Let politicians give out cash aid for GE14 mileage, says delegate

UMNO AGM | The cash aid for farmers and fishermen announced under Budget 2018, should be distributed by politicians instead of being directly debited to the recipients' bank accounts, said an Umno Youth delegate.

Kedah delegate Mohamed Noor Mohamed Amin said this is to give the politicians mileage during the upcoming 14th general election (GE14).

"With the election being near, give the mileage to politicians.

"Give (the aid) to MPs and assemblypersons, ask them to bedak-bedak (distribute) it.

"To the MPs and assemblypersons who get it, please give some habuan (incentive) to the (respective) youth chiefs to distribute," Noor said at the Umno Youth general assembly in the Putra World Trade Centre today.

He made his appeal for the aid to be given to politicians directly to Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak (photo), who was in the hall at the time.

Najib had announced during Budget 2018 a cash aid of RM200 per month for three months to farmers and fishermen while they wait for their harvest or for the monsoon to pass.

Noor said RM42 million had been allocated for Kedah under the aid programme.

Earlier in his speech, the Baling Umno division youth chief also urged authorities to investigate the wealth of former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad (photo) and his family.

"Mahathir was born and raised in Alor Setar, and so was I.

"We know how the economy in Kedah is. People plant paddy (to earn a living)," he said.

He also called on the authorities to take action against those implicated of wrongdoing by the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) into the Mahathir-era Bank Negara forex scandal.

The RCI report claimed that RM31.5 billion was lost due to Bank Negara's "excessive" and "speculative" foreign exchange activity between 1992 and 1994.

The RCI also established that Nor Mohamed Yakcop, who was part of Bank Negara’s management at the time, was the person in charge of the forex dealing operations.

The commission is also of the opinion that this incident involved a criminal breach of trust under Sections 406 and 409 of the Penal Code.

It further reported that Mahathir and his then-deputy Anwar Ibrahim had likely abetted Nor Mohamed and hid certain facts from the cabinet.- Mkini