The following is a statement by Communications and Multimedia Minister Datuk Seri Salleh Said Keruak posted in his blog today:

"Today Lim Kit Siang asked me to take tuition from Tony Pua to improve my knowledge on financial matters, "as a little knowledge is dangerous", Kit Siang had said.

"I take it Kit Siang has himself been tutored by Tony, whom he seems to regard as a financial guru. What Kit Siang listed down in his blog were merely the operational issues involved in doing business. Companies raise funds from various sources to buy assets and do business. That is quite normal unless the company starts business with a huge paid up capital. And in 1MDB's case the startup capital was only RM1 million.

"The issue here is did 1MDB physically lose RM42 billion like what has been alleged? Tun Dr Mahathir said RM42 billion has 'lesap' or disappeared into thin air. This would mean 1MDB has nothing to show for it. That is not true because 1MDB has RM51 billion worth of assets to show for it plus ongoing development for the next couple of decades.

"So I do not need tutoring from Tony, like Kit Siang does, to understand something so fundamental. And I did not attend the Save Malaysia Roundtable because the event was not about saving Malaysia but had other ulterior motives and hidden agendas.

"On the BMF and Bank Negara Forex issues, which Kit Siang mentioned, those are real and physical losses with no benefit to the country. On the other hand, 1MDB is a going concern. Maybe Kit Siang should change tutors if Tony did not explain this to him." - BERNAMA