COMMENT I was rudely awakened this morning at 3am over some burning questions.

If you are wondering why, it is because as a writer, I often go to bed with questions and wake up with some fresh answers. Although this is not good for my health, I cannot help but wake up to work my thoughts into some questions that need to be asked.

I suppose I have to ask these questions to both Najib Abdul Razak, who is the current prime minister, and Dr Mahathir Mohamad who was prime minister of this country for 22 years from 1981 through 2003. Dr Mahathir is the veteran Umno politician, and he knows a lot more than most of us about Umno; while Najib is currently the centre of a big controversy involving his 1MDB.

These questions have to be asked for the sake of the nation, and its future generations, who cannot continue to be caught in vicious cycle of poverty and chased away from the city by a cabinet minister.

Those of us who are in the middle income trap will continue to wonder how much the next salary raise would be, while some politicians are basking themselves in the luxuries of life - driving in Ferraris and Lamborghinis, carrying Birkin bags and wearing expensive diamond rings.

Most of us have spent our lives slogging away till late at night, without even earning a million ringgit a whole lifetime, not to mention saving that much in half a century, but we read about RM2.6 billion, RM42 million and RM2 million being funnelled into personal accounts, without the proper explanations.

I find it interesting that the authorities including the Bank Negara till today have not clamped down on such huge transfer of money within the banking system. I wonder how much the taxman would have collected so far from these high net worth individuals.

These questions could well be the basis for investigations by certain agencies, including the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) and other international bodies that are investigating into the matter to see if there were indeed some ‘underworld’ operations involved that are linked to money-laundering.

In South Africa, they go after the big money

We have read how one of South Africa’s biggest underworld bosses, Mark Lifman, was engaged in a tax battle against the SA Revenue Service (Sars). The City Press which had reported the story in April this year, said that the Sars commissioner Tom Moyane may have been “allegedly” approached to go easy on Lifman “because of his political connections”.

It sounds all too familiar to us when we read that the tax evader “Lifman is an important man because of his money and influence and his proximity to powerful people. It was suggested that Moyane lean on the [Sars] team to go easy on Lifman and give him a deal.”

At least, in South Africa, the taxman went after Lifman for his great wealth, which is highly commendable of the tax agency. That should be the way to go especially with the high net worth individuals with their millions of dollars that went unaccounted for, instead of going after some small fry.

The reality is that whether in Malaysia or South Africa, when one is powerfully connected and has plenty of money to splash, the individual appears to have favourable treatment from the agencies but like it or not, public opinion will continue to be formed and important questions have to be raised.

I have to raise these questions because the answers given by Najib and his deputy appear inconsistent from time to time. The thing that troubled me the most is the question whether it was a single donor or a number of donors.

Najib had mentioned it in the singular when he first revealed the source of the money. Now, both he and the Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi appear to be saying it comes from a number of donors from the Middle East, yet sources close to the MACC disclosed that they had only met a single person who was the source of the money .

They say that when you have to lie, you will have to be consistent. On this count, it is not important at least to me whether it is in the singular or plural, but Najib and Zahid appear to have failed to be consistent from the outset.

Questions for Najib

Question 1: Najib, tell us the truth: was it just one donor or a number of donors? It appears to me that even Najib has not told us the truth from the beginning. In short, have we been fed with misinformation right from the start?

If so, this is a serious act of malfeasance, since Najib is the prime minister of this country and the money involved is not a small sum which went into his personal account(s). It has become a topic which has been debated over and over again, yet the facts were not revealed truthfully from the start.

It was not only on one occasion but twice, that Najib had failed to attend the ‘Nothing2Hide’ session as well as the recent parliamentary session, when he had the opportunity to deal with the questions from members of Parliament directly. Surely, in the Parliament, there are security measures everywhere and even Dr Mahathir was not there.

Malaysians were waiting for an answer from him directly. It is, in fact, Najib’s personal accounts that were the focus of the controversy. We expected Najib to personally give an account of the money that was received. My second question to Najib is therefore, “Why did you choose not to turn up?”

This is followed by a few more questions, as to why the donors (based on the latest official version) had rallied behind Umno’s political cause, when the money was meant for those who had fought against the Islamic State (IS).

Question 3: If there were more than one donor, what is their main reason for their generous donation? Najib had said that the money was given towards Umno’s political cause, but how much of this money was accounted for in Umno’s account? If the money was meant as a ‘token’ of appreciation for those who fought the IS, how much of this money was distributed to the families of those who had given their lives in combat?

They sacrificed their lives, but someone else is receiving the reward on their behalf? Is this not as the proverbial saying goes, ‘Lembu punya susu, sapi dapat nama.’ (Credit is given to the brand name, instead of the poor milking cow.)

Question 4: How would anyone or group of donors have such a huge sum of money to give away the money to a political party like Umno yet never known to have contributed a single cent to the Aceh tsunami victims? How much has Umno received in political donations over the past six decades?

We may have heard of Microsoft’s founder Bill Gates giving away billions of dollars to charitable causes, but not a single philanthropist has risen from the Middle East. As pointed out by Dr Mahathir himself, the Arabs are never known to be that generous with their money.

Question 5: If it is not out of generosity, what possible interests did the donor(s) have when the huge sum of money was banked into Najib’s private accounts? Was there any national interests that had been bartered off, which we do not know about?

All these years, we read that over a trillion ringgit have left the country. This could probably be just the tip of the iceberg, which leaves me with another important question which has to be asked to Dr Mahathir since he had been around in office for a longer time than Najib.

Questions for Dr Mahathir

Question 6: Based on the Lifman story, was the money a part of the dividend from some money laundering that we know nothing about? This is, in fact, what has been troubling me through the night and I guess that I will never find the answers in a whole lifetime, but what we do know is that money is being laundered in a number of ways.

I have no way to establish any links except to ask whether there were, in fact, some links between the past and the present. Only Dr Mahathir would probably be the best person to tell us, just before he meets his Maker.

Knowing that a former finance minister is also the owner of a number of banks in Africa and Switzerland, I have always asked the question how one man could own such a wide network of banks.

There were a number of admirable traits about this one tycoon. For example, he was low-key and did not crave for publicity. Some said he was humble (and I agree), because you can see him eating in a small mamak shop despite the riches that he owns.

I wanted to learn the secrets of his success because, although I have worked so hard day and night to earn just enough to keep my family going with a bit of luxury occasionally, yet I have never seen a figure with six zeroes (not to mention, nine) in my bank account.

Perhaps, one trait that he had which I do not possess is his experience as both treasurer of Umno and former finance minister, knowing how to manage money well to create more wealth.

I am not for once trying to suggest that this tycoon’s wealth had come from money laundering but I have to ask Dr Mahathir, with reference to the RM2.6 billion, whether it could have come from some form of laundering.

Like I said, for an ordinary man like me, even earning just a bit more had attracted several letters from the Inland Revenue Board this year enquiring about my accounts for three consecutive years.

Without qualms, when a wrong was committed, I readily admitted to it and paid the penalties in full, yet when it came to pursuing the refund for those tax exemption receipts in two particular years which I had submitted, but they were somehow removed by the taxman, till today, the money has not been refunded. Tell me, is it fair for ordinary citizens like me?

For RM2.6 billion and another RM40 million that went into Najib’s personal accounts, I wonder if the taxman had come knocking on his doors. Even his wife Rosmah Mansor’s personal account came into the limelight, but we have never heard that the taxman going after her, when both Najib and Rosmah are supposed to set good examples to Malaysians about paying their taxes.

Question 7: Dr Mahathir would probably be able to answer this next question: was the RM2.6 billion part of some money-laundering activities which he may know about? Otherwise, how could he be so certain that the money could not be coming from a generous donor from the Middle East?

I do not have the answers, neither am I pointing the fingers at anyone, but for those who know the answers and have a conscience to live by, it is time to do some spring cleaning.

This nation cannot be led using money obtained from corruption, abuse of public funds or the wealth of our natural resources, and through the misuse of money that should otherwise have been used for nation building. Please correct the path that this nation is taking, before going into the next world.

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