At the launching of Pakatan Harapan Negri Sembilan in Seremban on Sunday night, I said that I would have advised the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak to refund the RM2.6 billion “donation” to the Treasury as one way to resolve the RM2.6 billion “donation” scandal during the debate on 2016 budget if I had not been suspended from Parliament for six months.
But before I made such a proposal, I would have asked Najib to “come clean” about the RM2.6 billion “donation” scandal, at least in five instances, viz:
1. Whether more than RM2.6 billion “donation” had been deposited into his personal banking account at AmBank, and if so, the total amount of “donation” that had been deposited into his personal account before the 13th General Election. 2. Who are the “donors” who deposited billions of ringgit into Najib’s personal banking accounts for the 13th General Election campaign funding. 3. The respective percentage and breakdown of these “donations” into foreign and local sources. 4. Who were the recipients and beneficiaries from these billions of “donations” deposited into Najib’s personal accounts, in particular those who are in the present Cabinet and Parliament, as well as the UMNO/BN candidates in the 2013 General Elections. 5. Whether he would submit all bank records of such “deposits” and payments to the Public Accounts Committee and the Attorney-General for investigation.
In my speech on the 2016 Budget in Parliament if I had not been suspended, I would remind Najib what his former Cabinet colleague, former International Trade Minister, Tan Sri Rafidah Aziz, had said publicly, that the grave crisis of confidence the country is facing today had nothing to do with race but is one about governance, transparency and integrity.
Najib should have used the 2016 Budget to heed the advice of the Malay Rulers who, in their unprecedented statement of October 6, called for the 1MDB investigations to be completed “as soon as possible” and for “appropriate stern action” to be taken against all found to be implicated.
Instead of swift and expeditious investigation into the 1MDB scandal, there a further stain on Malaysia’s international reputation when normal parliamentary proceedings was interrupted last Thursday to use the UMNO/BN majority in Parliament to suspend a senior Opposition Member of Parliament for six months for the “crime’” of articulating what is in the heart and mind of all thinking and patriotic Malaysians – that the Parliament Speaker, Tan Sri Pandikar Amin Mulia should not have locked out the remaining Parliamentary Accounts Committee (PAC) members from Parliament and stopped the PAC from continuing its investigations into the 1MDB investigations after the promotion of the PAC Chairman, Datuk Nur Jazlan Mohamad and three other PAC members as Minister and Deputy Ministers, resulting in a shocking and inordinate delay of three months when time is of the essence to complete investigations into the 1MDB scandal.
Is it any wonder that Malaysians and the world are outraged that so far no one is being penalized for the twin mega scandals of the RM50 billion 1MDB and RM2.6 billion “donation” in Najib’s personal banking accounts, but a senior MP could be suspended from Parliament for six months for disagreeing with the Speaker and stating that the Speaker had no powers to stop the PAC from continuing its investigations into the 1MDB scandal?
Although I cannot participate in the parliamentary debate on the 2016 Budget to ask the five above-mentioned questions to Najib, will the Prime Minister undertake to answer them in the winding-up of the policy debate of the 2016 Budget on 16th November as he should know of these questions?
I have always been bewildered as to how Najib, who had been in public life for nearly four decades, serving at different times as Mentri Besar, Cabinet Minister, Deputy Prime Minister and Prime Minister for six years, had not realised the gravity of his misjudgment and error in receiving foreign funds for general elections campaigning in the country.
DAP had never received a single sen from any foreigners in the past five decades, as UMNO/BN leaders would pounce on DAP and accuse us of being anti-national and even guilty of treason if we had received even a puny sum of foreign funds.
RM2.6 billion (and it could be more) is an astronomical figure, and is in fact 26 times more than what was permissible to be spent by all the 222 Parliamentary candidates and 505 State Assembly candidates of the Barisan Nasional in the 13th General Elections.
The maximum expenditure which is legally permissible for a parliamentary candidate is RM200,000 while the maximum legal expenditure for a State Assembly candidate is RM100,000.
With 222 Parliamentary candidates and 505 State Assembly candidates, the maximum legal electoral expenditures for all the 222 Parliamentary and 505 State Assembly candidates of UMNO/Barisan Nasional in the 13th General Election will come to RM44.4 million for all parliamentary candidates and RM50.5 million for all state assembly candidates or a grand total of RM94.9 million – not even reaching RM100 million!
The RM2.6 billion in Najib’s personal accounts for the 13th General Election is therefore more than 26 times the legally permissible limit to be spent by all the BN parliamentary and state assembly candidates in the 13th General Elections.
This could be more if the total donation into Najib’s personal accounts for the 13th General Election was more than RM2.6 billion. How many of the Ministers, Deputy Ministers and UMNO/BN MPs are tainted by this foreign funding of RM2.6 billion in Najib’s personal accounts for the 13th general election?
Former Minister and Barisan Nasional Backbenchers’ Club (BNBBC) Chairman Tan Sri Shahrir Samad had admitted that he was one of the beneficiaries and receipients from this foreign funding via personal accounts for the 13th General Election campaigning.
I want to draw the attention of all Ministers, Deputy Ministers and MPs to Dewan Rakyat Standing Order 35(6) which stipulates that “A Member shall not speak on any matter in which he has a direct personal pecuniary interest (other than the matter of remuneration under any provision of the Constitution) without disclosing the extent of that interest.
I call on all Ministers, Deputy Minister and MPs who had been beneficiaries from this foreign funding in the last general elections to also “come clean” in the current 2016 Budget debate and declare how much they had benefitted from Najib’s “largesse”.
In fact, the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said, should have declared under SO 35(6) whether she has any pecuniary interest in the RM2.6 billion “donation” scandal before she moved a motion in Parliament to suspend me for six months for disagreeing with the Speaker’s decision to stop the PAC from continuing investigations into the RM50 billion 1MDB and RM2.6 billion “donation” scandals.
It is still not too late for Azalina to declare whether she has any pecuniary interest in the RM2.6 billion “donation” scandal.