FOREIGN INTERVENTION? Musa's RM40mil cold hard cash was in SINGAPORE DOLLARS!

Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz said the Government will consider the proposal to have a new law to prevent foreign intervention in the country through the influx of foreign funds.

He said “the influx of foreign funds for such purposes will cause us to become agents of foreign powers and we will be forced to create lies to destabilise the country."

The proposal by the Minister is not only impractical, it is completely hypocritical on the part of the Umno-led government.

We are in support of any measures to ensure that terrorist activities are not carried out in our country. In addition, we already have an Anti Money Laundering and Anti-Terrorist Financing Act in place. There are already other acts that prevents entities and persons from becoming foreign agents in this country.

However, what begs belief is the fact that Datuk Nazri has the cheek to put forward such an Act when UMNO itself has been one of the biggest, if not the biggest recipient of dubious foreign funding.

RM40 mil cold hard cash in Sing dollars

Datuk Nazri himself has admitted that RM40 million of cold hard cash in Singapore Dollars was to be illegally smuggled into Sabah from Hong Kong by a Michael Chia, was meant for UMNO and not for Sabah Chief Minister Datuk Musa Aman as originally speculated.

The Prime Minister, Dato' Seri Najib Razak has also admitted that the money of unknown origins was UMNO's "political funding".

Hence before Datuk Nazri has any locus standi to propose any such foreign funding laws, he must first disclose the source of foreign funding that UMNO has received, in such large sums. If the funding was so legitimate, why was the money to be "imported" illicitly in cash, and in Singapore Dollars?

The proposal by the Minister smacks of an attempt to silence and curb legitimate activities by non-governmental organisations, who are today instrumental in creating greater awareness among the Malaysian public of the various abuses by the Malaysian government. This is especially so in the light of the fact that the furore has started because of SUARAM's exposes over the RM7 billion Scorpene submarines acquisition scandal.

We call upon Datuk Nazri to immediately disclose the origins of the RM40 million in illicit funds received by UMNO, or we may fear that sum large sums of "donations" from foreign sources "will cause us to become agents of foreign powers and we will be forced to create lies to destabilise the country".

Tony Pua is the DAP MP for PJ Utara