UMNO and all present and former BN parties (including UMNO, MCA and MIC) should return RM470 million to public coffers as they had been misappropriated from 1MDB
I was earlier asked at the 47th ABIM annual congress at Universiti Islam Malaysia in Nilai about the comment of the former MCA President, Datuk Dr. Chua Soi Lek about the linkage between the MCA and the world-infamous MDB scandal, which caused Malaysians whether inside or the country to hold their heads in shame for the past few years when thinking of the infamy and ignominy of Malaysia being regarded as a global kleptocracy.
I have since seen news report that listed the RM470 million from former Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s personal banking accounts and which were traceable to 1MDB, which had been diverted to Barisan Nasional parties for the 13th general election, including the following.
- UMNO - RM 417,414,000
- MCA - RM 16,500,000
- MIC - RM 20,550,000
- BN - RM 3,550,000
- SUPP - RM 3,500,000
- LDP - RM 3,500,000
- UPKO - RM 2,000,000
- PBRS - RM 1,000,000
- PPP - RM 700,000
- Gerakan – RM300,000
These are serious misappropriation of public funds to the Barisan Nasional parties in 2013 as they belonged to MDB.
I call on UMNO and all present and former BN parties (including UMNO, MCA and MIC) to return the RM470 million to public coffers as they had been misappropriated from 1MDB.
If not, the assets of all these political parties should be sequestered to the extent of their misappropriation of 1MDB funds as revealed in this list.
Chua Soi Lek had said that in 2013, MCA had no way of knowing the source of the funding.
He said:
"I already said there was money (given to MCA). But during that time (2013), there was no 1MDB. (News of) 1MDB had not burst onto the scene yet. (Talk of) 1MDB only emerged in 2014.
"When people give you money ... when your father gives you money, will you ask your dad where the money comes from? Did you steal it? Did you borrow it?
"You would just receive it in good faith, don’t you agree?"
I don’t agree.
This is the first time that a MCA President has admitted that UMNO-MCA relationship is likened to a father-son relationship, and that Barisan Nasional is not a political coalition of equals.
It is no wonder that Malaysian politics in the past few decades had been beset with so many problems and difficulties, which have now to be undone one by one in the “New Malaysia” that is being built after the 14th General Election on May 9, 2018.l
But even in a father-son relationship, if the son has reasons to believe that the money that he is being offered is tainted by crime and corruption, even a dutiful son would decline acceptance.
As far back as 2010, the 1MDB scandal had been raised by the DAP.
Now, MCA is a political party tainted with the 1MDB scandal like UMNO, although it not the only political party apart from UMNO which is so tainted.
This brings me back to my question whether MCA as a whole is prepared to exorcise itself of the 1MDB taint, by ensuring that all MCA leaders who had aided and abetted Najib in the 1MDB scandal would retire from office and not soil and sully the MCA reputation any further.