Stick With Me On 1MDB or Resign, Najib Tells Ministers

KUALA LUMPUR — Malaysia Prime Minister Najib Razak is said to have issued an ultimatum to his Cabinet last Friday (May 29), telling ministers to resign if they did not support him over the rehabilitation of debt-ridden state fund 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB), Utusan Malaysia reported today (June 1).

The UMNO mouthpiece said, according to a source, none of the ministers declared he or she would not support the prime minister on 1MDB.

Mr Najib was said to have issued the ultimatum soon after Finance Minister II Ahmad Husni Hanadzlah finished laying out the road map for 1MDB’s restructuring to the ministers.

“The prime minister told members of his Cabinet who were not with him on the 1MDB issue to resign, but not one person did so,” the source told the Malay daily.

Utusan also noted that Mr Najib’s ultimatum followed the statement by Barisan Backbenchers Club chairman Shahrir Samad, who last Tuesday (May 26) urged ministers, who did not agree with the collective decision of the Cabinet on 1MDB, to resign.

Mr Shahrir was expressing his agreement with UMNO’s Gua Musang MP Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, who said the entire cabinet was collectively responsible for 1MDB’s controversies which have sapped public confidence over the government’s handling and transparency over the Finance Ministry-owned firm with debts of RM42 billion (S$15.5 billion).

Mr Husni, who has been made the government’s spokesperson on 1MDB, had said the company had entered into a binding agreement with Abu Dhabi’s International Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC) and its subsidiary, Aabar Investments (Aabar), where IPIC would pay 1MDB US$1 billion (S$1.35 billion), on or before June 4 this year.

The US$1 billion payment would be used to repay a US$975 million loan, in advance of its due date, to a syndicate of international bank lenders, Mr Husni had said.

Amid negative reactions that the money from the Abu Dhabi companies would see 1MDB incur more debt, the firm’s president and group executive director Arul Kanda Kandasamy issued a statement denying that the US$1 billion was a loan and that it was money IPIC was returning based on an earlier agreement. THE MALAYSIAN INSIDER