Apologise to Najib, minister tells WSJ, PM critics

(MMO) – Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said said the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) and those who have used the business daily’s reports to issue disparaging remarks about Datuk Seri Najib Razak should apologise to the prime minister.

The minister in the prime minister’s department said WSJ’s reports on the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) controversy is the source of all the criticism against the prime minister, although she accused the newspaper of relying on “false documents and reporting” to sell their stories.

“This decision to investigate provided the platform to (former prime minister) Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and the anti-Najib campaign to unfairly and ceaselessly attack the prime minister and the government, just in the basis of the WSJ’s reporting.

“They must apologise for damaging the reputation of the prime minister and Malaysia,” she was quoted as saying in a statement carried by the News Straits Times today.

She said that the latest WSJ report “forced” it to admit that some of the political donation deposited into Najib’s account did indeed originate from a Saudi Arabia donor, which was contrary to their initial report which she said suggested that the funds had links to 1MDB.

“It was this WSJ report that was used by the former Attorney-General (AG) (Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail) to open the special task force investigation into the prime minister,” she said.

She added that the former AG should also be investigated to find if the latter authenticated the WSJ report before initiating the probe against Datuk Seri Najib Razak.

“It should also be investigated whether the authenticity of the documents was properly verified by the former Attorney-General,” she added.

WSJ was the first to reveal that US$680 million had been deposited into the PM’s accounts prior to Election 2013, but local investigators have since declared the sum to be a gift from an Arab royal, the bulk of which has been refunded.