Hasan should explain and apologise for shabby treatment of media
He has refused to summon important witnesses and treats the media as enemies promoting transparency, accountability and good governance.
Lim, who was also DAP Parliamentary Leader, noted that reporters were barred on Thursday from entering Parliament to cover the PAC meeting on 1MDB. “Reporters had to wait outside the Parliament building.”
Hasan, added Lim, should explain his hostile attitude towards the media. “He virtually treats the media as enemies promoting transparency, accountability and good governance.”
“Hasan should not only explain but apologise for such shabby treatment of the media.”
The PAC Chairman, continued Lim, has also refused to summon important witnesses. “The two most important witnesses for the PAC hearings on the 1MDB Scandal are Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak and Penang-born billionaire Jho Low.”
Najib was the only person, apart from Jho Low, who knows the ins-and-outs of the RM2.6 billion political “donation” and RM55 billion 1MDB twin mega scandals in the past six years, claimed the DAP veteran. “Arul Kanda Kandasamy was only the latest ‘operative’ to join the ‘revolving-door’ teams of operatives who had been employed to take orders to run the 1MDB in the past six years.”
Lim wants to know why the PAC, under Hasan, was afraid to call Najib. “The PAC, under Nur Jazlan Mohd as Chairman, decided on July 24 last year that Low Taek Jho should appear before it on September 8 to testify on the 1MDB scandal followed by Najib.”
He listed the other witnesses who should be summoned as Attorney General (AG) Mohd Apandi Ali, sacked AG Abdul Gani Patail, Bank Negara Governor Zeti Akhtar Aziz, MACC Chief Commissioner Abu Kassim, and MACC director (special operations) Bahri Mohamed Zin. Inspector-General of Police Khalid Abu Bakar and former Special Branch deputy director Abdul Hamid Bador, should be summoned as well, said Lim.
Hasan was solely to blame for public doubts about the PAC Report on 1MDB, stressed Lim. “There was no such doubt when Nur Jazlan was the PAC Chairman.”
Lim was commenting on Hasan saying on Thursday that the public should not doubt the PAC Report on the 1MDB Scandal. “He bases his statement on committee members being made up of parliamentarians from both sides of the House. That, he thinks, shows transparency.”
“The fact is that there was a sea-change in public attitude to the PAC after he was appointed PAC Chairman in October.”
Hasan’s “Freudian slip” about being the “cari makan” PAC Chairman aside, said Lim, he undermined public confidence in the Committee when he did not show any sense of urgency and priority to complete the PAC hearings on 1MDB. “Earlier, the PAC had been sabotaged from continuing its 1MDB hearings for four months.”
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Lim pointed out that had also been suspended from Parliament for six months for protesting against “sabotage” of the PAC hearings on 1MDB.