1MALAYSIA Development Bhd CEO Arul Kanda Kandasamy is clearly a Barisan Nasional tool in the GE14 campaign, PKR vice-president Rafizi Ramli said today.

Rafizi said Arul Kanda should be trying to prevent caretaker prime minister Najib Razak from driving Malaysia into deeper debt over 1MDB’s financial mismanagement scandal instead of campaigning for the ruling coalition.

Arul Kanda has been on a roadshow to talk about 1MDB. He has denied any wrongdoing at the state investor of which Najib had been advisory board chairman, and has also denied the firm’s links with businessman and Najib’s associate, Low Taek Jho.

Rafizi said Arul Kanda’s quick denials and accusations against the opposition of “politicising” 1MDB showed he was a BN tool.

“His denial shows his double standards in the 1MDB scandal. If Pakatan Harapan brings up 1MDB, he will blame us for politicising it, when in fact he is the one going around Malaysia confusing Malaysians on the real situation of 1MDB,” Rafizi said in a statement today.

Arul Kanda has stressed that 1MDB is not being criminally investigated, whether in Malaysia or internationally, and that suits filed in the US were for the seizure of assets involving specific individuals. 

“1MDB is not a part of those investigations,” Arul Kanda had said.

Rafizi also took the 1MDB chief to task for denying the firm’s culpability following recent news reports that Swiss authorities were investigating two officials from Saudi firm PetroSaudi International as part of a wider probe into alleged stolen assets from 1MDB. – May 2, 2018.