PUTRAJAYA: The government needs to see documents cited by the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) which linked China to state investment fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), before taking further action.
Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said the government needs to get the documents as evidence that China had allegedly offered to help bail out 1MDB in return for securing lucrative railway and pipeline projects for its "One Belt, One Road" programme as reported the Wall Street Journal (WSJ).
"This is a statement made by somebody in the press. There are documents I suppose but whether the documents can be shown to us and be in our hands before we can take any action.
"So until then, we can't take any action. We have to get the documents first and use it as evidence that the agreement has indeed taken place," he said.
The WSJ reported that senior Chinese leaders had in 2016, offered to bail out 1MDB which was at the centre of a swelling, multibillion-dollar graft scandal.
The report which cited minutes from a series of previously undisclosed meetings, added that China also offered to bug the homes and offices of WSJ reporters in Hong Kong who were on 1MDB's trail, to learn who they were getting their information from
"Chinese officials told visiting Malaysians that China would use its influence to try to get the US and other countries to drop their probes on allegations that allies of the then prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, and others, had plundered the 1MDB fund, the minutes of the meetings show.
"In return, Malaysia offered lucrative stakes in railway and pipeline projects for China’s One Belt, One Road programme of building infrastructure abroad.
"Within months, Najib, who has denied any wrongdoing in the 1MDB matter, signed US$34 billion of rail and pipeline deals with Chinese state companies, to be funded by Chinese banks and built by Chinese workers," said the report written by Tom Wright and Bradley Hope.
When asked on fugitive businessman Low Taek Jho or Jho Low, Dr Mahathir that the government will continue its search for him even though it is difficult.
"There are only seven billion people (in the world), so it's not very difficult to find him. If we can find a needle in a haystack, Jho Low will be the needle among the haystack," he told a press conference after chairing the sixth Special Cabinet Committee on Anti-Corruption here.
It was reported yesterday that Jho Low has dismissed WSJ's report claiming that he had a role in facilitating deals with China to bail out 1MDB in 2016 in exchange for lucrative contracts.
On Jho Low's accusations that it was politically motivated, Dr Mahathir said the former has said that many times before.
"He was politically motivated to steal money," said Dr Mahathir.
Report by Hashini Kavishtri Kannan, Irwan Shafrizan Ismail and Mohd Iskandar Ibrahim
