In view of his strategic role in 1MDB scandal, why was Najib not summoned or himself volunteer to testify at the PAC Inquiry in 2015/6 into 1MDB?

The fourth instalment of the exclusive interview of former Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak with Malaysiakini has raised even more questions than his three previous instalments.

Najib admitted that he should have been more open on the Auditor-General’s Report on 1MDB instead of placing it under the Official Secrets Act and on hindsight, he would have also implemented 1MDB in a different manner.

According to Najib, Pakatan Harapan had exploited the 1MDB issue against BN leading up to the national polls with a "negative" campaign involving character-smearing.

He stressed that the bipartisan PAC had absolved him of wrongdoing in the 1MDB issue.

This is the fake news which Najib had been spreading in the past two years as the PAC Report had not absolved him of wrongdoing in the 1MDB issue – which was why I had repeatedly challenged Najib and all UMNO/BN Ministers and leaders to quote, chapter and verse, where the PAC Report had absolved him of wrongdoing in the 1MDB issue.

Najib’s interview had highlighted one significant issue in the “kleptocracy at its worst”, as US Attorney-General Jeff Session described the international 1MDB money-laundering scandal at a recent global anti-corruption conference – why despite his strategic role in the 1MDB issue, the PAC had not summoned Najib to testify at its 1MDB investigations in 2015/16 or why Najib had not volunteered to appear before the PAC so that an comprehensive and accurate PAC report could be tabled.

This is something that the PAC Chairman, Hasan Arifin must explain.

Hasan Arifin was appointed as PAC Chairman after the previous PAC Chairman, Nur Jazlan Mohamad was promoted as Deputy Home Minister in the 1MDB “Week of the Long Knives” in July 2015 as he was getting too diligent in wanting to investigate the 1MDB scandal.

Najib would probably be summoned to testify before the PAC on the 1MDB issue if Nur Jazlan had continued as PAC Chairman, but Hasan on his appointment as PAC Chairman in October 2015 set his face against any calling of Najib to testify before the PAC.

This is now for Hasan to explain, as well as for Najib to explain why he had not volunteered to testify before the PAC so that it could come out with an accurate and comprehensive report on 1MDB issue.