Dr M slams ‘shameless’ kissing of Najib’s hand

Dr Mahathir Mohamad has continued his attacks on Najib Razak, saying the Pekan MP who has been found guilty of corruption and criminal breach of trust (CBT), along with his supporters, have lost their sense of shame and are trying to divert attention by making accusations against others.

Calling the lack of shame in committing wrongdoings an “ugly value”, Mahathir said it was nonetheless evident in Najib and his supporters through the use of the “Malu apa bossku” and “(Najib) boss kita” slogans.

“Malaysia has lost its sense of shame,” he said in a blog post. “They kiss the hand of Najib, the Malay Muslim thief.”

Mahathir said Najib would avoid the issue of power abuse directed at him by pointing the finger at others.

“When reprimanded for abuse of power and stealing government funds, he will try to divert attention from his wrongs by claiming that I, during my time as prime minister, had also done the same thing.”

But Mahathir said Najib had not been able to prove any wrongdoing on his part despite forming a royal commission of inquiry to investigate the loss of RM30 billion during his administration.

“Bank Negara was not required to report to me on its accounts,” he said. “It would be impossible for a bank to report losses of RM30 billion and ask me to keep it a secret.

“Bank Negara’s accounts were audited. If it was truly hiding losses of this amount, it would have been revealed in the audit. Otherwise the auditors would have done wrong by not reporting the loses.”

Najib, on the other hand, was proven to have channelled money into his personal accounts, he said.

“(Meanwhile) not one sen of the money said to be hidden entered my (personal) account,” he added.

Mahathir also hit back at Najib over a speech last month in which the latter said that Pakatan Harapan (PH) had used the Forest City project as propaganda to topple the Barisan Nasional government at the 2018 general election.

He said PH had not been able to scrap the project as this would have incurred billions in costs.

“What the PH government could do was to advise Country Garden to prepare low-cost homes that could be bought by the Malays and Chinese in Malaysia,” he said. “Country Garden agreed.”

Mahathir said Zuraida Kamaruddin, who was housing and local government minister at the time, had held the opening ceremony of the National Community Policy on Feb 17, 2019.

“I was invited to present certificates to Forest City, among others, due to a change of plans according to the wishes of the government.

“It was not a recognition of the Forest City project which was approved by the Najib administration.”

Najib was found guilty in July 2020 of abuse of power, CBT and money laundering.

He was sentenced to 72 years in jail – 10 years for each of the CBT and money laundering charges and another 12 for abuse of power.

He was also fined RM210 million.

High Court judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali, who handed down the verdict, ordered for the jail sentences to run concurrently, meaning that Najib would only serve 12 years behind bars.

In December last year, the Court of Appeal upheld the verdict and sentence of the High Court.