Former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad accuses Bahasa Malaysia daily Utusan Malaysia of pandering to its owners Umno and party president Datuk Seri Najib Razak with 'misleading' headlines. – The Malaysian Insider pic, July 20, 2015.
Hitting out at Umno-owned Utusan Malaysia, Dr Mahathir accused the daily of using "misleading" headlines to evoke support for the embattled prime minister.
"To ingratiate themselves with the prime minister, they (Utusan) would rather mislead the people. The sub-editors are good at writing misleading headlines," he said in a blog posting today.
"For example when a statement is made to let the task force of four do their work, this is headlined as support for the prime minister."
Without naming him, Dr Mahathir also slammed Second Finance Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Husni Hanadzlah for his "premature" statement in declaring that no evidence of wrongdoing was found in the Auditor-General's interim report on the debt-ridden 1MDB.
"Then there was a minister who, after saying that the interim report shows nothing wrong with 1MDB, went on to advise people not to say anything about 1MDB until the report is out. But he himself had made a premature statement," he added.
Husni had said last week that the the preliminary report, which was submitted to the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on July 9, had found no evidence of wrongdoing by 1MDB or proof that US$700 million went to a "certain individual".
"The reckless allegations by some parties, including the disappearance of RM42 billion and transfer of US$700 million to certain individual does not arise," Husni had said.
"It is my hope that all baseless allegations will be put to rest. We have to remain patient and look forward to the final report by the A-G and the PAC."
However, critics of 1MDB have flayed Husni for clearing 1MDB and Najib, with DAP lawmaker Tony Pua saying that the A-G never cleared the transfer of US$700 million in the report.
Pua was referring to the expose by the Wall Street Journal that some US$700 million (RM2.6 billion) was deposited from state-owned funds into Najib's personal accounts.
PAC chairman Datuk Nur Jazlan Mohamed had also said that 1MDB had yet to submit bank statements and signed agreements to the A-G despite requests from the department.
Najib has denied that he had used any money for personal gain but has never made any reference if the money had entered his accounts or not.
"To all comments made against 1MDB, the standard answer is to deny, to say 'No it is not true'. It is like somebody upon being asked whether he had stolen the money as alleged, simply denies that he had stolen, expecting the judge to acquit him simply because he denied," Dr Mahathir said today.
"There is no denial that money was deposited in the private account. The explanation to Umno is that it was for the elections. Umno seems satisfied. Don’t they know that government money cannot be used to help a political party to win elections?
But the money was from donation. Who donated 2 billion Ringgit? No answer."
The audit on 1MDB was ordered by Najib earlier this year following public outcry over the firm’s RM42 billion debt incurred in just six years.
1MDB is also mired in controversial deals such as overpaying for power asset purchases and buying land cheaply from the federal government.
More recently, it has been linked to an election funding scandal, where other companies linked to it had allegedly funnelled billions of ringgit into Najib's personal bank accounts.
The interim audit was started in March and completed by end-June before being presented to the PAC last week.
- TMI
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