What’s the tit-for-tat for RM40m?

ARCHIVES 2012

By admin-s On Oct 18, 2012

CT Ali, FMT

“Every political party has the right to receive political donations” so said Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak. I agree that it is the right of any political party and any Barisan Nasional politicians (you must not forget to say that) to accept donations.

You received RM4,000? Okay lah!

What about RM40,000? Still okay.

And RM400,000 is very okay… the generous donor must at least get a “thank-you” letter from Najib himself.

How about RM4 million? Wow! Must at least have lunch and/or dinner with the prime minister.

And RM40 million? Mi Casa. Su Casa! (My house is your house or make yourself at home!)

Granted that there would be more than one or two businessmen donors who would willingly part with their hard-earned RM40 million, then take all of them to dinner. Though, of course, if you have given them more than billions in business profits, then it is they who must take you out to dinner.

While chewing on that Wagyu beef (tender, tasteful and wonderfully wrapped in rice paper and tripled seared on an iron grill at RM100 an ounce), they might even ask you respectfully if they can give you more… money, that is.

That Wagyu beef is too expensive. Of course, there is that small matter of the Wagyu cows being given beer to give them that special “oomph” but you don’t think about these minor religious transgression when dining with millionaires.

This is the thing with Najib – he knows how to behave in social circles and he knows just what to say.

You can fault his wife, his handling of the Defence Ministry, Perak, Sibu, National Feedlot Corporation (NFC) and a host of other “Najib expletive deleted debacles” but not his family pedigree.

But he sure has to come down to earth as we approach the 13th general election – tyres for taxi drivers and now RM9 million in “gifts” for the Sikh community.

I wonder how that RM40 million donation to Sabah Umno (not to Chief Minister Musa Aman) is going to be spent. I guess keeping the Umno’s “jentera” (machinery) happy is more important than the Sikhs.

Did the MACC probe this matter?

Now, prime minister, no matter what you say about a political party’s right to give or take donations, if you have any common sense, what would be the quid pro quo for such a generous donation?

Quid pro quo means a more or less equal exchange or substitution of goods or services: “a favour for a favour” and the phrases with almost identical meaning include “give and take”, “tit for tat”, “this for that”, and “you scratch my back, and I’ll scratch yours”.

It is almost beyond belief that you can dismiss this matter with a one-liner “every political party has the right to receive political donations”.

No wonder your deputy, Muhyiddin Yassin’s friends are already staking out their preferred rooms on the fourth floor of the prime minister’s office.