Najib's defence of RM40 million 'donation' to Sabah UMNO condemned

Prime minister Najib Razak's defence of the RM40 million cash donation to Sabah UMNO has attracted condemnations from Pakatan Rakyat.

“No one believes the contributor will donate to the ruling party for free. If the donor is a businessman, then it must be based on profit and loss and not simply welfare,” said PAS vice president Mahfuz Omar.

In 2008, a Sabah businessman was caught trying to smuggle Singaporean currency notes worth RM40 million into Malaysia before boarding a flight from Hong Kong.

Last week, minister in the Prime Minister's Department Nazri Aziz told parliament that the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission had categorised the RM40 million cash as donation for Sabah UMNO and therefore not an offence.

When asked, Najib had insisted that “it was not an offence” and refused to provide more details on the generous funders, arguing that the opposition was “guilty” of the same thing.

But Mahfuz pointed out BN's hypocrisy in the whole affair.

“If the party is someone BN dislikes, there will be a witchhunt like what happened to SUARAM,” he said, in a reference to the government’s continued harassment against the human rights NGO after the latter spearheaded a graft inquiry in France which threatenebed to expose BN leaders' involvement in the controversial purchase of Scorpene submarines which generated RM500 million in kickbacks.

DAP's Petaling Jaya Utara member of parliament Tony Pua meanwhile slammed Nazri for proposing a new law aimed at preventing 'foreign intervention' through the influx of foreign funds, saying it was “impractical” and “hypocritical”.

“Hence before 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?” Pua asked.

-Harakahdaily