KUALA LUMPUR, March 1 ― Former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak has accused DAP lawmaker Tony Pua of "assaulting” the Foon Yew High School in Johor, calling it vengeance and a form of intimidation politics, Malaysiakini reported today. 

This came after Pua’s remarks on Foon Yew that the school’s leadership should be removed for lack of integrity after it welcomed Najib, who has been convicted of criminal breach of trust, money laundering and abuse of power in relation to RM42 million belonging to SRC International Sdn Bhd, a former subsidiary of 1MDB.

"This is exactly the type of vengeance and intimidation politics of an arrogant DAP that the rakyat, including the Chinese community, are increasingly turned off by.

"Pua’s malicious need to lambast a prestigious school that has produced many top Malaysians for their choice of speakers needs to be called out as an election ploy to gain some traction.

"No matter his issue with me as his political rival, the Damansara MP’s assault on this school ― or any school ― for their choice of speakers is absolutely unbecoming of any politician of any stripe,” Najib said in a statement yesterday.

On February 24, Najib visited the school’s Seri Alam campus in Johor and delivered a speech in an attempt to woo the Chinese community to support BN.

It was Najib who approved the school’s construction in 2013 when he was the prime minister and revealed that he overruled Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin who was the education minister at the time despite the latter saying no to building the school. 

Najib was also the one who approved the school’s Kulai campus when he was the education minister in 1999.

Since Najib’s visit became public knowledge, the school’s chairperson Tay Chin Hein claimed the visit was at Najib’s request, and the school was grateful for his past deeds. Therefore, it did not want to create a misunderstanding.

Contradicting Tay, Najib said that he was invited to the school.

Yesterday, Pua described the incident as the "screwed up” state in society, condemning the school for inviting the country’s "top-most crook who misappropriated tens of millions of ringgit, if not billions of taxpayers’ money, a world-renown kleptocrat” to speak at the school.

Najib has since regarded Pua’s statement as uncalled for and that there was nothing wrong for him to be invited to the school to share a few words with their faculty and students and see how the school is doing after its opening last year. 

Najib had also threatend to sue Pua, saying that unlike DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng and Muda’s Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman, he was merely charged under the Anti-Money Laundering and Anti-Terrorism Financing Prevention Act (Amla).

"Please remember that I have been charged with Amla - not stealing.

"Unlike your boss Lim and Muda president (Syed Saddiq), I was not charged with misapplication of assets or asking (or) receiving bribes under the Penal Code,” he said taunting Pua to continue accusing him of stealing the RM2.6 billion so that in return he would sue him.

"So please say that I stole and used the RM2.6 billion for myself and I shall sue you like how I sued the PKR chief for saying the same last week.

"Continue to direct your energies and attention at me. But leave the school and its people alone to carry out their noble work,” he added.

Najib is seeking to quash a 2020 ruling of the High Court in Kuala Lumpur that convicted him, as well as imposed a 12-year jail term and RM210 million fine, over one count of abuse of power, three counts of criminal breach of trust, and three counts of money laundering involving RM42 million of funds from SRC International.

On Dec 8 last year, the Court of Appeal dismissed his appeal to overturn the guilty verdict and sentencing in the SRC graft case.