KUALA LUMPUR, March 8 — Former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak should be suspended from Parliament for refusing to explain his remarks that 1MDB debts were not paid by public funds in the Dewan Rakyat tomorrow, says DAP’s Lim Guan Eng.

He said the Pekan MP should be found in contempt of Parliament for saying he would only offer a reply to the Dewan Rakyat after the Johor state election was over.

“Najib is clearly in contempt of Parliament when he said he will only explain to the Dewan Rakyat about his remarks — that 1MDB’s debts were not paid using taxpayers’ money — after the Johor state polls are concluded.

“Clearly Najib is placing more importance on campaigning in the Johor state elections than respect for the supremacy of Parliament and making truthful statements as an MP.

“By choosing to defy the Speaker’s directive he has breached Dewan Rakyat Standing Order 43, where the decision of the Speaker is final as to observance of the rules of order. If Najib refuses to retract his stubborn and recalcitrant attitude he should be immediately punished with suspension from Parliament until he complies,” Lim said in a statement.

Yesterday, Najib, who is also the Umno MP for Pekan, was asked to give an explanation to the Dewan Rakyat tomorrow regarding his remarks on 1MDB during last week’s debate which were said to have misled the august House.

Najib, who has been convicted of multiple charges of corruption and power abuse involving funds worth over RM40 million embezzled from SRC International, said in Parliament that no public funds were used to repay 1MDB’s principal debt.

He argued that most of the funds to service the debt would have come from entities like Goldman Sachs, audit firms KPMG and Deloitte, AmBank and the US Department of Justice (DoJ).

These institutions had returned some of the funds embezzled from the firm totalling RM23 billion to Malaysia. SRC International was a former subsidiary of 1MDB.

Following his remarks, yesterday, Dewan Rakyat Speaker Tan Sri Azhar Azizan Harun said he had written to Najib to seek clarification on the matter and asked the former prime minister to give a reply.

Azhar said this in response to a question from RSN Rayer (DAP-Jelutong) who stood up during the debate session on the motion of thanks for the Royal address in the Dewan Rakyat to seek feedback on Tony Pua’s (PH-Damansara) motion that Najib be referred to the Parliamentary Rights and Privileges Committee under Standing Order 36 (12) of the Dewan Rakyat over the remarks.

Pua had submitted the motion following Najib’s speech in the Dewan Rakyat on March 2 which was said to contain statements that allegedly misled the august House on the 1MDB debt issue and could be construed as insulting to the House of Representatives.

Lim however questioned how Najib could blatantly ignore the Speaker’s orders.

“How can Najib let the Speaker wait until after the Johor state elections for feedback over the untruthful and dishonest remarks? Does Najib consider that Bossku is bigger than the Speaker?

“Najib’s claims in the Dewan Rakyat that no public funds have been used to pay off 1MDB debts has no merit and is baseless when publicly refuted by both the current Finance Minister Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz and former finance minister Lim Guan Eng.

“According to the Finance Ministry, RM19.14 billion has been recovered so far and placed in the asset recovery trust account, not RM23 billion as claimed by Najib, still less than half from the total losses of RM52 billion,” Lim added.