IN the third 1MDB ceramah in Sungai Acheh, Penang, yesterday, Pakatan Harapan leaders zeroed in on the heart of the issue – the rising cost of living.

They told more than 500 kampung folk in the Barisan Nasional-held state seat that the root of their problems with the rising cost of living was 1Malaysia Development Berhad.

PKR vice-president Nurul Izzah Anwar said it was because of 1MDB that the country lacked funds.

“This is why Malaysians are paying GST, well-deserving students are finding their Public Service Department scholarships to study abroad cancelled, and civil service positions are being frozen and denying graduates job opportunities.

“When you have a government that robs and steals, how do you expect it to take care of the people and country? It can’t do it,” she said at the Simpang Tiga JKKK hall in Sungai Acheh, Nibong Tebal.

The Lembah Pantai MP also said salaries were low and job opportunities scarce because the government wanted to bring in foreign workers, numbering 1.78 million legal ones.

“So, when we think about these issues, who do we blame? This 1MDB scandal has effects that are far-reaching.

“We have to think about the future. When (former prime minister) Dr Mahathir Mohamad, (former deputy prime minister) Muhyiddin Yassin and (former Kedah menteri besar) Mukhriz Mahathir left Umno and formed Bersatu, we no longer thought about personal vendettas.

“For us, we saw that this is the time for Malaysia and its future, the time to execute our agenda for reform to make sure no other leader can come along and deny our rights.”

Amanah deputy Youth chief Faiz Fadzil said victory for Barisan Nasional in the next polls would make Prime Minister Najib Razak think that the people did not care what happened to the country, and cost would continue to increase.

“The issue here is not robbery, but the adverse effect on the people’s pockets,” he said.

Faiz said the Malays must realise that the money in 1MDB was their money, as well as Tabung Haji’s.

He reminded them that in 2015, when the debt-ridden 1MDB had trouble paying interest, the pilgrimage fund bought land from 1MDB for RM188.5 million, which was 43 times more than what 1MDB had paid for.

“If the government wanted to help Muslims, why did it sell the land at such a high price and force Tabung Haji to buy it. If Malays are still not angry, I don’t know what to say.

“If they (BN) win again in the next general election, they will take more. There will be 2 or 3MDB. We already know of the other scandals involving Felda, Mara and YaPEIM (Islamic Economic Development Foundation)... that is why we are called a kleptocracy.”

DAP national publicity secretary and Petaling Jaya Utara MP Tony Pua, who explained the scandal and how money was raised, invested, lost, allegedly siphoned off and used to buy luxury assets, told the people they could have free kenduri everyday with the money spent to buy the pink diamond necklace.

“Let’s say we have 200 people and we set a RM100 budget per person for a high-standard meal. You know how many dinners we can eat with around RM120 million? Every night for 25 years,” he said, as the audience gasped.

The rare pink diamond set in a necklace was bought for RM117 million and now part of a United States Department of Justice civil suit to seize assets bought with money allegedly stolen from 1MDB.

The piece was allegedly purchased for the wife of “Malaysian Official No. 1”.

Faiz also said with that kind of money, the government could have built some 600 units of affordable homes for the people.

The other speakers at the ceramah themed “Love Malaysia, destroy kleptocracy” were DAP’s Jawi assemblyman Soon Lip Chee, Penang Bersatu information chief Yaakob Osman and Penang PH deputy chairman and state PKR chief Mansor Othman.

The leaders also warned the people of efforts to shift voters to neighbouring seats. Yaakob told the people to check their voter status every month to find out whether they had been shifted to other seats. – July 29, 2017.