RPK: Did Mahathir return Umno’s RM100bn assets?

Blogger says ‘hundreds of opposition leaders’ know Umno’s wealth held in personal names of trustees, proxies and nominees

(FMT) – Former Umno president Dr Mahathir Mohamad has been challenged to answer for RM100-RM200 billion in assets that belong to Umno and whether those assets had been returned to the party.

Political blogger Raja Petra Kamarudin accused Mahathir today of having turned Umno into a corporate enterprise instead of a political party when the party was deregistered and reconstituted after the Mahathir-Razaleigh power struggle in the late 1980s.

Raja Petra made the accusations in a slashing attack on Mahathir today as the former premier continues to wage a campaign to oust Umno president and prime minister Najib Razak, having previously engineered the downfall of his successor Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

Mahathir’s year-long campaign has put the focus on the financial affairs of the government’s investment arm 1Malaysia Development Bhd, with particular emphasis on a deposit of US$600 million in Najib’s personal bank accounts; the government has said the money was a political donation from Saudi Arabia for the 2013 general election.

In Raja Petra’s attack piece today, the controversial blogger accused the former premier of “lying through his teeth” in an open letter last week seeking the support of Umno members to oust Najib.

Raja Petra said Mahathir had stated many half-truths and lies to prey on younger people’s ignorance about his political history and that of Umno.

Umno had faced financial difficulties when the party was deregistered by a court order after Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah came close to defeating Mahathir in the 1987 party elections, Raja Petra recalled.

“Umno’s assets were all frozen and the banks were suing many Umno branches and divisions. When the 1990 general election came, Umno had no money and it had to go begging for donations from rich towkays and businessmen,” Raja Petra wrote.

“Of course, the donations were not free” and the party granted many concessions and business contracts through privatisation of government assets, issuing permits and other means. “And that was when Umno was turned from a political party into a corporate entity,” Raja Petra wrote.

Mahathir decided at the time that Umno needed billions (or tens of billions) as a war chest or face tough going.

t was also decided that Umno’s wealth would not be held in the name of the party, but instead in the names of trustees, nominees and proxies. The Umno president, deputy president, treasurer and others would hold Umno’s cash, assets and investment in their personal names, Raja Petra said.

He pointed out that it was Mahathir’s own doing that led to the situation of Najib being found to be holding RM2.6 billion cash.

“In fact, Mahathir as trustee is still holding an estimated RM100-200 billion of Umno’s wealth,” Raja Petra said.

He challenged Mahathir to return the RM100-200 billion before challenging Najib about the RM2.6 billion found in his personal bank accounts.

Raja Petra said “hundreds of opposition leaders all know this”, and named Lim Kit Siang, Lim Guan Eng, Anwar Ibrahim and Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail as being among them.

He pointed out that Kit Siang had taken an injunction against United Engineers Malaysia (UEM) in 1988 when the company, one of Umno’s many proxies or nominees, was awarded the contract for the North-South Expressway.

“They all know why the RM2.6 billion was banked into Najib’s personal bank accounts and not Umno’s bank account. It is the system that Mahathir introduced in 1988,” Raja Petra said. “They are only pretending they do not know so that they can make an issue of the RM2.6 billion. And Malaysians are swallowing this lie — hook, line and sinker.”

He challenged Mahathir to explain what had happened to Umno’s RM100-200 billion in assets and why it was being held in his name and not that of the party.

Raja Petra also challenged the former party leader to show evidence that he had returned the wealth to the party.