Malaysia has many mini 1MDBs, says Daim

PETALING JAYA: Malaysia has discovered “many mini 1MDBs” in the country, according to a top adviser to Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, signalling the wrongdoing unearthed at the debt-ridden fund may be more widespread.

Tun Daim Zainuddin, 80, who heads the Council of Eminent Persons to advise the new government on how to meet its campaign pledges, found indications of multiple criminal breaches of trust based on his meetings with dozens of state institutions and government-linked companies.

“There are so many mini 1MDBs,” he said here on Sunday.

“I’m surprised at the loss. I’m gathering the cases. But it’s big.

“If you add it up, it’s big. Very big.”

Malaysia has been quick to revive an investigation into the 1MDB scandal, but authorities are finding the finish line moving further away as signs point to wrongdoings that are more widespread than previously thought.

In the month since Dr Mahathir’s surprise election win, the authorities have questioned former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak and his wife, Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor, seized millions of ringgit in cash, handbags and jewellery, and issued arrest warrants for people linked to the troubled state fund.

Daim was finance minister in 1984 to 1991, then had a second stint from 1999 to 2001 in the aftermath of the Asian financial crisis.

The council, just like Dr Mahathir, is racing against the clock to see the government fulfil its first 100-day pledges, which include reviving the probe into 1MDB, reviewing large government projects and raising minimum wages.

The government has said some of these promises may need to be postponed as the country grapples with debt and liabilities that have exceeded RM1 trillion.

Daim’s answer to the country’s fiscal problems is to clean up corruption, prevent leakages in state spending and ensure no political appointees in governmentlinked companies.

He is proposing an open tender system for state procurement and informing “political personalities” he would welcome those who decide to step down.

That signals more resignations to come after directors at stateowned Telekom Malaysia Bhd and Petroliam Nasional Bhd quit, following Bank Negara Malaysia governor Tan Sri Muhammad Ibrahim’s departure.

The Council of Eminent Persons counts billionaire Robert Kuok, former Petroliam Nasional Bhd president Tan Sri Mohd Hassan Marican and economist Jomo Kwame Sundaram among its members, as well as Tan Sri Zeti Akhtar Aziz, who led Bank Negara for 16 years.