LANGKAWI: The government cannot make the Council of Eminent Persons (CEP)’s report public as some matters are still at the consultation stage, according to Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
He said that he was also aware that the government would be accused of not being transparent due to this stand, but it that needed more time before making any further decision.
“I do not know what it is that that we can’t tell as we revealed almost everything, but there are some matters under consultations and we cannot reveal what we are negotiating until a decision has been reached,” he told a press conference, here today.
He had earlier attended Permodalan Kedah Bhd’s (PKB) silver jubilee celebration and opened Hotel Adya Chenang, here.
Dr Mahathir was asked to comment on calls by various parties for the government to make the report public as it was placed under the Official Secrets Act 1972.
Dr Mahathir also said that he was aware that some Malaysians were not bothered by the damage done by former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak, when the latter was in charge of the country.
He stressed that the damage done by the former Umno president had made it difficult for the current government to fix problems.
“He owed so much money, money went missing and so much more, and also undertook contracts that caused huge losses to Malaysia.
“But (when) we want to end these contracts we are forced to pay compensation to the contractors, this causes costs to rise and harms the nation’s finances,” he said.
Thus, he said, the current government could not dish out free money to the people like what Najib did.
“This is because he used stolen money. We are not kleptocrats, we are not thieves, we are not stealing money. We try to earn money as much as possible, but of course we have to reduce gradually the free gifts given by Najib,” he added. — Bernama
