ALAMAK MALU-LAH AG : JUDGE QUESTIONS VERACITY OF CHARGES AGAINST TAN SRI MUHYIDDIN YASSIN.

 

 July 11th 2023

 

The Judge in the Court case against Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin has questioned if the charges are valid. Raja Petra Kamaruddin gives a quite concise explanation of what happened in Court today over the charges against Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin. Here is RPK. I have some comments after this.

 

 

My Comments:

This brings to mind the case of the lebai fellow who received RM90 million 1MDB stolen money from the Umno president at that time. The case was investigated by the MACC who found that no laws had been broken. 

Even 66 years after Merdeka,  Malaysia does not have any political funding laws at all.  It is not a crime in Malaysia for political parties to receive money contributions from anyone at all. 

I can share with you that from my FOUR years as an Advisor to the MACC (beginning 2011), we tried to  move for the tabling and passing of laws governing political party funding or contributions. The MACC already had a draft of the law. But there was substantial resistance  from the Opposition parties at that time. Not being in power at that time they were afraid that the identities of their funders may be exposed and the funders may get into trouble.

So the MACC said that no laws had been broken because the lebai fellow was merely receiving political donations for his party.

The same with this case against Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin. He received the funds on behalf of the Bersatu party. The funds were deposited into the accounts of the Bersatu party which I believe would have been under the control of the party's treasurer or Bendahari. The funds did not go into the personal account of Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.

Hence those questions raised by the Judge.

Now the Opposition parties are in power. It is high time that Parliament passes laws monitoring funding for political parties. Just make everything transparent and above board - like in Singapore which possibly has one of the best political funding laws anywhere. 

We also must pass laws to cover 'foreign agents' whereby anyone who is funded by Soros, the CIA or foreign funders should declare their source of funds from outside the country.

 All this is basic. We just need to get it done.

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.