KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 2 — Former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak today denied having any personal interest in getting a government guarantee in 2009 for a RM5 billion debt in the form of bonds by 1Malaysia Development Berhad’s (1MDB) predecessor Terengganu Investment Authority (TIA) Berhad.
In his 1MDB trial, Najib is facing 25 charges, including four charges of abusing his power in three roles — as prime minister, finance minister, and 1MDB’s board of advisers’ chairman — over 1MDB matters for his own financial benefit amounting to RM2.27 billion.
Under the first power abuse charge, then-finance minister Najib is alleged to have misused his position on April 1, 2009 to get the Cabinet’s consent — through a Finance Ministry memorandum to the Cabinet — for the RM5 billion government guarantee to TIA.
Under this first charge, Najib is accused of doing this for his own financial benefit of RM60.6 million.
But Najib, 71, told the High Court here that he still does not know what personal interest he is alleged to have in this 2009 matter, and insisted that he was merely carrying out his job as the finance minister then.
“To this day, my lawyers and I are still left to speculate on precisely what this supposed interest might be, is it in TIA, in Goldman Sachs, in the IMTN, in Ambank or in MBTI?” he said when testifying in his own defence.
Najib was referring to the Islamic bonds or Islamic medium term notes (IMTN), TIA’s Islamic bonds financial advisor Goldman Sachs, TIA’s Islamic bonds arranger AmBank, and TIA’s owner Menteri Besar Terengganu Incorporated (MBTI).
“I’m still clueless,” he added, after saying that the first power abuse charge did not specify what personal interest he had.
“It seems we’re expected to engage in a guessing game rather than being presented with any specificity. We were and still are flying blind within the territory of this personal interest alleged against me,” he said.
Explaining the April 1, 2009 Cabinet meeting chaired by then prime minister Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, Najib earlier today said he was just carrying out his “official duty” as the then finance minister when he presented the Finance Ministry memorandum for the RM5 billion government guarantee.
Najib said that he was merely carrying out the Cabinet’s instructions from its previous December 12, 2008 meeting in his capacity as finance minister, when he tabled the memorandum.
“So, I had no ulterior personal motive in the presentation of the memorandum which was directed by the same Cabinet in the first place.
“It goes without saying that I also do not have any personal interest to declare in the government guarantee to be extended to TIA, an entity controlled by the state of Terengganu,” he said.
Najib stressed that his presenting of the memorandum to the Cabinet was not an abuse of his official position as finance minister, but was merely him discharging his official duty under his ministerial portfolio under the Cabinet’s instructions.
Among other things, Najib today described the 1MDB trial against him as a “political prosecution”, claiming that he has been “extremely prejudiced” as investigators had allegedly not asked him to address the allegations of personal interest.
Najib said this meant he did not have the chance to get investigators to understand his version of facts before a decision was made on whether to charge him, and said he would not get a fair hearing without a fair investigation.
“This rush to charge me is yet another indication that the charges against me are politically motivated,” he claimed.
Najib disagreed with the approach of charging an accused person first and only giving him the opportunity to explain later during trial through cross-examination, and that he hopes this alleged “injustice” ends with him.
This morning, Najib did not start his trial with an opening statement, but went straight to reading out his 525-page witness statement.
In the afternoon, Najib was heard coughing occasionally while testifying.
Najib’s 1MDB trial before judge Datuk Collin Lawrence Sequerah resumes tomorrow morning.
