PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang today said the 1MDB scandal is a consequence of Barisan Nasional’s motto of “leadership by example” over the years, putting the blame squarely on Dr Mahathir Mohamad whose administration coined the term decades ago. 

He reiterated there should be no foreign meddling in the scandal that broke under Prime Minister Najib Razak, who was a minister in the Mahathir government. 

Hadi said foreign intervention would “invite more adverse consequences” because “foreign powers in the world today lacked sincerity”.

“A pack of dogs will fight over a bone among themselves but would unite and chase away other dogs that invade their territory,” he said in a statement on his Facebook page today.

Hadi said that was why he would not change his stand on the 1Malaysia Development Bhd issue, which he said was a “huge weapon” being employed to change the country’s leadership.

In a veiled attack against Dr Mahathir, who is now a leader in opposition coalition Pakatan Harapan and the Barisan Nasional government’s biggest critic, the Islamist party chief said 1MDB was one in a chain of many scandals that had not seen resolution.

The Bumiputra Malaysia Finance (BMF), Perwaja Steel, KWSP (Employees’ Provident Fund), Tabung Haji, Petronas, Bank Negara forex, Skyhawk, Maika Holdings and the Port Klang Free Zone scandals were the others in the chain, Hadi said.

These scandals had occurred during the reign of Dr Mahathir, the country’s longest-serving prime minister.

“I am not among the Malays who easily forget the issues that happen during the tenures of every prime minister since the 1980s. All have been left unsolved and forgotten, especially by the Malays who forget easily,” Hadi said.

The phrase “Malays forget easily” (Melayu mudah lupa) is the title of a poem penned by Dr Mahathir during the 2001 Umno general assembly.

“Now there scandals like 1MDB, a bungalow in Penang, and there may be others. All remain allegations without action to resolve them fairly,” he said.

It is understood that the “bungalow in Penang” refers to the Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng’s Jalan Pinhorn house . The DAP secretary-general is facing corruption charges over his purchase of the house at a huge discount.

“All these are due to the ideology of materialism that breeds ills like mismanagement and corruption, which have become a plague in the world that can start wars between members of the family, people of a race, and even citizens of a country,” Hadi said.

He said PAS could not be part of a train that was headed the wrong way to bring about a change of leadership that meant “2 x 2’ or ‘2 + 2’, where the answer was the same”. 

“PAS cannot follow their ‘sunnah’ (deeds) that gives birth to 1MDB brothers and those that come after because of the same ‘sunnah’ mould.

“1MDB is the creation of the motto ’ leadership by example’. What is the example? To reassess past politics and economics, and return to the right path.

“I do not deny that there had been positive developments in the country, that it earned the name ‘Asian Tiger’. But suddenly, the tiger has turned into a mangy cat (kucing kurap) with diseases.”

Hadi had previously said the 1MDB issue should be resolved internally, without the meddling of foreigners after the US Department of Justice filed a third civil suit seeking to recover assets worth billions of ringgit bought with funds allegedly stolen from 1MDB. – July 5, 2017.