FORMER prime minister Najib Razak and “his gang of thieves” are responsible for the country’s dire financial situation, said Mukhriz Mahathir. 

In a statement, he said the financial strain the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) plunder has put on the national coffers is forcing the government to incur more debt by borrowings or to dig into the country’s precious reserves. 

He said if it wasn’t for the 1MDB scandal, the government could have easily paid for the cost of vaccines. 

“Clearly we have Najib Razak and his gang of thieves to blame for this. And yet he has the audacity to suggest that siphoned 1MDB monies recovered from various so-called beneficiaries should be enough to pay off its debt,” he said. 

Mukhriz was responding to Najib’s criticism towards Finance Minister Tengku Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz, who had complained about the 1MDB debts being among the reasons the government had to dip into the National Trust Fund to pay for Covid-19 vaccines. 

According to Zafrul, the country’s national debt has reached a trillion, including liabilities incurred by 1MDB amounting to an estimated of RM41.36 billion along with SRC International Bhd’s debt, which stands at approximately RM3.67 billion. 

“The culprit behind that international mega scandal should not claim the moral high ground as if he had nothing to do with the crime of swindling the nation in the first place,” said Mukhriz, who is part of the opposition-friendly Pejuang.

Mukhriz also questioned why the government still had to dip into the country’s trust fund when it already had more than RM600 billion approved. 

“This just doesn’t make sense. How is our nation’s financial interest protected when negotiating vaccine terms? We are scraping the bottom of the barrel in desperation,” he said. 

He said despite an unprecedented RM322.5 billion federal budget with parliamentary approval and another RM300 billion under the Emergency Ordinance without Parliament’s scrutiny, Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin now admits that the government’s coffers are running dry. 

On April 26, the government had said it had no choice but to do so as its finances are nearing their limit, especially because of the 1MDB scandal. 

Najib then responded and said that neither the Pakatan Harapan nor Perikatan Nasional government had paid back a single sen of 1MDB’s principal debt of RM32.3 billion despite numerous settlements in which the government collected a total of RM33.4 billion. 

He said the money received by the government from refunds and claim settlements should have been enough to cover 1MDB’s principal debt. 

Najib is facing four charges of using his position to obtain bribes totalling RM2.3 billion from 1MDB funds, and 21 charges of money-laundering involving the same amount. – April 29, 2021.