NAJIB MUST RESIGN NOW: Quickly while there's still some CASH FOR MALAYSIA TO SALVAGE - Zaid

If there is one thing our Prime Minister has made abundantly clear, it’s that he does not understand the principles of ministerial responsibility. That’s why he keeps telling us to wait for the audit report on IMDB, and why he says he can’t be pushed out of office until his five-year election mandate expires.

We are a Westminster democracy. The principles by which our Government and ministers operate are managed by the conventions, practices and ethics of a Parliamentary system. Any minister is bound by the principles of personal and collective responsibility, so if a minister disagrees with a Cabinet decision, then he must resign.

So if the decision to establish 1MDB was tabled and approved at a Cabinet meeting, it’s wrong for the Deputy Prime Minister to cry foul now. If he did not agree with this decision he should have resigned a long time ago. If it was not tabled at all, then it is Dato’ Sri Najib who must resign because, under the principle of personal responsibility, it is a clear demonstration of dereliction of duty. Even off-budget projects like 1MDB must be approved by the Cabinet, or better still by Parliament, but the Prime Minister did not take either option. This means he must resign regardless of what the audit report says.

PM Najib

Our Government must not be run by the principles of the Barisan Nasional or UMNO. If we want to be a developed country, as we keep saying we do, then our ministers must be willing to submit to the standards of responsibility that are common in other democracies.

A minister—especially the Minister of Finance—must always be open with Parliament in his handling of the country’s finances. He must not keep such matters secret or bury the country’s money in the Cayman Islands. He must not keep our money in Singapore when we have our own banks, unless he can explain the reasons for taking such a step. He is the guardian of our sovereignty and national pride, which means he should not allow a government company to go begging for loans to pay back interest—this puts all Malaysians to shame. For this reason alone Najib must resign, never mind what the auditor says. - Zaid.my