Chin Su Phin
SANDAKAN: The 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) scandal and implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) are the main reasons resulting in Barisan Nasional’s (BN) downfall in the 14th General Election (GE14), said Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) acting president Datuk Chin Su Phin.
Chin said LDP, when it was still a component party in BN, had been told and assured by the former prime minister that no government fund was used to service 1MDB’s interests.
As it turned out, he said the new Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng revealed that almost RM7 billion had been paid by his ministry for 1MDB’s interests during the previous administration.
Additionally, Chin said Swiss Attorney General Michael Lauber had said that the 1MDB was suspected of money laundering and ruled out the involvement of Saudi’s royal family in the scandal. Switzerland has also agreed to return 1MDB-linked funds to Malaysian coffers.
“It baffles us as to why our previous government was unwilling to cooperate with Switzerland, Singapore and the United States in the investigation of 1MDB.
“The new administration has expressed its willingness to cooperate in the 1MDB investigation.
“Does it mean that the former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak had attempted to cover up the scandal?” he said when officiating at the joint conference of LDP Tanjung Papat, Sekong, Sungai Sibuga and Karamunting divisions here yesterday.
Chin continued to say that the implementation of GST had also diminished the support for BN as the tax regime was poorly executed and resulted in inflation.
“The previous government has failed to practise transparency in making public how the revenue from GST was spent.”
Under the leadership of the new Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, Chin believed that the new Pakatan Harapan (PH) government would bring stability to the country.
“The 1MDB scandal had been an embarrassment to Malaysians.
“Today, we are now proud to be Malaysians for our people have shown their determination and success in changing the government.”