Malaysians have been intentionally diverted to focus whether Public funds has been misused by 1MDB in their dealings and all the document leaked by Xavier Andre Justo has been tampered in bad faith. However, as Malaysians, we want to know whether Prime Minister, Dato’ Seri Najib Tun Razak,  had  bank account(s) with AmBank and did USD700 million enter these account(s) in March 2013?,  said Manivannan Rethinam, Chairman of Majlis Gagasan Malaysia.

Let the ongoing investigation determine the outcome of the 1MDB Saga by the 4 party task force (Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar, Bank Negara governor Tan Sri Dr Zeti Akthar Aziz, Attorney-General Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail, Khalid and MACC chief Tan Sri Abu Kassim Mohamed) as the investigation being carried out by the Public Account Committee (PAC) on 1MDB dealings.  If the documents leaked by JUSTO indeed tampered then it should not be difficult for the 1MDB board to prove beyond doubts and clear the air however if the outcome of the investigation is otherwise, those who are responsible should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Steps should also be undertaken to recover the billions of dollars involved in this multi-billion dollar scheme of cheating the rakyats money in the name of sovereign wealth fund via Finance Ministry-owned investment company 1Malaysia Development Bhd.

Even if the source of the fund is not from 1MDB, it still raises questions how does the Prime Minister has gained access to such large amount of money. I doubt the PM managed to build such a huge wealth as a Public servant since it is widely known that he was elected as a member of Parliament at the young age of 23 (1976) and then became Chief Minister of Pahang (1982) and  entered Federal Cabinet 1986 as the Minister of Culture, Youth and Sports. It is also doubtful that he could have inherited the wealth from his father Malaysia’s second Prime Minister, Tun Abdul Razak Hussein.

Manivannan added, if indeed the bank account existed then who deposited the RM2.6 billion if the funds are not from 1MDB and what did our Prime Minister do with RM 2.6 billion? Until now the Prime Minister has not refuted the allegation of RM2.6 billion fund being deposited into his personal account, he has merely insisting that he never took funds from 1MDB for personal use which has zero value, to put it mildly and raises more questions than answers such as:

• Ascertaining who (individual(s) / organization) provided the fund, since it seems impossible for it to be his personal money considering the huge amount involved?

• Ascertaining how the fund was used?

• Was the fund obtained legally or proceeded from illegal source such as money laundering or other vice trades?

• If indeed used as election fund for UMNO and BN Coalition partners, did he / BN violate Election Offense Act 1954 – Section 19 (Expenses in excesses of maximum to be illegal practice), whereby it is stated maximum of RM200,000.00 allowable election expenses for member of Parliament and RM100,000.00 for a member of state assembly contesting in a an election.

• Even if the PM provided funding to finance Barisan Nasional;s election campaign to every parliament and state seat contested in 2013, it would cost less than RM100 million thus the question of how such large amount of fund was used in the General Election – bribery, pay-offs, pay for votes?

• Even if the PM did not used it for personal gain – can an illegally gained fund used for the political party funding to win an election?

• Backup fund in the event BN losses the GE 13, in order to continue to be relevant as opposition party or to be used as retirement pay-out?

He further added, there are many issues and unanswered questions on the RM2.6 billion fund alone which only the prime minister can bring closure and this needs to be done urgently in the interest of the nation before self, since this saga has taken a great toll on Malaysia.

Manivannan Rethinam who is also the Vice Chairman of MIC National Information, added 1MDB and USD 700 million saga has now become the subject of international financial and media attention. Not only Ringgit is, now one of region’s worst performing currencies, our economy is now the worse performing in Asia Pacific, struggling with high government debts, huge fiscal deficit and highest household debts in Asia.

We want to support you Dato’ Seri Najib, but don’t expect us to be blind followers, we need to know the truth, Malaysians needs to know the truth. Do the honourable thing and come clean before this issue overshadows all the good things you have brought about especially legal and economic reforms policies that you have implemented since you became the Prime Minister.