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Umno's pot of cash - defending the indefensible
Published:  Oct 21, 2012 7:07 AM
Updated: Oct 21, 2012 3:04 AM

YOURSAY ‘In an article littered with attacks on the opposition, you have not explained the elephant in the room - why was the money smuggled?'

In defence of Sabah Umno's RM40mil

your say Multi Racial: As MP, it is Abdul Rahman Dahlan's duty to correct the wrong. But instead he wrote an article to praise Sabah CM Musa Aman and to justify Sabah Umno's RM40 million ‘donation'.

RM40 million is a lot of money and nobody would give such money without expecting favours in return. In other words, this is corruption money.

If what Musa Aman and Sabah Umno did is not stopped and corrected, all hell will break loose in this country. Corruption will be legalised.

TU: Abdul Rahman's article sounds to me like a massive wall of text to justify smuggling. What is apparent here is Umno's usual diversion tactics.

Instead of explaining why the money had to smuggled into the country in a suitcase, Dahlan goes on and on - like a broken record - about the opposition and them not divulging their donors.

The spotlight is on Umno. Why try to divert attention to the opposition. You can see in almost every paragraph, the words "opposition" or "PKR" crops up.

Telestai!: Abdul Rahman, you're defending the indefensible. With an article littered with attacks on the opposition, you have not explained the elephant in the room - why was the money smuggled?

On top of that, the money was in Singapore currency, yet another dubious circumstance. We would have been more charitable if the currency was in US dollars, being a fungible currency, or Hong Kong dollars, the local currency.

Talk is cheap, as they say, but your buddy's bagman was caught with the proverbial smoking gun. So Abdul Rahman, you will do well by staying away from this debacle and let your buddy (Musa Aman) explain himself.

Anonymous #58437020: There is so much filth about the leaders of Sabah and Sarawak in all kinds of media across the world that very soon these two jokers will be more famous than the Williams and the Middletons .

For Pete's sake, you don't have to go around the mulberry bush to tell us this. You think we are idiots? Hello, have you ever walked in a Sabah forest before you start spilling such defence for Musa Aman?

Don't we all know that it's all part of his political ploy? Don't think Malaysians are stupid.

Speechless: Abdul Rahman, in your article, why is there not a squeak on the mainstream media's attack on human rights group Suaram, accusing it of receiving foreign donations?

And why is there a need to "smuggle" cash into the country if there is nothing wrong? Why not TT (telegraphic transfer) the money in and have everything above board? Your article has more holes than my kitchen sieve.

Unspin: Abdul Rahman wants us to believe that the RM40 million was all there was to it with regard to political funding for Sabah Umno.

I beg to differ for this simple reason: If one wanted to carry RM40 million in cash, wouldn't it be more prudent to do it in multiple tranches so that if for some unfortunate reasons, one lost the money or got robbed, one would still have the remainder of the funds?

The fact that they smuggled RM40 million cash in one tranche showed that it was just "loose change" to them i.e. (1) no big deal if something went wrong, and (2) there was a lot more where that came from.

Starr: Abdul Rahman, the central issue at hand is the origin of the donation, which was the illicit timber 'kickbacks' in return for granting of logging rights over Yayasan Sabah concessions.

If the source of the donation was done in the ordinary course of business and properly accounted for, nobody would have queried it. The fact that it was 'siphoned off' to Hong Kong and smuggled back undeclared smacks of an element of corruption and money laundering.

The money was exchanged in Hong Kong following the inking of the logging contract between Yayasan Sabah and a Hong Kong-based Malaysian businessman. The question here is, why was it necessary to sign the contract in Hong Kong?

The Sabah CM was said to have led a team of Yayasan Sabah officers to transact the deal there. Why the secrecy, if everything was above board? It's tantamount to plundering and thieving the wealth of the state.

Tholu: Abdul Rahman, the fact of your belief that you can so easily fool the thousands of readers of Malaysiakini itself proves your dim-wittedness.

After the dismal performance of Umno-BN in the last GE, the clarion call by BN was to change and transform their condescending approach towards its citizenry. Has it changed? Apparently not!

It is still deeply buried in a static state of denial. It still doltishly, and to its own detriment, thinks it can keep on fooling the rakyat. Pakatan and the rakyat have not changed their opinion on the RM40 million. They know it is not money donated for political support.

The governor of Hong Kong is not in the habit of donating money for political campaigns of parties outside its shores. It is definitely corrupt money for certain high profile individuals. Pakatan Rakyat is actually playing along Umno's claim that it is actually donation money to see how far it will lie to cover up its corrupt practices.

Spinnot: "It is not illegal for any Malaysian to give money to a political party of his or her choice - or to anybody for that matter," says Abdul Rahman.

We all know that. Now tell us something we don't know - why did the money end up in Hong Kong, in foreign currency and had to be smuggled into Malaysia by a Chinaman?

Anonymous_3e86: The money donated to DAP comes from well-wishers and supporters within Malaysia. It was not smuggled into the country unlike the RM40 million, which was in Singapore dollars. If I transfer RM40 million from my Maybank account in Petaling Jaya to DAP's account, the transaction is legal.

Even if I were to carry the money and deposit it into DAP's account it is still legal. But the Central Bank must be notified if one is to physically bring out of any country such huge amount of money.

Otherwise, such acts are considered "money laundering" if the source of the money is not known.

Anonymous_5fb: So many good things done by Musa Aman, yet Sabah remains one of the poorest state. It's ironic to say the least.

Before that, we seldom meet Sabahans in Semenanjung. Now they are so many in the streets that we often mistake them for foreign labour.

Say what you like. Set up an RCI (royal commission of inquiry) to trash the issue out, if you dare. By the way, are you sure Umno's audited accounts include this RM40 million fund?

Not Confused: Abdul Rahman, I repeat once again - no one is, I think, suggesting that donations to political parties cannot be made, right? It's the apparent underhand way in which this particular donation was made.

In large denomination notes, carried surreptitiously in a suitcase from Hong Kong. Is there any wonder that suspicions are raised as to the source and eventual beneficiary of such a suspicious act?

No one in BN has yet explained why the "donation" was made in this way, rather than in a conventional bank-to-bank electronic transfer.

Fair&Just: The nation's debt is over RM500 billion, unrealised hidden debt around RM200 billion, and the government has guaranteed another RM100 billion in debts. How did the debt accumulate to such astronomical figures and how to repay these debts with such corruption and malpractices around?


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