COMMENT I find Kuantan Umno division chief Wan Adnan Wan Mamat’s explanation of the RM2.6 million donation most implausible.

Before the next general election, my suggestion is for him to be appointed a cabinet minister so that more of such illogical explanations can come out from what former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad calls the ‘half-past-six’ leaders.

Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak, presumably on the advice of two cabinet ministers of his, had said that since there were no laws regulating political donations , therefore, we cannot say whether it was right or wrong for the money to be funnelled into Najib’s private bank accounts.

I wish to remind the prime minister that he was the one who said that money should never be banked into personal accounts as a measure against corruption.

He, too, was one of the signatories of Transparency International Malaysia’s (TI-M) election pledge, when Senator Paul Low was president? Has Low also conveniently forgotten this?

Donation, an appreciation

Wan Adnan claimed that the money amounting to nearly the entire reserve of the Selangor state government in 2013 was banked into Najib’s account in appreciation of our ‘fighters’ who went to fight the Islamic State (IS).

My questions to Wan Adnan are simple, and please answer me.

Firstly, why did it have to come from an individual donor? Why did the money not come from the government in the Middle East? Why no hype around it, so that the country is fully aware that we have contributed towards the war against IS?

It simply does not make sense that an individual, no matter how generous he may be, would contribute such a huge sum of money to a sitting prime minister for the efforts by the country’s heroes and heroines who fought the battles.

Secondly, those who sacrificed their lives to fight IS should be adequately rewarded by Middle Eastern governments. The money that was donated should have been channelled into their accounts. They should have been given medals for their bravery.

To date, how many of the families or those who fought IS in the Middle East have received their compensations in full? If Wan Adnan is right, then the money is no longer a donation, but a compensation or a reward for the bravery of Malaysians who fought IS.

How ridiculous can it get?

My suggestions

This are merely my suggestions. Why does Najib just say that the money was part of a political fund that is parked overseas? It is currently being held by proxies or companies set up to invest the money wisely.

The money cannot be kept in the country to avoid being detected by the country’s opposition. And, if Pakatan came to power, and the political fund was huge, the accounts could be ‘frozen.’ This is a big risk, and not many political parties would want their money frozen by the ruling party.

We can buy that kind of rationale. Everyone knows that the last general election was one of the more challenging ones facing Barisan Nasional. Therefore a lot of money would have to be channelled back to Malaysia to help win the elections; this explains why part of the money has returned to the country.

After the election was over, the remaining of the money had to be channelled overseas again. Does this sound plausible?

The other suggestion is to say that it was an unexpected windfall. A certain Middle Eastern tycoon had just passed away and in his will, he had left behind the money to his blue-eyed-boy, one Najib bin Abdul Razak (Dato’ Sri).

Since the tycoon is now in the afterworld, he could not have brought along with him the bulk of his riches. Neither can he deny what is being told to the world. Surely he will not be able to rise from the dead to claim back the money that belonged to him! Period. No one from the opposition can ask a dead man if this was true!

Thirdly, and perhaps, a more plausible answer could have been suggested that the money had gone into Najib’s accounts by mistake. He discovered the huge sum of money and decided to transfer it to the rightful owner.

It was the ploy by someone to cause BN to lose the last general election; therefore, the money had gone into Najib’s private account. However, being an honest man, Najib urged an investigation and decided that the money be returned to the rightful owners.

Too many suggestions have been made through the entire period since the expose was made by The Wall Street Journal, but no one has given a truthful answer as to where the RM2.6 billion had originated from, how it was spent, and why the money had been transferred to a bank in Singapore.

STEPHEN NG is an ordinary citizen with an avid interest in following political developments in the country since 2008.