Supporting Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin's Statement On 1MDB

Full support for Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin’s statement on 1MDB.

The statement issued by Deputy Prime Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin on Friday evening on the simmering 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) crisis was the most sensible and responsible ever issued by any Cabinet Minister on the controversial issue.


Malaysians were flabbergasted by the the Prime Minister’s statement on Thursday which had cleared 1MDB of any wrongdoing even before any investigation has started.

Dato’ Seri Najib Razak said, “Cabinet was told that the recent allegations directed at 1MDB relate to transactions undertaken by third parties such as Petrosaudi, not 1MDB.  The relevant investments of 1MDB have been returned in full with significant audited profit.”

In addition, the Prime Minister emphasized that the “Cabinet expressed confidence that no wrongdoing has been committed within 1MDB, and their desire for the company to be allowed to implement the proposed outcomes of its strategic review.”

The Deputy Prime Minister however, was unusually quick to correct the misconception of what took place in the Cabinet.

Tan Sri Muhyiddin specifically mentioned that the Board of Directors need to provide explanations for many business transactions which do not appear to bring any long term profits to the company or government.  This the first time any Government Minister has ever conceded that there were transactions by 1MDB which did not result in any long term returns to the taxpayers.

“Lembaga Pengarah perlu memberikan penjelasan tentang beberapa urusniaga yang kelihatan tidak memberikan keuntungan jangka panjang kepada syarikat dan kerajaan,” he said.

What is most crucial however was Tan Sri Muhyiddin’s veto on the use of any Government funds to bailout the financially distressed 1MDB.  He said, “Saya juga ingin menegaskan bahawa sebarang usaha untuk menangani isu 1MDB tidak wajar melibatkan tindakan menyelamat (bail out) syarikat tersebut dengan menggunakan dana awam.”

This is immediately contrary to Dato’ Seri Najib Razak’s statement that the Cabinet desired for the company “to be allowed to implement the proposed outcomes of its strategic review”, which involved an injection of billions of ringgit of Government funds.  Without an immediate injection of funds by the Government, 1MDB is effectively insolvent and would not be able to execute the key elements of the “strategic review” proposal.

Not only did the Deputy Prime Minister stop any fresh funds from being injected into 1MDB, he also prevent 1MDB from strip selling its prized assets to raise the desperately needed cash.

“Kerajaan juga akan menanggung kerugian jika penstrukturan semula 1MDB melibatkan penjualan tanah TRX dan Bandar Malaysia yang diperolehi pada harga yang rendah daripada kerajaan dan hasil penjualan digunakan untuk membayar hutang syarikat,” he emphasized. The Tun Razak exchange land for example, was acquired for only RM194 million but is valued at RM2.7 billion in 1MDB’s books.

Malaysians can only breathe a temporary sigh of relief that not all in the Cabinet were complete fools as to find no wrong doing by 1MDB based entirely on a short briefing by the company and its auditors.

The DAP would like to express our full support to the statement issued by the Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin on 1MDB, particularly on the fact that there should be no bailout of 1MDB with Government funds, especially before the Auditor-General is able to complete its forensic audit of 1MDB’s accounts from 2009.