A seasoned lawmaker said the onus is on Umno and Barisan Nasional (BN) to ensure their candidates for the upcoming general election in Malaysia are trustworthy and will not plunder.
PKR’s three-term Selayang MP William Leong, who will be defending his parliamentary seat in GE15, said it was no longer a question of BN apologising for the 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) scandal.
“It is, in fact, a question of whether we are a law-abiding country. Are we an administration that complies with the law?” he asked.
Leong said apologising was what a “five-year-old would tell his mother after he is caught with his hand in the cookie jar”.
“You can apologise, like a child does, and then tomorrow, you do it again.
“Has there been a revival of BN? Have they re-engineered themselves to ensure that the people they are fielding as candidates won’t steal from the rakyat again?”
Leong pointed out that the government was still servicing the debts from 1MDB. In July, finance minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz said that as at June 30, the remaining debt commitment from 1MDB stood at RM32.08 billion.
Former prime minister and ex-BN and Umno president, Datuk Seri Najib Razak, is serving a 12-year jail sentence after being convicted of corruption in the scandal.
Pakatan Harapan leaders had relied on the 1MDB scandal in the run-up to the 2018 general election, and that led to the collapse of BN’s six-decade rule.
“Why are we even having an election right now? It is the ‘court cluster’ that wants to get out. There is nothing to show in Umno that the people they are going to put up are trustworthy.
“In fact, up until recently, they (Umno leaders) were talking about releasing Najib. They were all moving to get him out of jail via a royal pardon. What does this tell us?”
Leong insisted Malaysians cannot move on from 1MDB.
“The ball is now with the people. We cannot say we need to move on. Who is paying for 1MDB? The interest, who is paying for the repayment of the billions of ringgit taken from the international funders?
“This is why it’s not such a simple thing as saying ‘I apologise, I am so sorry, I won’t do it again’. If we fall for it, then we deserve to have this type of government.”
He added that investors and the public needed reassurance that this scandal would not happen again.
In a recent interview with Free Malaysia Today, Bersatu deputy president Datuk Seri Ahmad Faizal Azumu called on BN and former ministers who served in Najib’s Cabinet to apologise over the 1MDB scandal.
Ahmad Faizal said the government was still paying interest on debts owed by 1MDB.
He was quoted as saying: “I want to ask (Datuk Seri) Ismail Sabri Yaakob, my boss, and also other Umno leaders: why are they keeping quiet now that Najib has been convicted? They knew they were in the Cabinet when 1MDB happened.
“Why are you not saying sorry to Malaysians? You are (essentially) saying 1MDB cases are all gone, it’s all good now.”
A senior Amanah leader said it made no difference if BN apologised or not.
“Even the main culprit (Najib) has not apologised. Do you think BN will apologise? They instead claim it was political persecution and so on,” said the leader who did not want to be named.
“If BN is indeed remorseful, they would have taken concrete steps to address the matter when allegations first surfaced. But that didn’t happen.”
“I don’t see how this (apology) will benefit anyone. I think it’s better if they (BN) remain synonymous with 1MDB. If you get them to apologise, they may end up getting sympathy votes,” he added.
DAP leader Gobind Singh Deo said Ahmad Faizal himself had to explain the matter.
“If he now says BN needs to apologise, why did he support them in 2020 and subsequently form the government with them?” asked Gobind, who will be contesting in the Damansara parliamentary seat.
“Did he demand an apology from them when Perikatan Nasional was in government with them? In fact, why then did he support a BN prime minister (Ismail Sabri) if he really felt that an apology was needed over 1MDB?
“So, why only now ask for an apology? Is it because he faces the prospect of an opponent from BN in this coming election?”