Monday, August 17, 2015

From Political Donation, to Brotherly Appreciation, and now a Migration to Singapore !


Dato’ Seri Najib Razak must confirm if he has indeed transferred US$650 million from his personal account to an account in Singapore.

The Wall Street Journal had exposed just a little more than a month ago that the Prime Minister has received US$681 million of cash into his personal bank account in March 2013.

Dato’ Seri Najib Razak had persistent refused to confirm or deny such a transaction having took place for nearly a month. He would only repeatedly insist that he “did not not use any money for personal gains” while pro-Najib blogs defended him as not being so stupid as to take RM2.6 billion into his personal account.

However, as it turned out, despite Dato’ Seri Najib Razak’s silence on the matter, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) confirmed the transaction on his behalf. Apparently, the MACC was informed that the money was donated by a Middle Eastern government and wanted to question the Prime Minister further on the “donation”.

In a spur of a moment, all top UMNO leaders came out all guns blazing to justify the legitimacy of the massive “donation”. Dato’ Seri Nazri Aziz was most by direct by claiming that the “donation” came from a “brotherly” Arab nation who wanted certain parties to win the the Malaysian general election in 2013.

Both BN’s Strategic Communications Director, Dato’ Seri Abdul Rahman Dahlan and UMNO Secretary-General Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor argued that UMNO party presidents are allowed to hold funds “in trust” for the Party. This was despite the fact that even the Deputy UMNO President, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin is completely unaware of the existence of such a “trust” fund.

The Prime Minister himself, two days ago defended the “donation” by claiming that “there is no regulation in respect to political donation. So you cannot say what is right and what is wrong, okay?”

Yesterday, Kuantan Umno division chief Wan Adnan Wan Mamat revealed to Sinar Harian that during a meeting of 146 divisional leaders with Dato’ Seri Najib last Wednesday, they were informed that “it was an appreciation to Malaysia for championing Islam and for practising Sunni Islam (Ahli Sunnah Wal Jamaah).”

It obviously did not occur to them that such an “appreciation” for Malaysia, if ever it was true, should be transferred into the Government’s accounts, and not the private bank account of the Prime Minister.

However, as the story gets richer and more colourful, the Sarawak Report once again threw a spanner into the Prime Minister’s best-laid plans by exposing the fact that US$650 million was actually transferred back to Tanore Finance, owned by Abu Dhabi’s International Petroleum Investment Corporation (IPIC) in August 2013, when Dato’ Seri Najib Razak closed his bank account in Ambank Bhd.

So now, Malaysians are left stunned as to whether the US$681 million deposited into Dato’ Seri Najib Razak’s account was really a “donation”. If the money does indeed belong to UMNO, why did US$650 million get transferred to Singapore?
Are UMNO leaders now going to claim that it is normal for UMNO to hide billions of ringgit of donations in an overseas account?

Or is Dato’ Seri Najib Razak now going to cook up a new excuse to claim that the Middle East donors decided that they didn’t want to donate to him anymore and wanted their money back?

Or perhaps the Prime Minister after being caught with his pants down, would now argue that 5 months after receiving the cash, he suffered from sudden pangs of guilt and decided to voluntarily return the money to the donor?

Dato’ Seri Najib Razak must stop making up stories along with the exposes which get published in foreign media. He should stop the lies and half-truths, and for once be honest and forthcoming with truthful complete answers over his RM2.6 billion scandal. He must explain where did this US$681 million really come from, and if US$650 million did indeed get transferred out of his account, as alleged by the Sarawak Report.

If not, the Prime Minister will go down in history as the dirtiest, most dishonest and tainted premier in the history of Malaysia.


Tony Pua

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