On Monday, the Prime Minister’s Office said Najib would engage corporate leaders and seek their views on current economic developments.
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A Wall Street Journal report had claimed that the RM2.6 billion was from the debt-ridden state investment arm, only for the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission to rule that the money was from personal donations, and not 1MDB.
Najib said Pemudah’s efforts to facilitate the ease of doing business in Malaysia had been recognised by worldwide bodies like the World Bank, the World Economic Forum and the Institute of Management Development (IMD). 1MDB has denied transferring funds to Najib and an interim government report found nothing suspicious.
“We can only guess, when someone is known as “Mr Clean”, we choose lah, but once he entered the arena, he became dirty”, Dr Mahathir said, responding to a question from a member of the audience at a public lecture in Perak on social evolution.
“When they have a big data platform, they can get the necessary information provided to the community so they can create better marketing relationships among one another”, he said in his opening remarks at the initiative’s launch at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre on Wednesday.
This was aggravated by perceived action against investigators probing allegations into the state-owned firm, including the dissolution of a special multi-agency taskforce following the sudden removal of the country’s Attorney-General last month.
“I really hope the younger generation do not engage in the spreading of such news that seem to propogate that Malaysia is being derailed economically and politically, and on the path to becoming a rogue nation and a failed state”, said Najib.
Mahathir said that “the rule of law has been turned upside down”.
Bloomberg reported that Malaysia is paying the price for weak foreign currency holdings and messy politics as the cost to protect its debt soars to near a four-year high.
Since past year, the ringgit has lost over a fifth of its value against the US dollar, now hovering around RM4.10 to the greenback and below the RM3.80 peg that was imposed during the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis.
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“These opinions are useful for the government to proactively manage our economy going forward”, the prime minister posted on Facebook.
