BIGGEST JOKE: What about your AmBank a/cs, DAP asks after Najib’s donors dare

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak has no moral authority to talk about political funding reform when he does not even answer questions about the billions of ringgit in his personal accounts, DAP said today.

The party's national organising secretary Anthony Loke Siew Fook added that DAP had never opposed political funding reforms as it received neither millions nor billions in election donations, unlike the Barisan Nasional (BN).

"Let me put the record straight. The DAP has never opposed any efforts to reform political funding in Malaysia as we never had millions, let alone billions of ringgit in donations for our election campaigns," he said in response to BN's claims that DAP had been the stumbling block in efforts for political funding reforms.

Instead, Loke said DAP did not want Opposition supporters to become victims of "witch hunts" by the BN government and this was why many donors chose to remain anonymous.

"The reality on the ground (is) that many of our supporters, who donated to our cause, chose to remain anonymous as they fear witch hunts by the BN government post-elections, especially small traders and businessmen in small towns throughout the country.

Najib today said he was wiling to declare Umno's political funders if Opposition parties did likewise. Recently, BN strategic communication director Datuk Seri Abdul Rahman Dahman also accused DAP of blocking moves for greater transparency in political donations because the opposition party did not want to reveal who its donors were.

The issue of political funding and transparency has come up at time when Najib is being dogged by allegations of scandal involving state investment firm 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB). Among the allegations are that money amounting to US$700 million (RM2.6 billion) from 1MDB-linked firms had been channelled to his personal accounts, a large sum of it prior to the general elections in May 2013.

1MDB's purchase of overpriced energy assets from the Genting Group also allegedly funded programmes under a charity headed by Najib, Yayasan 1Rakyat Malaysia (YR1M), after Genting made a political donation to the charity from the proceeds of the sale. Najib made election promises through this charity when campaigning in Penang for the 2013 election.

Both allegations were reported by The Wall Street Journal.

Loke, the Seremban MP, said he had been a member of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Electoral Reform in 2012 which had worked on political funding improvements.

Antony Loke

This committee had, among other proposals, said the government should fund political parties according to the number of seats and votes each party won in order to revitalise democracy and tackle corruption by politicians during polls.

It also took note of recommendations for each political party to declare any contributions received from any source during the election campaign.

Loke said Najib had "completely ignored all the recommendations by the PSC on electoral reform after the last general election and forgotten his promises for a fairer and cleaner electoral system in Malaysia".

"He has no moral authority to talk about political funding reforms when he can’t even answer the question of whether the RM2.6 billion was deposited into his personal account," Loke said, adding that Najib's and Rahman's statements about the opposition were aimed at diverting attention from 1MDB's scandals. – TMI