“The people can no longer trust him to carry out his role honestly, professionally and with integrity.”
Hasan’s media response on Saturday, during which he denied that Good Star Limited belonged to controversial businessman Jho Low, did not absolve his role in covering-up the 1MDB scandal, added Pua, who is also DAP National Publicity Secretary.
Instead, he warned, it only confirmed that Hasan was a “complete illiterate” who could not read and understand even basic Bahasa Malaysia. “Alternatively, more plausibly, he was totally biased, the sole objective being to protect Jho Low from being implicated.”
“He has not hesitated to abuse his position as PAC chairman to obstruct investigations into the single largest financial scandal in the history of the country.”
The people can now see for themselves the types of challenges that Opposition members of the PAC face when dealing with the likes of Hasan Arifin, continued the MP.
The topmost question that Hasan must now answer was why he was going all out to hide Jho Low’s connections to Good Star and 1MDB, even at the cost of making him look like a “complete idiot”, lamented Pua.
Pua said Hasan “outrightly denied” Good Star Limited belonged to Jho Low, whose full name is Low Taek Jho and added, “Good Star Limited received USD1.03 billion of direct payments from 1MDB from 2009 to 2011.”
He pointed out that Hasan’s outright denial did not hold water. Bank Negara, for example, Pua said, disclosed that two foreign regulatory authorities confirmed that the sole beneficiary of Good Star Limited was Jho Low and the ownership status never changed since its inception in June 2009. “Hasan dismissed Bank Negara’s letter on the grounds that the information provided was ‘intelligence grade’.”
“Hence, since the PAC is not an intelligence agency, we are unable to verify the authenticity and truth of the information,” Pua quoted Hasan as claiming. “This must be the most gravity-defying acrobatic twist of logic from the chairman.”
“An ‘intelligence grade’ piece of information does not require an intelligence agency to make use of the intelligence reports.”
On the contrary, argued Pua, the “intelligence grade” information should be taken as the likely truth unless otherwise proven. “It was intelligence received from Bank Negara’s counterparts in foreign countries.”
Furthermore, argued Pua, if “intelligence grade” information from Bank Negara cannot be believed, the PAC chairman cannot accept at face value either the letter from PetroSaudi acknowledging Good Star Limited as its subsidiary. “It’s mere assertion, unsupported by any documentary evidence.”
“We don’t even know if the letter provided by 1MDB was genuine. Hasan cannot claim that Bank Negara was far less trustworthy than 1MDB, the very company the PAC was tasked to investigate.”
Pua went on to say that Hasan neglected to mention that Bank Negara did stress that the PAC could use the information contained in its letter for publication provided that “approval from the foreign regulatory authorities be obtained via Bank Negara in advance.”
The Bank Negara letter provided the necessary lead for the PAC to investigate further into the multi-billion dollar embezzlement which took place, alleged Pua. “For example, the PAC would then have strong basis to summon Jho Low to testify before the Committee.”
Hasan also did not respond to the question as to why he refused to share the “intelligence grade” letter with PAC members, reminded Pua in a parting shot. He noted that Hasan claimed the letter was addressed to him confidentially.
“The contents of the Bank Negara letter repeatedly made reference to the information which was ‘provided to the PAC’.”