Millions of ringgit were channelled from Datuk Seri Najib Razak's personal bank accounts to Barisan Nasional parties for their general election campaign in 2013, says Citizens for Accountable Governance Malaysia. – The Malaysian Insider file pic, July 14, 2015.
A group advocating government accountability has promised to make public a sworn affidavit this week to show how millions of ringgit from the prime minister's personal bank accounts went to Barisan Nasional (BN) parties for use in the 2013 general election.
Citizens for Accountable Governance Malaysia (CAGM) said the documents, when revealed, will incriminate the current administration.
"Once exposed, it will outline how the money came in and came out from the PM's accounts and basically how the whole thing worked," said CAGM patron, Md Zainal Abidin.
"It will join the dots and complete the puzzle," the lawyer added.
On Sunday, CAGM claimed millions of ringgit from Najib's private accounts at AmBank in Kuala Lumpur had been channelled to BN component parties in the run-up to the 13th general election (GE13) in May 2013.
Zainal told The Malaysian Insider yesterday that the sworn affidavit was part of court documents filed by a certain person from the banking industry in a suit over another matter at the Kuala Lumpur High Court.
He said he had obtained the plaintiff's permission to reveal the sworn statement.
"We have a couple of documents, including this sworn affidavit which is being used by this person to seek legal redress.
"Now we just need to iron out certain issues, such as possible contempt of court, and then we will make it public within the next few days," Zainal said.
He said CAGM wanted to create awareness among the public that such a method of political financing has been going on for a long time.
The group, when making the revelation on Sunday, called this method of political funding a "system of greasing" ruling coalition partners and election machinery which was started by former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and had allowed BN to remain in power.
"CAGM can confirm, based on court documents in our hands, that millions from Najib’s AmBank accounts were actually used to 'back up' BN component parties in the run-up to the 2013 general elections," Zainal had said last Sunday.
He claimed that BN parties were each allocated an average of RM30 million to RM50 million, with funds also channelled to more than a dozen BN-friendly parties and NGOs, each getting between RM1 million and RM8 million.
Najib's bank accounts at AmBank are in the spotlight after the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on July 2 that some US$700 million (RM2.67 billion) was transferred there.
The largest portion – US$681 million – was transferred in March 2013, ahead of the May general election.
The business daily has since posted documents online showing the money flow into Najib's accounts to support its report.
Najib has denied taking funds for personal gain but has not directly addressed the claim of funds transfers into his two accounts, which were closed in August 2013 and March 9 this year.
Asked to comment on CAGM's claims, Bersih 2.0 chairman Maria Chin Abdullah said the group should bring their evidence to Parliament's Public Accounts Committee (PAC) which is currently investigating troubled state-owned company, 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB).
"I am not sure if they have the evidence. If they have, I suggest they submit to the PAC investigation team and make their evidence public. If true, it will invalidate the elections as public funds were used to interfere in GE13," she said.
While Malaysia has no laws on political funding, Maria said election candidates had to abide by a spending limit when campaigning in elections. No limit is placed, however, on political parties.
"There is a loophole which the Election Commission should look into as it is part of the excessive political financing by political parties and candidates that's not monitored," Maria said.
- TMI
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