Minister for Urban Well-being, Housing and Local Government, Datuk Abdul Rahman Dahlan will be guilty of the greatest national disservice if the sole agenda of his appointment as Barisan Nasional Strategic Communications Director is to distract attention from Wall Street Journal’s (WSJ) July 2 report that Malaysian government investigators have found US$700 million (RM2.6 billion) deposited into the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s personal accounts in AmBank in 2013 just before the 13th General Election instead of helping to establish the facts of the Prime Minister’s alleged RM2.6 billion personal accounts.
Since his sudden appearance as BN Strategic Communications Director the previous Wednesday, Rahman had got so much eggs on his face, and on a daily basis, that it is virtually impossible to find a centimeter on his face which is not egg-splattered – whether because of Rahman’s “God-send” Lester Melyani; Lester’s utterly discredited video confession even before all the parts had been aired publicly; the crazy and counter-productive notion for Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) to block access to Sarawak Report (forcing Malaysians to undergo an instant education of how to circumvent official Internet blocks) or the hyping of patriotic and valiant efforts to pry open the RM42 billion 1MDB financial scandal whether by journalists in the Edge or by MPs like Tony Pua and Rafizi Ramli as offences like “activities detrimental to parliamentary democracy”, sabotage, “toppling the elected government” or even treason!
The least Abdul Rahman should do as BN strategic communications director is to get Najib to declare at the PM’s birthday bash tonight where the RM2.6 billion in his personal bank accounts in AmBank in March 2013 came from and to whom and where they have gone to.
Abdul Rahman, as BN strategic communications director, should advise the Prime Minister not only of the enormous cost to his image and reputation, both nationally as well as internationally, but also to the Federal Government and nation in his failing to say a simple Yes or No in more than three weeks of the WSJ expose of his RM2.6 billion personal bank accounts at AmBank in March 2013 just before the 13th General Election.
After all, Rahman had been yelling “Don’t shoot the messenger” since last Wednesday, and he should put his shouts into practice.
As BN Strategic Communications Director, Rahman should have the courage to advise the Prime Minister that his repeated refrain in the past three weeks that he had not taken funds for personal gain and Tun Mahathir’s blog “Conspiracy” on 20th July 2015 could only mean Najib’s implicit admission about the RM2.6 billion in his personal accounts and that there were not used for his personal gain but for 13GE campaigning.
Rahman should advise Najib that his reputation as “Father of Transformation” in Malaysia will be irreparably damaged if he continues to keep dumb on the WSJ report, and his birthday bash tonight will be a most ideal occasion for him to make a clean breast of the matter, including issuing an inventory of all the amounts of payment and receipients for a full accounting for the outlay of RM2.6 billion from his personal bank accounts in AmBank in March 2013.
As all Ministers should attend tonight’s birthday bash by the Prime Minister, the event is also an ideal occasion for every Minister to declare whether he or she had been a receipient of the funds from Najib’s personal bank accounts for the purposes of the 13th general election, the amount received and the amount spent, and what has happened to the balance if there are outstanding sums.
Making public an inventory of all the receipients and amount of payments made out from the RM2.6 billion personal accounts may be tricky, as it will immediately raise questions whether there had been any pocketing of such funding or whether there had been a full payout to all the intended beneficiaries downstream – but these are risks and problems that will have to be faced if we want an open, accountable and transparent inventory of all the amounts paid out from Najib’s RM2.6 billion personal accounts in 2013.
Lets hope that there will be important news from the Prime Minister’s birthday bash tonight. In fact, I understand there will be a battle of two birthday bashes tonight!Lim Kit Siang