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Wednesday, August 5, 2015

The good and bad of RM2.6 billion ‘donations’ – BEIM



Indeed, the Datuk Seri Najib Razak administration has been doing diligent homework.
By taking the nation with its surprise admission that the alleged RM2.6 billion going into the prime minister’s personal bank account were “donations”, Umno may get away with it all. But will it, is yet to be seen at the coming ballot box.
True too what Datuk Abdul Rahman Dahlan also states. The world is dotted with political parties that survive on private donations and public funds.
And that cunning distinction that the flaming RM2.6 billion is not from 'public funds' but 'private donations' gives Najib's team some breathing space.
So, Najib may after all get away with the RM2.6 billion “donations” in his kitty. But then again, it is left to be seen as to what degree the voting population matured in political thought since the last three general elections.
If the old architecture where the village bumpkins casting the deciding vote to determine the city dwellers' informed vote still holds true come 2018, Najib is here to stay and prove his critics sorely wrong.
The bad part of Najib revealing the RM2.6 billion were “donations” is that there was no urgency in the first place in making this admission.
It had to be triggered by foreign media before the local environment could pick up traction on the issue, along with a slithering attempt to delay the admission that the RM2.6 billion were “donations”.
The crux of the issue is that it hinges on transparency, accountability and integrity. When efforts to be transparent about “donations” and other means of political funding is lacking, it becomes fodder for allegations, suspicions and an eventual trust deficit in the public space.
When there is zero accountability or suspect-accountability, the public space gets crowded with an eroding sense of betrayal.
Local politicians will adamantly vouch that there can only be massaged accountability because political party funding utilisation is a guarded ‘political strategy’.
However, when there are no frameworks that govern the compliance to public accountability, a democratic country will start to question how and when and where did the money go and who are involved.
So the placating calls by some to 'forgive and forget' is mere wishy-washy hopes of political correctness.
What makes this “donation” admission complicated and appear convoluted is the fact that there was a long and meandering trail leading up to this late admission.
There was the case of 1MDB investment grand scheme and subsequent allegations of plundering involving several Malaysian GLCs and trust funds.
This was catapulted with a dose of extravagance displayed by the Najib and Rosmah (Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor) team, ranging from extraordinary allocation of funds for pet projects to grooming and fashion statements as well as splashes on that wedding-of-the-century, just to name some.
Also surfacing was the story of Najib’s stepson – just a junior banker, suddenly making a killing in New York and even taking Hollywood by storm.
All these did not go down well with a nation that is reeling from a 22-year Mahathir-controlled legacy.
As the 1MDB scandal, allegation and suspicion seeped into the public domain with greater intensity, there came about another blow. The implosion of Umno was triggered with the unceremonious and un-Malay removal of the deputy prime minister.
The montage that is being pieced together with each advancing day is the fact that Umno may have outlived its political purpose, strategy and relevancy. Its clarion calls for transformation remained stuck as a mere sloganeering and pipeline dreams.
So will all the money in the world that Umno can secure as “donation" or through public funding save the day for Najib and his newly minted Cabinet team, and if it does, for how long more?
Perhaps the answers do not lie within the local political domain. We may have to look across the horizon and at the future economic and financial threats that are looming.
Should the ringgit crash, it will add to the political turmoil of Umno.
Should Southeast Asia be transformed into a high-security sensitive zone by the US in lieu of China’s aggression to save its own economy that is over-heating, Malaysia’s longest surviving political party may in all probability then become the public’s enemy number one.
Indeed, for all the past three decades of mismanagement, abuse, oversights, omissions, extravagance and what have you, Malaysia is today in the cooking pot of true dangers.
The 1MDB debacle is only a manifestation of the serious cancer that has rooted malignantly – corruption and greed.
* BEIM is the Business Ethics Institute of Malaysia. 

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