"I won't be drawn into political games" - Arul Kanda

The 1MDB president and group executive editor said Pua's challenge to debate was more politically motivated than a desire for the truth to prevail.

He said as a two-term MP, Pua was surely well versed in Parliamentary procedures and knew all along that the debate could not take place.

“YB Tony Pua challenged me to a ‘live’ televised debate on Oct 29, 2015. On the same day, I accepted his challenge with one condition – in order to maintain the integrity of the Public Accounts Committee’s (PAC) investigation, and to avoid any conflict of interest, he must first resign from the PAC.

“When Pua lacked the courage to do the right thing and resign from the PAC, on Oct 31, 2015, I withdrew the condition. I accepted his challenge as he has made so many wrong allegations about 1MDB and me personally, that I wanted to publicly debate with and correct him,” Arul Kanda said in a media statement today.

He said Pua had chose to hide behind his PAC membership, “to run away from a showdown he aggressively harassed me to accept.”

Arul Kanda also questioned why PKR's Rafizi Ramli, who had been appointed to replace Pua in the debate, to not replace Pua in the PAC instead so that Pua can debate him.

“Pua issued the debate challenge and I accepted. There was never any question of debate with Pakatan Harapan, which has now appeared out of nowhere, in a desperate and last-minute attempt, to save him from embarrassment.

“These are clearly political games which I, as a professional, will not be drawn into,” said Arul Kanda.

He said although he respected Rafizi as a worthy opponent, he respected Tan Sri Pandikar Amin Mulia more because as the Dewan Rakyat Speaker, the latter is the ultimate authority on all matters relating to Parliament.

“He (Pandikar Amin) has made his ruling on my responsibility as a PAC witness and that any debate should only take place after the PAC hearings,” he said.