Rakyat deserve to know answer, says MCA Youth

KUALA LUMPUR: It is a “huge shock” for many Malaysians that former attorney general Tan Sri Tommy Thomas revealed that the Pakatan Harapan government had known about the links between the family of former Bank Negara Malaysia governor Tan Sri Zeti Aziz and Jho Low in the 1MDB case, says MCA Youth.

This follows the reply in the Dewan Rakyat by de facto Law Minister Datuk Seri Dr Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar on Monday that the police had been aware of this matter since 2019 but are still investigating.

“Zeti was made a member of the (Pakatan) government’s Council of Eminent Persons and also appointed the chairperson of PNB overseeing RM400bil of public funds despite the Pakatan government already being aware of the matter.

“Therefore, former Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission chief Latheefa Koya and the Royal Malaysian Police must explain the long delay in these investigations – especially since Singapore police had already taken action as early as 2019,” MCA Youth said in a statement yesterday.

It added that leaders of the then Pakatan government should also explain why this information was kept hidden from the public during the entire time they were in power.

“Questions would also be asked if the crime of concealment of evidence had occurred since information of Zeti’s family being paid hundreds of millions of ringgit by Jho Low was also similarly not provided to the courts for the use of Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s lawyers for his defence.

“The fact that Najib was charged first before investigations into Zeti were ever completed also raises serious questions as she was listed as a key prosecution witness in both his SRC and 1MDB trials.

“Everyone deserves a fair trial and for the prosecution withholding this key piece of information may appear to have violated this principle,” it added.

MCA Youth said the rakyat demand to know the answer as this very serious revelation threatens the integrity of the country’s central bank as well as Malaysian financial institutions.

“We cannot stress how serious this matter is on our country’s integrity as Zeti’s signature is on many of the ringgit banknotes circulating today. That is how important her position was to our country,” it said in the statement.