WHAT'S SELANGOR'S RM10MIL ARCH WHEN A MID-EAST GOVT COULD HAVE BOUGHT MALAYSIA FOR RM2.6 BIL?

I could not believe my eyes when I saw the report, “Reveal donors for RM10m arch facelift, Umno rep tells MB” (Malaysiakini),and I had to read it a second time to believe what I had.

Most readers would  have reacted in similar  disbelief and incredulity to the report,   for the common question which would leap to everyone’s mind is the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s RM2.6 billion “Donorgate” with the astronomical sums in his personal banking accounts before the 2013 general election, and the many turns and twists, including parliamentary escapades, of this RM2.6 billion “Najib Donorgate”, which had intrigued national and international attention for some six months since it was first exposed by Wall Street Journal in early July.

The marvel is not that a Selangor UMNO Assemblyman Mohd Sharif (Dengkil) is asking for the identity of the donors for the RM9.8 million facelift for the Kota Darul Ehsan arch along the Federal Highway and marks the border between Selangor and Kuala Lumpur, but that there is not a single one from the whole gang of UMNO Members of Parliament and State Assembly representatives in the country demanding revelation from Najib about the RM2.6 billion “DonorGate”, which is 260 million times bigger than the RM10 million facelift donation in Selangor.

Mohd Shazrif has indeed raised eyebrows when he  demands revelation of donor for the RM10 million arch facelift, but cowardly silent about Najib’s 2.6 billion “Donorgate”.

The latest escapade of the tortuous turns and twists of Najib’s RM2.6 billion “Donorgate” was only less than three weeks ago in Parliament on Dec. 3, where the Prime Minister vanished from the Dewan Rakyat despite promises for six weeks that all questions about his RM2.6 billion “Donorgate” would  be answered on the last day of Parliament on Dec. 3.

But when Dec. 3 came, there was not only no Prime Minister Najib, there was also no answer on the RM2.6 billion “Donorgate” as the Deputy Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Zahid Hamidi made the historic three-minute Ministerial statement that he could not answer any questions on Najib’s RM2.6 billion “Donorgate”!

Malaysians were told the Zahid was advised by the Attorney-General Tan Sri Mohamad Apandi Ali not to answer questions about RM2.6 billion “Donorgate” on the ground that it could be sub judice, although the RM2.6 billion “Donorgate” is not the subject of any court proceeding.

However, in the following week, at the media interview in the run-up to the  UMNO General Assembly and in his UMNO presidential speech, Najib defied the Attorney-General’s instruction and claimed innocence of any wrongdoing in the RM2.6 billion “Donorgate”.

Dogged by  Najih’s twin mega scandals – the RM2.6 billion donation and RM55 billion 1MDB – nobody is any the wiser as to who donated the RM2.6 billion and deposited the astronomical sums into Najib’s personal banking accounts.

Was there one donor or more than one donor?

What was the donation for? Was it to combat the Islamic State terrorists?

How much of the RM2.6 billion had been used for the 13^th General Election campaign, what is the balance and where has the rest of the money gone to?

Zahid opened up a new can of worms when he told the pro-UMNO news portal Agenda Daily on 9th December that the donor  was not an individual but the leadership of a government in the Middle East who gave the RM2.6 billion “donation” – “Penderma RM2.6 billion itu bukanlah individu dalam ertikata seorang. Ia adalah pimpinan sebuah kerajaan.”

This should ring warning bells among Malaysian patriots about the danger of foreign governments interfering in Malaysia’s general elections and the buying up of  Malaysian political parties to  serve their ends.

No UMNO MP, State Assembly representative, leader or delegate had  raise any of  these disturbing questions in the five-day UMNO General Assemblies. Why?

Former Prime Minister Tun Mahathir never believed the claim that the RM2.6 billion came from an individual, describing it as  “bullshit”, saying that only a “crazy Arab” would part with RM2.6 billion for nothing.

He recounted how when he was Prime Minister, he had written to the Arab nations for donation for Islamic educational institutions but he could not raise even a single dollar from them for the Malaysian International Islamic University or for the Oxford Islamic Centre.

Now that Zahid has come out with the latest variation of the RM2.6 billion “Donorgate” that the donor is   a leadership of an Arab government, Malaysians are entitled to know who is this Arab government which funded UMNO in the 13^th General Election.

Lim Kit Siang is DAP Adviser