Thursday 6 August 2015
Claims that Mahathir’s cronies donated to opposition
Business tycoons close to former premier Mahathir Mohamad have been accused of giving money to the opposition in the 2013 general election, as questions continued to swirl around the US$700 million (S$960 million) donation deposited into Prime Minister Najib Razak’s personal accounts.
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Claims that Mahathir’s cronies donated to opposition
Business tycoons close to former premier Mahathir Mohamad have been accused of giving money to the opposition in the 2013 general election, as questions continued to swirl around the US$700 million (S$960 million) donation deposited into Prime Minister Najib Razak’s personal accounts.
The allegations were made in an open letter written by a Mr Amin Yatim, and published in pro-Umno blog MyKMU.net yesterday.
In the letter addressed to Tun Dr Mahathir, Mr Amin claimed that Malaysian billionaire Vincent Tan donated RM400 million (S$140 million) to opposition parties in the former Pakatan Rakyat (PR) alliance, the Malaysian Insider said.
Other tycoons deemed close to Dr Mahathir, such as Mr Yeoh Tiong Lay and Mr Syed Mokhtar Al-Bukhary, are also believed to have donated to the now-defunct PR, Mr Amin wrote.
The Umno-led Barisan Nasional (BN) narrowly won the tightly contested election two years ago.
The writer also claimed that Mr Tan, who heads the Berjaya Group, had given close to RM1 billion to PR parties since 2008.
“Tell us, Dr Mahathir, true or not, Tan Sri Vincent Tan, your most loved businessman and who had hosted your James Bond-themed birthday party recently, had donated close to RM400 million to (PR) in the 2013 elections?” he wrote.
“I am disappointed that Tun would attack Najib for spending all this money to ensure a BN victory but (you) would close your eyes when your cronies contributed to BN’s rivals in the 2013 elections.”
Early this week, Malaysia’s anti-corruption agency said its investigations showed that the US$700 million did not come from the debt-laden 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) but from donations.
This led Dr Mahathir to write in his blog that during his time as prime minister, political donations were not put into his personal account. He claimed that donations for the party were put into an account which had three trustees, of which he was one.
Responding, Mr Amin asked: “Why was all this put into Umno’s accounts? Why a trustee account? You (Dr Mahathir) know the answer and the problems.”
He added: “You think you are the only one who is trustworthy and everyone else is a cheat, even though the fact remains that it was during your time that billions in Umno assets went missing.”
Mr Amin also reminded Dr Mahathir that Mr Najib had helped him retain the presidency in the 1987 party elections: “What Tun has done in these past months is very saddening. Not only are you not acting like a statesman, you can’t even be a friend.
“What is even worse is that you cannot even be a good party member like how you used to tell us to be when you were prime minister.”
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