Pasir Gudang MP Hassan Abdul Karim said Parliament must allow Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim to debate the motion on the Pandora Papers about billions of ringgit hidden in offshore financial centres. — Picture by Miera Zulyana
JOHOR BARU, Oct 6 — A Johor PKR federal lawmaker today urged the Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition to withdraw from the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the government led by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob unless proactive demands are met following the disclosure of the Pandora Papers.
Pasir Gudang MP Hassan Abdul Karim said Parliament must allow Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim to debate the motion on the Pandora Papers about billions of ringgit hidden in offshore financial centres.
He claimed that 1,500 Malaysians, including political and corporate figures and their children, are involved and the amount is estimated to be at RM1.8 trillion from the years 2004 to 2014.
“Immediately form a Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) to investigate the issue.
“At the same time, I call for immediate action by using the country’s existing legal powers so that the money and capital belonging to Malaysians stored in the secret accounts that are illegal are confiscated and returned to the government,” said Hassan in a statement issued here today.
The activist-lawyer was responding to the leaked information from the Pandora Papers — documents obtained by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) on tax havens preferred by elite Malaysians.
Earlier today, Anwar’s proposal to debate the contents of the Pandora Papers was rejected in Parliament today.
Dewan Rakyat Speaker Datuk Azhar Azizan Harun was quoted as saying that the debate on the matter need not be expedited although it is an important issue that must be investigated.
The Pandora Papers is the largest trove of leaked offshore data in history with documents coming from offshore service providers operating in Anguilla, Belize, Singapore, Switzerland, Panama, Barbados, Cyprus, Dubai, the Bahamas, the British Virgin Islands, Seychelles and Vietnam.
The files were leaked to the ICIJ, which has not revealed its source. The ICIJ gave 600 journalists around the world remote access to the leaked data.