1MDB and those responsible must be charged with abusing the banking and financial system, repayment of the loans notwithstanding.

"The creators of 1MDB and its managers are the people who sabotaged this country, which before this had a good record for financial management and a sound banking system.

"They are the people who should be charged in court with sabotage of the Malaysian banking and financial system.

"Since it was Najib who created 1MDB, borrowed RM42 billion and invested the money and lost it, Najib should also be charged with sabotage," Mahathir wrote in his blog.

The former prime minister said this in reference to the charges of sabotage of the financial system made against Umno Batu Kawan vice-head Khairuddin Abu Hassan and Mahathir’s former political secretary, Matthias Chang.

Khairuddin and Chang's challenge of the sabotage charge under the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act will be heard by the Federal Court tomorrow.

A long list of sabouteurs

Mahathir said he was confused by the Attorney-General Mohamed Apandi Ali's statement that Khairuddin and Chang are charged with sabotage of the nation’s banking and financial system.

He said this was because the duo lodged reports with authorities in the United Kingdom, Switzerland, and Hong Kong where the purported transaction took place, based on foreign news reports on 1MDB investments.

"Wouldn’t these press reports then be considered as sabotage?" he asked.

He said the news reports read by the 'whole world' were 'not casual reports' but had detailed descriptions.

Despite the reports arguably causing a bad impression on Malaysia's financial and banking system, he said, neither 1MDB nor the Finance Ministry satisfactorily rebutted the reports.

Mahathir further reasoned that if 1MDB never existed, it could not have borrowed RM42 billion and therefore no reports would have been lodged anywhere over the matter.

As such, he snidely observed, everyone involved since the inception of 1MDB should similarly be charged with sabotaging Malaysia's financial and banking system.

- Msiakini