Ignore ‘criminal’ Najib’s advice, Dr M tells Muhyiddin

Dr Mahathir Mohamad has urged Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin not to accept advice from Najib Razak, saying the former leader, who has been found guilty of corruption, has a bad record in managing the country’s financial affairs.

“If we accept this person’s (Najib) advice… we all know what has happened before,” he said in an interview with The Malaysian Insight.

“Najib is a criminal. Never before in our history has a criminal advised the government on how to rule. He does not even have a good background.

“During Najib’s rule, the country was completely destroyed… huge debts, administrations involved in corruption and so on.”

Najib, who was prime minister and finance minister in the Barisan Nasional government, was convicted in July of seven counts of criminal breach of trust, abuse of power, and money laundering related to RM42 million from former 1MDB unit SRC International.

His appeal against his 12-year jail sentence and RM210 million fine will be heard on Feb 15 next year.

Speaking in the Dewan Rakyat yesterday, Mahathir had asked why court proceedings could be postponed as a measure to curb the spread of Covid-19 but “prisoners” allowed to speak in the house.

“If they can speak in Parliament, surely they can also speak in court,” he said while debating the budget bill.

Najib, the Pekan MP, had spoken on the budget bill on Tuesday.

In his interview with The Malaysian Insight, Mahathir said this had tainted Parliament as Najib was convicted of corruption but had yet to serve his jail term.

“Anywhere in the world, we cannot find a convicted criminal who comes to the house (Parliament) and advises the government. This is amazing.

“Only in Malaysia, we can be proud that prisoners are the government’s advisers. This goes to show this government is so inefficient until prisoners can reprimand. This act has tainted the Dewan (Rakyat),” he was quoted as saying.