FORMER prime minister Najib Razak is looking forward to debating PKR president Anwar Ibrahim on Sapura Energy Bhd’s financial problems. 

In a Facebook post, he told the opposition leader to immediately contact his aide to set the place and time for the showdown, after Anwar agreed to debate him on the matter earlier today.

Najib also said he would like to request that Anwar and Rafizi Ramli teams arrange with the media if any of them wanted to broadcast the debate live. 

“Game on. I agree with the debate with Anwar. Let’s rock!”

“However, what I don’t understand the most is Anwar’s following statement: ‘He (Najib) has now chosen to challenge me at the beginning of Ramadan after failing to respond to Rafizi’s objection on the Sapura bailout crisis in a situation where poor and small traders are not defended’.

“It is as if Rafizi cheated on Anwar when he briefed Anwar on this issue,” Najib said.

The Pekan MP said the first challenge for the debate from Rafizi a day or two before Ramadan began.

“I just answered. And I have answered all of Rafizi’s objections every time he raises them. So far, he has only posted three times on this issue,” he said.  

Yesterday, Najib accepted Rafizi’s invitation for a debate on Sapura Energy, and told the PKR vice-president to invite Anwar to join too, which the PKR leader accepted this morning.

Sapura Energy, a subsidiary of the Sapura Group, lost RM8.9 billion last year and has been in the red since 2019. Three of its subsidiaries are also in the process of winding up in early March.

Following Najib’s original proposal for the government to intervene by giving low-interest loans or loan guarantees to Sapura to fix its cash flow concerns, Rafizi and Najib have been at odds.

Putrajaya may also instruct Petronas or Khazanah Nasional Bhd to take over ownership of Sapura Energy, according to Najib, noting the fact that Petronas still needed Sapura’s services for its projects and had a superior grasp of the sector.

However, Rafizi said this would only benefit a “handful of elites”, adding that the money used to bail out the ailing oil and gas company could be put to better use to serve Malaysians. – April 4, 2022.