Mr Prime Minister, QUIT Lying to Us

It impresses me how Dato’ Seri Najib Razak can tell the biggest of lies with the straightest of faces by claiming that 1MDB’s RM42 billion isn’t lost because it has 500 acres of Bandar Malaysia and 70 acres of Tun Razak Exchange

I cannot help by be amazed by how the Malaysian Prime Minister could tell such a big lie with such a straight face, and fully expecting the audience to believe him hook, line and sinker.

Yesterday, Dato’ Seri Najib Razak to hundreds of UMNO Selangor members in Klang that "the [1MDB] RM42 billion is not lost. There, the 70 acres TRX and 500 acres Bandar Malaysia lands."

Firstly, are the 70 acres of Tun Razak Exchange (TRX) and 500 acres of Bandar Malaysia worth even anything remotely close to RM42 billion?

Based on the latest available financial statements of 1MDB as at 31 March 2014, the 2 parcels of land are worth only RM5.83 billion. How could RM5.83 billion be boasted and inflated to justify 1MDB’s RM42 billion debt?

Secondly, Dato’ Seri Najib Razak failed to inform the audience that the respective piece of land was purchased for only RM194 million and RM1.67 billion from the Government. The cost to 1MDB was a meagre total of RM1.86 billion! And yet, the Prime Minister, who is also the Chairman of 1MDB’s Board of Advisors has the nerve to boast that the RM42 billion in 1MDB isn’t lost because of these two sweetheart deals purchased for less than RM2 billion.

To be fair to 1MDB, the company did purchase another piece of expensive land for RM1.27 billion in Penang. It also acquired 3 independent power producers valued at RM10.9 billion in 1MDB’s books.

However, even if you add up all of the above “investments” – RM1.86 billion, RM1.27 billion and RM10.9 billion, it only totals up to RM14.0 billion. That leaves a whopping RM28 billion out of the RM42 billion debt completely unaccounted for. A primary school student would have been able to do the maths can call out Dato’ Seri Najib’s big bluff.

Unfortunately, perhaps the UMNO President thought his UMNO brethren in Selangor are easy targets to delude and deceive. The Prime Minister even put up the false bravado that “If I am a rich man, I would buy a land at the prime area because I know the value (of the land) in 20 years.”

Well, Mr Prime Minister, if I were a rich man and you offered me the Bandar Malaysia and TRX land for the rock bottom price of RM74 and RM64 per square feet respectively, which are the prices 1MDB paid, I would bite your hands off too. I won’t need you to give me such ‘perceptive’ advice.

Former Prime Minister, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohammed is absolutely right when he told fellow UMNO members in Ipoh yesterday that Najib “never speaks the truth, always lies”. He even asked “how to be a leader?”

We call upon the Prime Minister to stop lying to Malaysians. He must explain with solid evidence where did the rest of 1MDB’s RM42 billion went, after deducting the RM14 billion of real estate and energy companies.

At this point of time, the only perceivable reason why 1MDB is unable to service or repay its debt, is because the rest of the RM28 billion are either locked into worthless paper assets, or have vanished altogether.


Tony Pua