Be patient with pace of reforms — PM
PUTRAJAYA: Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said he is working non-stop to deliver the promised reforms and he called on Malaysians to be more patient with the Pakatan Harapan (PH) administration.
The prime minister said that undoing policies from Datuk Seri Najib Razak and Barisan Nasional’s rule would require more of the same.
“To correct things, just to remove a person, takes time. We have to study his background, what he has done, how much he has taken,” he said in an exclusive interview with Malay Mail at the Perdana Leadership Foundation here.
“To ask him to resign or sack him, all that takes time. You can’t do things just like that,” he added.
Dr Mahathir and the PH administration are racing against time to deliver on 60 election manifesto pledges, including 10 that are meant to be realised within 100 days of winning the general election.
Top among these is to file formal charges against Najib over the 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) corruption scandal.
Earlier this week, the Prime Minister told Reuters that authorities have “an almost perfect case” against Najib for alleged embezzlement, misappropriation and bribery.
On Najib’s claim that the alleged embezzlement of funds from 1MDB was kept secret from him, Dr Mahathir said it was impossible for his immediate predecessor to be unaware of the transactions when his signature was all over the related documents.
“Who wants to believe him that he didn’t know, when he signed [his name]? Every bit of money that goes in and out of the first borrowing of RM42 billion, all his signature.
“If he doesn’t know, it must be that he doesn’t understand what a signature means,” Dr Mahathir said.
1MDB had amassed RM42 billion in debt in the years since its inception in 2009, and Dr Mahathir had questioned its whereabouts since 2015.
Speaking to international news agency Reuters in a report published on Wednesday, Najib blamed his advisers and the 1MDB board for not disclosing the alleged embezzlement to him.
Najib claimed he was unaware that the money moved through his personal account was from 1MDB, and if it was laundered to buy assets which included yachts, paintings, jewellery, and real estate.
“We have all those. We know how much money goes into his account,” Dr Mahathir commented yesterday, referring to the documents proving Najib’s involvement in moving the money.
Dr Mahathir had earlier this week told Reuters that the authorities have “an almost perfect case” against Najib to charge him of embezzlement, misappropriation and bribery.
Dr Mahathir told Malay Mail that it is ludicrous for someone to direct RM2 billion to be transferred into his account, but at the same time refusing to be informed of the transaction.
He was referring to the around US$700 million that was allegedly misappropriated from 1MDB into Najib’s account, as detailed by the US Department of Justice’s antikleptocracy probe.
“This cannot be. Because I have to sign to use the money. To use the money, I have to issue cheques.
“Najib always assumes that people are stupid,” Dr Mahathir added.
The prime minister has told Reuters that investigators are looking to bring “a number of charges” against Najib, based on abuse of power when he was prime minister.
He also was quoted saying that Malaysia is expected to make its first arrest in the 1MDB case within months and “hopefully” start a trial by the end of the year.
In the same interview, Dr Mahathir also said that Malaysia would incur RM300 billion more debt if Najib and Barisan Nasional (BN) had won the general election.
The prime minister said BN would need to borrow more on top of the RM1 trillion liabilities already revealed just to deliver some of its manifesto pledges.