Press Statement
Dato Sri’ S. Vell Paari
Opposition’s lost opportunity to debate Arul Kanda on @1MDB
On the 29th October 2015, Petaling Jaya Utara (PJU) Member of Parliament (MP) Tony Pua issued a challenge to 1 Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) President and Group Executive Director for a debate on1MDB.
The challenge was duly accepted by Arul Kanda on the very same day with one condition that Tony Pua is to resigned from the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) to in order to maintain the integrity of the PAC’s investigation”. However, the response from DAP was disappointing to say the least.
In order to proceed with the debate, on 31st October 2015 Arul Kanda withdrew the condition for the debate. However, much to the surprise of the Malaysian public, Tony Pua changed the format of the debate to a Question and Answer session with only Tony Pua asking the questions without giving the opportunity to 1MDB to ask questions itself.
This in an attempt to silence 1MDB and not allow the company to determine how and where did Tony Pua received his information. By doing so, Tony Pua is effectively covering up something or someone and does not want to reveal his sources and information, whether obtain legally or illegally.
Today, the opposition created another joke by nominating Pandan MP Rafizi Ramli to debate Arul Kanda when they clearly know Rafizi Ramli was hesitant to debate Arul Kanda in the first place as per his statement yesterday to the press. However, the offer from the opposition has now been rejected by Arul Kanda with a valid point.
The challenge to debate came from Tony Pua, and Tony Pua shall be man enough to debate with Arul Kanda rather than send someone else to do his dirty job.
In addition, if Tony Pua was really sincere in wanting to debate Arul kanda on 1MDB in order to find out the “truth”, he could have resigned from PAC and let Rafizi Ramli take his place in the committee. Unless of course he thinks that he (Rafizi Ramli) is not good enough to sit in the PAC?
In all honesty, I think the lame attempt by Tony Pua and now the opposition pact to push this debate is just a cheap publicity stunt to create issues and make some noise regarding 1MDB. The opposition clearly knows that he 1MDB rationalization plan is working well and the result of this rationalization plan will be presented soon. In order to disrupt this rationalization plan, they are going all out to destroy 1MDB, its reputation and it’s President/Group Executive Director.
This will not happen.
