What political spending? For whom? Well, it is a Malaysian government owned company - and, it should not be spending money for any particular political party/ies (BN, UMNO, MCA,PKR..??) or for any politician even if he is the Prime Minister?
The money(profits) that is made by any government-owned company must flow back to the government and to the Malaysian people. Why? Because we are the owners...Maybe, not even just owners but possibly also guarantors for debts of the said company.
Likewise, it should not be spend for even Bumiputra matters/concerns - the money/profits must all flow back to the government. It will form part of the government funds to be spend accordingly for the people of Malaysia.
Now, if it was an UMNO-owned company, then all the profits will flow to UMNO members....
And, if it was a BN-owned company, then profits flow to the BN member parties and their members...
But being a Malaysian peoples' company - it should never support any political party or personalities.
As Malaysians, we are all very concerned about 1MDB for possibly 2 reasons
1- Because we are the owners of this company; and
2- Because Malaysian government may have stood as guarantor for the said companies debts...[Gov’t has guaranteed RM177.8b worth of GLCs' debts? WHY? GLC not government-owned?]
THEREFORE, we, Malaysians, are very interested in any information, disclosures and/or 'expose' concerning this 1MDB and its practices...
Many things have been highlighted by Sarawak Report and the Wall Street Journal(WSJ) - now WSJ is a well known newspaper. I am of the opinion that it is wrong for the government to 'block' our access to information...we have a right to know as the 1MDB is our direct concern as Malaysians.
What is sad is that when these allegations are made, the 'knee-jerk reaction' sometimes seem to be a denial on the part of our Ministers and government? I wonder whether these politicians even have had time to investigate properly and see whether it is true or false - which really should be the immediate response of government. 'We will look into it and give our response soon'.
Malaysians are not fools to believe everything they read - they will wait for the Malaysian government response, listen to all views and opinions and form a personal stand. But the problem, is that our Prime Minister, Minister and government do not give us an answer or a proper rebuttal...And, it is this 'silence' or 'inadequate response' that makes us here in Malaysia believe that what was disclosed may more likely be the truth...
The policy of being 'secretive', 'non-responsive'...by Najib and the government must change. They forget that they are fully responsible to all of us Malaysians... I hope that Malaysia will emulate Thailand, where every week the Prime Minister reports back to the people. See earlier post:-.Prime Minister weekly live TV reports to the people - like the MH370 briefing sessions?
This time Zahid Hamidi warns us and calls this 'unverified sources' - whether it is verified or not is irrelevant, when an 'alleged wrongdoing', all that Malaysia need do is investigate and give us a response...He should not jump to quick conclusions about WSJ reports too...
“We should not be influenced by the information that is being spread by this particular media.
“And we should not punish based on the information that comes from unverified sources,” Ahmad Zahid told reporters in a press conference at the Putra World Trade Centre (PWTC).
How long will the Malaysian investigations on 1MDB take? And, what exactly are they investigating.
I do hope that the allegation of corruption against Najib Tun Razak, which is separate from the 1MDB issue, is also investigated promptly...
WSJ: 1MDB prioritised political spending despite insufficient funds
1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) is alleged to have continued
prioritising political spending despite its insufficient cash flow to
repay its heavy debt, reported the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) today.
1MDB
board of directors were so alarmed by the poor financial state that
they expressed their fears at a board meeting last year.
The directors even discussed if they had landed in hot water and whether the police would launch a probe on the firm.
The US-based daily based its report on the minutes of a 1MDB meeting on Dec 20, 2014.
"The
minutes portray a fund that repeatedly prioritised political spending,
even when 1MDB’s cash flow was insufficient to cover its debt payments.
"Board
members wondered aloud if they would get into trouble. In a meeting on
Dec 20, 2014, they discussed what to do about the police who came to
investigate allegations of financial irregularities, according to the
minutes," WSJ reported.
1MDB's debt had soared to RM42 billion as of March 2014.
Prime
Minister Najib Abdul Razak had signed cheques from his personal
accounts to lawmakers, who used the money as they saw fit, said a
cabinet minister who was not named.
The daily also reported that
Najib had gathered a group of Umno leaders in July when he was under
pressure to resign. He reminded the Umno leaders that they had benefited
from the RM2.6 billion political donation.
“I took the money to spend for us,” the minister quoted Najib as saying.
WSJ was unable to pin-point the source of the RM2.6 billion despite having conducted a six-month examination.
It,
however, claimed the public entities spent hundreds of millions of
dollars on a massive campaign to ensure Umno continue to stay in power.
"The
payments, while legal, represented a new milestone in Malaysia’s
freewheeling electoral system, according to ruling-party officials,"
said the report.
1MDB also transferred hundreds of millions of
dollars to politicians through Ihsan Perdana Bhd, a company formed in
2011 to carry out 1MDB’s corporate social responsibility programmes,
said a person involved in setting up the fund.
Ihsan Perdana is exempt from filing financial statements, according to Malaysian company records.
WSJ
reported that Malaysian investigators believe the cash that had ended
up in Najib’s personal accounts had been channelled to government
agencies, banks and companies linked to 1MDB.
At least US$14
million (RM42 million) flowed into Najib's accounts via Ihsan Perdana,
according to documents from a Malaysian government investigation.- Malaysiakini
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