In the last two days, “graduates” of University of UMNO have been showing off their intellectual and mental prowess and feats.
The first was the new UMNO information chief, Tan Sri Annuar Musa who declared that the RM2.6 billion donation deposited into Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s personal banking account is “not a big sum” to face one general election.
Can Annuar share with ordinary Malaysians who do not have benefit of being ”graduates” of University of UMNO what would be “a big sum” to face one general election in Malaysia – RM50 billion, RM100 billion or RM200 billion?
Malaysia’s election laws stipulate that the maximum expenditure 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 seats and 505 State Assembly seats contested in the 13th General Elections, this meant that the maximum election expenditures permitted by Malaysian election laws came to RM44.4 million by all UMNO/BN’s 222 Parliamentary candidates and RM50.5 million by the 505 UMNO/BN State Assembly candidates, or a total of RM94.9 million – just short of RM100 million!
The RM2.6 billion “donation” to Najib is 26 times more than the legally permissible election expenditures for all the 222 Parliamentary and 505 State Assembly candidates from UMNO/Barisan Nasional.
But this is clearly only “chicken-feed” for fighting one general election as far as the new UMNO Information chief is concerned.
Annuar also exhibited another attribute which must be inculcated into University of UMNO “graduates” – not to believe in what top government officials, like the Attorney-General, say publicly, like Najib having returned RM2.03 billion to the “donor”.
Annuar regards the Attorney-General Tan Sri Mohamad Apandi Ali’s claim that Najib had returned RM2.03 billion in August 2013 as nothing but a “tall tale” as no documents have been produced to verify it, or Anuar would not have focussed on RM2.6 billion as “not a big sum” to fight one general election.
Actually, even if RM2.03 billion had been returned to the mysterious “donor”, some RM570 million would have remained which would be six times more than the legally maximum expenditure of RM94.9 million for all parliamentary and state assembly candidates by UMNO/BN in one general election – but which clearly is only “chicken-feed of chickenfeed” in the vistas of University of Malaya “graduates”.
If it is of any consolation to Annuar, not only the overwhelming majority of Malaysians, but the world, agree with him that without evidence, Apandi’s story that RM2.03 billion had been returned by Najib to the mysterious “donor” is nothing but a fairy tale!
The second University of UMNO “graduate” to jump into the ring is the Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Senator Datuk Dr. Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki who wants action to be taken against food outlets which mislead Muslims with their “pork-free” labelling to mean halal.
I can understand the consternation all round as to how Asyraf can make the intellectual leap to assume that the term “pork free” means “halal” when the term “pork free” simply means what it says and says what it means – that it does not supply pork meat, nothing more nothing less!
University of UMNO “graduates” must have been inculcated with the unique capability to make such an intellectual leap in their logic and thinking as far as the term “pork-free” is concerned and still be very comfortable with having a Prime Minister and a government mired in the world-class RM2.6 billion “donation” and RM55 billion 1MDB twin mega scandals, claiming that the Malaysian government stands for a policy of zero-tolerance for corruption – despite being named third in the world’s “worst corruption scandal in 2015” and Malaysia falling four places in Transparency International (TI) Corruption Perception Index (CPI) 2015!
What other intellectual and mental prowess and feats are University of UMNO “graduates” capable of?