Wednesday, May 18, 2016

Is RTM not interested in hosting the debate between Arul Kanda and myself now because 1MDB has been proven to be lying to Malaysians all along?

Yesterday, I had called upon the Communications and Multimedia Minister, Dato’ Seri Salleh Keruak to once again offer RTM to broadcast the debate between Arul Kanda and myself “live”. Last October, the Minister was very quick and eager to offer the platform for the debate last October.

However, I’m extremely disappointed that the Minister has rejected the opportunity to telecast the debate live to all Malaysians throughout the country.

Dato’ Seri Salleh Keruak said that “we are not interested as investigations conducted by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) and the Auditor-General have been concluded. If anyone is interested to debate on it, they can do so in the Parliament… What's going on now is more of a business dispute between 1MDB and the International Petroleum Investment Co (IPIC).”

The excuse provided by the Minister does not make any sense. Now that the PAC Report on 1MDB has been tabled to Parliament, it is all the more important for the findings to be debated.

This is especially since all Cabinet members claimed that the PAC Report has apparently cleared all wrongdoings by the Prime Minister and 1MDB. On the other hand, critics like myself who is part of the PAC clearly sees the report as damning, particularly with the respect that 1MDB has refused to cooperate fully with the Auditor-General.

Dato’ Seri Salleh’s claim that the massive US$3.5 billion bond defaults by 1MDB is “more of a business dispute between 1MDB and IPIC” is even more unbelievable. 1MDB has recorded the highest borrowin defaults by any government company in the history of the country, and this is a crisis of epic proportions which must be addressed by both 1MDB and the Government.

The live debate between Arul Kanda and myself will enable Malaysians to decide for themselves who is telling the truth and who is hiding from the truth. The refusal by the Communications and Multimedia Minister from hosting the show this time round is clearly a refusal to expose the truth to ordinary Malaysians.

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