How the layman sees it – Dharm Navaratnam

So the news about money supposedly going into the PM’s accounts seems to have gotten everyone into a kerfuffle.

The report from the WSJ and the subsequent denials and vitriol are indeed disturbing. It has become the topic of conversation at coffee shops, in homes and even on social media with everyone having their own point of view.

It certainly does make for interesting discussion. I think this article echoes how the general person on the street sees things.

As a layman, I have a lot of questions. Firstly, the simple fact that the PM did not deny receiving the money into his accounts is not comforting. His response was something to the effect that he did not use the money for his personal interest. Fine.

But since there is no denial that the money was received, is he admitting that he received money? If it was not for his personal use, then why bank it into his account? 

Okay, I'll admit that there are many people that use their personal accounts to accumulate and then channel funds for worthy causes. I have a friend that is helping to rebuild a village in Kelantan. He raises funds and donations and gets people to bank it into his account.

The difference here is that he is transparent. He provides regular updates of his plans and what he will do with the money. At the end of his project, all contributors will know where their money went. 

But this is different. This is the PM that we are talking about.  Surely accepting large amounts of money into your personal account is just not right. Even if it is legally acceptable, it just doesn’t seem right.

One would think that if there was a large transfer of money, it would be transferred to a government account and not your private account.  Surely there is a large government bank account sitting somewhere that is used to transact funds. 

So if a large amount of money was transferred to your personal account and it wasn’t for your personal use, what was the money used for then?  There has been no explanation.

It would help if someone told us what the money was used for and why it was banked into your account. Because even if it wasn’t used for your personal gain, the question remains as to why it was transferred to your account. Silence is not golden in this instance.

What then of our Inland Revenue Department and Bank Negara? How did a transfer of US$700 million into an individual’s account not set off some alarm bells or at the very least raise some questions?

I bought a bank draft recently for a sum of RM1,800. There was a complicated form that I had to fill out, in triplicate if I remember correctly. So if a small amount of RM1,800 required so many details to be filled out, how does US$700 million go unquestioned? 

Why does it supposedly take a “mole” to leak documents to the WSJ for something as large as this to be highlighted? Shouldn’t the IRD and BNM be aware of such large transactions and act immediately?

The A-G has come out to say that they will prosecute the mole that leaked the information to the WSJ. Why are we going after the so-called mole? Are we not seeing the forest for the trees? Didn’t he/she do us all a favour by bringing this out in the open? Remind me of that the next time I see a crime being committed. I may be better off not reporting it.

Then of course, we were told that all of this is a conspiracy to topple the government. There was a Western conspiracy against the PM. It was a conspiracy by our ex-prime minister. It was a Jewish conspiracy. It was an opposition conspiracy.

Wow.

The last time I heard of so many conspiracy theories was when I used to watch The X-files. What is even more disturbing is that all these different conspiracy theories came from our supposed leaders. Have we lost all capability for critical thought and analysis and simply spout conspiracy theories to defend ourselves? 

If I’m not mistaken, the story by the WSJ broke on July 2. Eight days later, no one seems any wiser as to why the money was transferred. No one is any wiser on what the money was used for. It is not clear where the money came from.

And just this morning, there were further reports alleging that RM2 billion was banked into another prominent person’s account. Are these revelations just the tip of the iceberg? How many more accounts are there where money is floating around or being banked or transferred?

A lot of questions and there don’t seem to be many answers forthcoming.  Whatever answers that are given don’t seem to give me a warm fuzzy feeling either. But I guess I shouldn’t ask too many questions as I really don’t know how these things work.

I certainly don’t understand how money can be transferred and not accounted for. I'm positive I don’t understand how we are supposed to just accept a simple denial and trust that everything is okay. There is so much going on today that I simply don’t understand and I suppose raising too many questions just makes me and everyone like me confused.

I am, after all just a layman, and not a very clever layman at that.

* Dharm Navaratnam reads The Malaysian Insider.