In an online video released on YouTube yesterday, Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin came out declaring that the entire board of directors of Malaysia’s scandal-ridden sovereign development fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) should be fired. Sacked. Kena buang.
The seven-minute video, reportedly shot at an UMNO division training session in Janda Baik, Pahang, depicts the UMNO deputy president calling for decisive action on the people on the hook for 1MDB’s many alleged failings and shady shenanigans.
The video was uploaded to YouTube by user Firdaus Abdullah, and was first embedded in the political blog Apanama.
“I have my own position. On these matters, there are issues which, if they are not resolved, will be the “last straw on the camel’s back”,” Muhyiddin said at the beginning of the video, referring to 1MDB’s troubles.
“I have nothing to hide. I have nothing to fear, except God.”
“I’m not trying to demonstrate my power, or to express hate towards the party leadership, or to disrespect my President. Saya hormat (I respect him) – as a human I do respect him,” he said, referring to Prime Minister Najib Razak, who is also UMNO and BN president.
“But when there are issues and problems – and this is a real problem … in which a state-sponsored corporation has debts of RM42 billion, I can’t imagine a problem like that – how are we going to respond?
Muhyiddin advocated during his speech that the Federal Government needed to decisively demonstrate its responsibility and transparency in handling the 1MDB issue.
“I told the Prime Minister: sack all those guys! The board of 1MDB. Buang mereka! They are the ones who are causing trouble for our Prime Minister. But he hasn’t fired them yet,” he said.
At this point, a voice off-camera can be heard saying, “Sack the president!”, which might refer to Najib as UMNO president, or Arul Kanda Kandasamy, who currently serves as 1MDB president.
“If this was my company, and I wake up in the morning to find out strange things have been happening in it, and I have to pay monthly interest payments of 100 to 200 milion ringgit … I can’t think of any company in the world who would put up with that.
“Buang la! Not only fire them, but call the police to invrestigate them. Take serious action, because if we don’t, this is what will drag us (UMNO) down.”
Also seen in the video were Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, Deputy Finance Minister Ahmad Maslan, and Pahang Menteri Besar Adnan Yaakob.
Najib, who is also Finance Minister and head of 1MDB’s board of advisers, has been skewered in the court of public opinion over the avalanche of allegations of mismanagement surrounding the sovereign development fund.
Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee is currently in the process of probing 1MDB’s operations, and will conclude its investigations on May 26.
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