(6 Nov 2018) Malaysia's Member of Parliament Anwar Ibrahim said on Tuesday that failure of governance led to the large-scale corruption scandal at Malaysia's state investment fund known as the 1Malaysia Development Berhad, or 1MDB.
Speaking at the New Economy Forum in Singapore, Anwar Ibrahim blamed corrupt leaders for his country's missing billions, but also stressed that international financial institutions and other actors had contributed to problems by allowing excess spending to continue.
Earlier in November US authorities charged a fugitive Malaysian financier and two former Goldman Sachs bankers in a money laundering and bribery scheme that allegedly pilfered billions from the state investment fund.
The corruption scandal involving the fund rocked a political earthquake, contributing to the ousting of Malaysia's long-ruling coalition in May.
Then-Prime Minister Najib Razak, who set up the fund, now faces criminal charges in Malaysia - accusations he has consistently denied.
Najib's successor, Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad is currently under pressure to reform the country.
Following his landslide victory in a by-election in October, Ibrahim is widely expected to take over from Mahathir.
Mahathir, the world's oldest leader at 93, has said he expects to step down in two years and will keep his promise to hand over power to Anwar.
Ibrahim said that Mahathir should be given the "space and support" to undertake economic reforms, adding that he saw no reason not to trust that Mahathir wouldn't honour an agreement to hand over power to Ibrahim in 2020.
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