Malaysia’s Mahathir and other ruling party leaders pile more pressure on Najib over 1MDB scandal

Former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad and some leaders of the ruling party jointly demanded resolution of the 1MDB state fund scandal on Monday and condemned a crackdown on dissent, signalling a divide within the coalition.

Mahathir has openly called for Prime Minister Najib Razak to resign over allegations of corruption at 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) and in a rare public display of unity, Mahathir and sacked deputy prime minister Muhyiddin Yassin called a news conference to express their concerns.

Voices of dissent from within the ruling United Malays National Organisation (Umno) were quickly silenced with a July cabinet reshuffle that ousted Najib’s critics, including Muhyiddin.

A former senior member of Umno, Khairuddin Hassan, and his lawyer, Matthias Chang, were formally charged on Monday with attempts to sabotage Malaysia’s banking and financial systems.

Khairuddin had called for US law-enforcement authorities to probe the 1MDB scandal. Mahathir and the other UMNO leaders called for the two to be released.

"We see a climate of fear among the people," Mahathir said. "The government is now defining the law according to their own needs. We are here to show that we are against the abuse of the law on our country."