Veteran newsman Abdul Kadir Jasin has expressed concern that 1MDB could pose a risk to Malaysia’s sovereignty.

Among other areas of concern, he pointed to 1MDB’s dealings within the Singaporean banking system, which the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) is privy to.

“If the MAS had not found anything bad, surely Bank Negara and the mainstream media would have said this. But instead, when MAS submitted its report to Bank Negara, its governor Zeti Akhtar Aziz says it is confidential.

“We are worried that the information found by MAS and other outside parties can be used as leverage to blackmail our leaders,” the former NSTP editor-in-chief said in a blog posting yesterday.

Abdul Kadir (photo) was referring to a 1MDB-linked account at the BSI Bank Ltd Singapore, where US$1.103 billion (RM3.97 billion) in funds from 1MDB’s redemption of its Cayman Islands assets was kept.

There had been confusion over the form of the funds held by the bank – initially the Ministry of Finance said in a parliamentary reply that the funds were held in cash, but issued a correction months later that it was actually “assets in US dollars”.

Finance Minister II Husni Hanadzlah then clarified the assets were in fact in the form of "units" but refused to explain what he meant by that.

'Jho Low must testify'

Meanwhile, Abdul Kadir also hailed the Public Accounts Committee’s (PAC) decision on Friday to summon the tycoon Low Taek Jho to testify in its probe on 1MDB, questioning his apparent closeness with Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak and being seemingly ‘untouchable’ by the law.

He suggested that if Low, better known as Jho Low (photo), refused to cooperate with the investigation, the PAC should lodge a police report, so that the police can then rope in Interpol to track him down.

“If he is innocent and has nothing to hide, he should be brave enough to return to his homeland to face the PAC and clear his name,” he said.

PAC chief Nur Jazlan Mohamed had said that Low is being summoned to verify some issues in relation to his capacity as the special adviser to the chairperson of the advisory board of 1MDB’s precursor, the Terengganu Investment Authority (TIA).

Asked if the PAC would compel Low to attend the hearing, he replied, "We don't want to reach that stage but it's up to him.”