Better for Umno president to hold money rather than proxies, says Rahman Dahlan

Housing, Local Government and Urban Well-Being Minister Datuk Abdul Rahman Dahlan says former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad faced some difficulty in reclaiming a lot of Umno assets and shares from proxies when he stepped down as Umno president. – The Malaysian Insider pic, August 4, 2015.It is better for the Umno president to hold the party's assets and monies in his own account rather than parking them under proxies, Barisan Nasional (BN) strategic communications chief Datuk Abdul Rahman Dahlan said today.

The Housing, Local Government and Urban Well-Being Minister said that he "preferred" Umno president Datuk Seri Najib Razak to be holding the money in his personal accounts as this provided more security than the proxies.

"Even when Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad resigned as Umno president, he had to look for the proxies to reclaim a lot of Umno's assets and shares.

"I would be a lot more worried if these individuals were holding the accounts instead of the president," he said during an interview with TV1 tonight.

Rahman went on the national broadcaster for a special interview on "Dana Politik" (Political funds).

The programme comes amid controversy involving allegations that US$700 million (RM2.6 billion) had been deposited into Najib's accounts, a large sum of which was transferred ahead of the general elections in May 2013.

Yesterday, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) announced that the money had gone to the prime minister's accounts, but that they were from donors and not the government's debt-ridden state investment firm 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB).

- TMI