DAMANSARA member of Parliament Tony Pua has submitted a motion for Najib Razak to be referred to the Parliament’s Committee of Privileges for trying to mislead the Dewan Rakyat.

He said the request was submitted to Dewan Rakyat speaker Azhar Azizan Harun on the former prime minister’s statement yesterday regarding 1MDB debts.

“I would like to refer the Pekan MP (Najib) to the Parliamentary Privileges Committee as provided in article 36 (12) of the Rules of Procedure of the House of Representatives.

“A letter on the matter has been submitted to the speaker’s office,” he said in the Dewan Rakyat today.

Tony was responding to Najib’s speech yesterday where he claimed not a single sen of public funds had been used by the government to repay the 1MDB principal debt.

“He (Najib) in his speech yesterday had made a statement that has confused the Dewan Rakyat and can be viewed as insulting Parliament.”

The DAP lawmaker said that Najib’s statement was not true as the government has already paid RM8.8 billion in principal and interest.

Earlier today, Finance Minister Tengku Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz said 1MDB debts have yet to be settled because Malaysia is still paying the interests.

“The accusation that we have not repaid the principal amount is baseless since the principal amount is not yet mature.

“As of the end of this month, the remaining commitment stands between RM38.5 billion and RM38.8 billion, with RM32.3 billion principal and RM6.5 billion interests,” he said.

Deputy speaker Mohd Rashid Hasnon said the matter would be looked into before a decision is made.

“The office of the Speaker of the House of Representatives will consider the letter and come up with an appropriate response,” he said.

Yesterday, Najib said the opposition could not make the excuse that 1MDB had destroyed the country’s finances.

“It is not right to suggest that the rakyat will have to pay 1MDB debts.

“The rakyat don’t have to pay, we can use the RM16.4 billion from Goldman Sachs to pay the debts.

“Other funds were also received and all this accumulates to RM23 billion. This is not the rakyat’s money that can be used to pay the debts,” he had said.

Najib said public funds were not required because various sums of money had been recovered from Goldman Sachs, audit firms KPMG and Deloitte, Ambank and the US Department of Justice. – March 3, 2022.