Muhyiddin misleads the public, says Nazri

PUTRAJAYA: Tourism and Culture Minister Nazri Aziz has accused former deputy prime minister Muhyiddin Yassin of misleading the public with his claim that he was dismissed from the Federal Cabinet merely for stating what the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has confirmed in its report on 1MDB.

Speaking to FMT and commenting on Muhyiddin’s Facebook posting on Tuesday, Nazri said: “His statement was very misleading because the Prime Minister would not have had any reason to dismiss him had he brought up the matter only within the four walls of the Cabinet meeting room.

“Others had also raised similar concerns but he was dismissed because he went outside the Cabinet. The part that broke the camel’s back was when he went to the Cheras Umno annual meeting and spoke of the matter in public.”

In his Tuesday posting, Muhyiddin said the PAC’s report, which was tabled in Parliament last week, confirmed what he had been saying all the time.

He said he had, when he was still in the Cabinet, expressed worry about 1MDB’s business model and asked Prime Minister Najib Razak to relinquish his position as chairman of the company’s advisory board.

“The PAC report has just confirmed all my views and fears about 1MDB. Najib looks like he accepts the PAC report now, but dismissed me from the Cabinet for saying the same thing,” he said.

Nazri said it was Muhyiddin’s duty as the then deputy prime minister to support Najib unless there was enough evidence to suggest any wrongdoing by the Prime Minister.

He indicated that Umno might sack Muhyiddin from the party.

“He has breached party discipline by sitting together with the opposition and asking for the Prime Minister to resign through a very undemocratic way,” he said.

Nazri dismissed the continuing attacks on Najib by his critics, saying they had chosen to ignore the PAC report, which he said cleared the Prime Minister of all allegations of wrongdoing in his role as 1MDB’s chief advisor.

“We knew from the very beginning that the opposition members were not interested in finding the truth,” he said. “They are only interested in taking Najib down. So their reaction is not something we are surprised by.

“We know their mentality and we are prepared for the long fight. In the end it will take us to the general election, and that is a very legit way for them to fight and bring the Prime Minister down.”