KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 1 — DAP chairman Lim Guan Eng today questioned Umno’s seeming uninterest in pushing the authorities to capture Low Taek Jho — the man said to have masterminded the multi-billion dollar theft of 1MDB.

The Bagan MP noted that the Malay nationalist party and its president Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi made a big deal about standing in solidarity with his predecessor Datuk Seri Najib Razak, who is currently serving a 12-year jail sentence for his role in the RM42 million misappropriation from former 1MDB subsidiary, SRC International Sdn Bhd when addressing party members last Saturday, but made no mention of the Malaysian fugitive popularly known as Jho Low.

"What is unusual is that Umno leaders do not appear to be interested in nabbing Jho Low.

"During the Umno special briefing last Saturday on Najib being sent to jail after losing his final appeal to the Federal Court, no mention was made by Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi on asking the government to redouble efforts to capture Jho Low,” Lim said in a statement.

He also called out Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob for previously sanctioning a meeting with Low, said to have been arranged by former attorney general Tan Sri Apandi Ali, to settle the 1MDB scandal.

"Even though Jho Low’s offer of RM1.5 billion was finally rejected, the prime minister was wrong to allow the meeting to take place at all.

"Agreeing to meet gave the shameful impression that Malaysia was willing to negotiate with a wanted criminal on the run. There should be no meeting nor discussion but to go all out to hunt down Jho Low,” Lim said.

An Interpol Red Notice has been out on Low since 2016. He is wanted in several countries including Malaysia, Singapore and the US in connection with the 1MDB scam.

The Penang-born made headlines again yesterday after two US journalists Tom Wright and Bradley Hope posted a photo they claimed showed Low partying in Shanghai Disneyland on Christmas eve 2019.

The two who authored the bestseller The Billion Dollar Whale claimed to have received information from "a Malaysian government source” that Low has been hiding in China for the past few years.

Before his retirement, former inspector-general of police Tan Sri Abdul Hamid Bador had disclosed back in July 2020 that Low was seen in Macau, but officials from the China Embassy here said they have investigated the allegations and found them to be groundless.