Rosmah's ex-associate and tycoon who apologised to Najib donate to Harapan

Two businesspersons who were in the limelight during the previous BN administration were at Pakatan Harapan's fundraising dinner tonight, where they collectively forked out half a million ringgit for portraits of the new ruling coalition's leaders that were put up for auction.

Tycoon Stanley Thai purchased a portrait of Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad for RM350,000.

Thai had previously backed Pakatan Rakyat in the 13th general election but apologised to then prime minister Najib Abdul Razak before the 14th general election.

Harapan is the successor coalition of Pakatan Rakyat.

Meanwhile, Deepak Jaikishan purchased a portrait of Deputy Prime Minister Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail for RM150,000.

Jaikishan had admitted to orchestrating the late private investigator S Balasubramaniam’s disappearance after the latter made serious allegations against Najib.

He previously had ties to the former prime minister and his wife Rosmah Mansor, but turned on the pair after a business deal with an Umno leader went sour.

Thai's winning bid

Thai won Mahathir's portrait after making the highest bid for it at tonight's dinner.

He was called on stage with Mahathir after making the winning bid.

Prior to the 13th general election in 2013, Thai had openly backed the then opposition coalition Pakatan Rakyat, stating that it was to "protect the future of my children".

BN retained power in the 2013 general election, albeit achieving its worst performance at the time.

Thai, who was managing director of Supermax Corp Bhd Group at the time, subsequently ran into trouble.

This included facing a five-year jail sentence for insider trading, which he has appealed.

A month before the 14th general election, Thai made a public apology to Najib, claiming that he was "influenced" by the opposition and said that as a businessperson, he should not have been involved in politics.

Harapan, the opposition coalition at the time, was swept into power in the May 9 general election, ending BN's 61 years in government.

'No special treatment'

However, in his speech later during the event, Mahathir told the guests that there would be no special treatment for those who had contributed funds to Harapan.

While he thanked them for their support, the Harapan chairperson said the contributors would still need to go through the normal tender bidding process if they wanted to receive any government contracts.

"To those who contributed tonight or bought the tables, I want to apologise as there will be no special treatment for you. 

If you want to get something from the government, the way is to compete through open tender process. If the offer you make is good, you might win (the contract)," he said.

However, he added that the funds contributed towards the coalition tonight would not have a bearing on the outcome of the open tender process. 

"This is Harapan government, we need to make sure that everything we do is clean from corruption. There is no 'cash is king' in Harapan," he said, adding that anyone who tries to bribe their way into receiving something in return from the government would be dealt with by the law.

Mahathir had previously claimed that in his last meeting with the former prime minister before the fallout between the two, Najib had defended his methods of allegedly buying people off by declaring that "cash is king".

The elder statesman had since repeatedly raised the incident in his criticisms of Najib. - Mkini