MCA presidential candidate Gan Ping Sieu said the party has no qualms returning the funds it received from then prime minister Najib Abdul Razak prior to the 2013 general election.

That is if the Pakatan Harapan-led government can prove that the money is “ill-gotten” or obtained by contravening some law.

“MCA is very, very willing, able and ready to return the money,” he told a press conference this morning.

Gan was speaking to reporters at MCA headquarters after launching his presidential manifesto “Courage to Change” with his running mate Tee Siew Keong who is Johor MCA deputy chairperson.

Najib had allegedly distributed about RM470 million prior to the 13th general election of which MCA supposedly received RM16.5 million.

Gan said the money was between RM15 million to RM16 million but he would have no issue returning it although the sum is huge.

However, Gan said the Pakatan Harapan leadership should not merely make accusations and assumptions about the provenance of the funds.

“They are now in government, please take the due process of law, you should no longer engage in political rhetoric anymore,” he said while denying that the funds came from 1MDB.

“This is very unfair to the (fund) recipients as the money we received has been used for welfare project and political activities,” he added, responding to accusations levelled by the veteran DAP leader Lim Kit Siang.

Former MCA president Dr Chua Soi Lek told Malaysiakini last Thursday that he had no way of knowing the source of the funds and pointed out that the 1MDB scandal had not become news at that time.

Lim, however, said last Saturday that MCA should have known to ask about the source of funds and pointed out that 1MDB had already become an issue in 2013.

'Strange backgrounds'

Chua accused Lim of deliberately misleading the people by twisting his words the next day.

Gan took the same stance as Chua in that the funds were received in good faith and MCA would not question the source of the money.

“I was told that most of the DAP donors came from strange backgrounds not to mention they are now in the ruling party.

“So, we shouldn’t fall into the trap set by Lim Kit Siang. He is very clever, crafty and still engaging in his opposition leader mentality.

“Please ask him to also realise that he is in the government now and try to govern the nation better,” Gan added.