Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng wondered aloud if PAS had truly understood the explanation given by 1MDB CEO Arul Kanda Kandasamy about the company's debt rationalisation plan.

Lim said Arul Kanda has yet to answer many questions raised by DAP about the debt-laden 1MDB, especially by the party’s Petaling Jaya Utara MP Tony Pua.

“I do not know if they understand what Arul is talking about as there are many questions which have not been answered by him,” the DAP secretary-general said at a press conference in Penang today.

“I would say PAS should explain how they are satisfied that we have been paying so much money but have got nothing,” he added.

Lim was referring to PAS leaders who expressed satisfaction with the 1MDB rationalisation plan that was meant to help the company pare down its debts.

Arul Kanda had briefed PAS leaders at the party’s roundtable discussion on 1MDB at a hotel in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.

The discussion, believed to be the first for a 1MDB official to formally engage with the opposition outside the Parliament's Public Accounts Committee (PAC), was initiated by PAS deputy president Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man.

Lim queried if PAS was satisfied that 1MDB is said to be unlikely to meet the extended deadline to pay US$602.725 million plus interest to Abu Dhabi’s International Petroleum Investment Co PJSC (IPIC) by noon today.

1MDB has reportedly missed its deadline today, prompting IPIC to extend the deadline again to Aug 31.

Lim expressed doubt if PAS understood the issues surrounding 1MDB and the late payment to IPIC.

“So I would really question if the PAS delegation knows what Arul Kanda is talking about; did they ask the right questions and whether they got the satisfactory answers?” Lim asked.

“It is much better if he (Arul Kanda) answers to Pua instead of PAS. So far he has not been able to give satisfactory answers to issues we have raised including how 1MDB’s money was spent and how it had purchased a plot of land in Air Itam, Penang, which the company does not wholly own,” Lim noted.

“You don't buy land or property when you don't have 100 percent control or ownership as you cannot do any development on the said plot as a 100 percent agreement and consent is needed for it,” he added.

Last year, Lim halted 1MDB’s purchase of 234 acres of land in Air Itam, saying there shall be no development on the plot until there is “accountability and transparency” with regard to the scandal-riddled firm.