PUTRAJAYA, Oct 13 – Umno deputy prsident Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin hopes the 1Malaysia Development Bhd issue can be resolved within six months as promised by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak. The former deputy prime minister, who was dropped from the cabinet in July, said he did not want to pre-empt whether the 1MDB problem could be resolved within that time frame.
“This is not my responsibility, those who are involved are responsible to resolve the problem because I am outside the government. To be fair, we wait until the deadline,” he said at a media conference at the invitation of former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad at the Premier Leadership Foundation here on Monday.
The media conference, concerning the detention of lawyer Matthias Chang and his client Datuk Seri Khairuddin Abu Hassan, was also attended by Umno vice-president Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal, Gua Musang Member of Parliament Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, former MCA president Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat and UMNO veteran Tan Sri Sanusi Junid.
As the approximately hour-long media conference was being held, Dr Mahathir suddenly read the latest news through a smartphone handed over by Tengku Razaleigh on the prosecution against Chang and Khairuddin. Muhyiddin however expressed his fear if the 1MDB issue could not be resolved within the stipulated time-frame. He said that if it is resolved then it will be good. Otherwise, he said there may be many other implications that will crop up that will have much bigger impact.
In his speech when opening the Seremban UMNO delegates conference in August, Najib had said that the government had plans to reduce the debt burden borne by 1MDB and needed six months to rehabilitate the company. Muhyiddin said it was important for the government to resolve the 1MDB issue as it had been dragging on for some time. He said he think that Najib is a smart man while it is up to Najib to consider what is best that he should do for the sake of the nation.
