RM40m Sabah Umno ‘donation’ is pittance, say Umno delegates
Several Umno members appeared today to dismiss the controversy over Sabah Umno’s RM40 million “political donation”, saying the sum was pittance compared to the millions the party dishes out during elections.
Arsit Sedi @ Sidik, a delegate from Sabah, even described the sum as “a very small dot” and revealed that in the Putatan constituency in his home state, Umno would have to spend up to RM6 million during the polls.
“RM40 million is a small sum, I don’t think it can even support the next election.
“The amount needed is very high, especially Sabah. If you are talking RM40 million, it is not enough to even move the election machinery.
“RM40 million is a very small dot only,” he told The Malaysian Insider when approached on the sidelines of Umno’s 66th general assembly here.
Sabah Umno chief Datuk Musa Aman has been at the centre of allegations linking him to a RM40 million corruption scandal that the opposition has been using as fodder to discredit the Barisan Nasional (BN) state government in its east Malaysian fortress.
The issue hit media headlines last month when Umno minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Aziz told Parliament that Musa had been cleared of corruption and money-laundering allegations in a case involving Sabah timber trader Michael Chia.
Musa’s alleged link with Chia first exploded in the media following an April article by whistleblower site Sarawak Report, which had claimed that latter was caught trying to leave the Hong Kong International Airport with the RM40 million in Singapore currency.
At the time, Chia had allegedly told the authorities that the money was meant for Musa, kicking off a probe on the series of funds transfers from Malaysia to Hong Kong that was then believed to be the possible laundering of monies generated from illegal logging activities in Sabah.
But Nazri said Musa’s name was cleared after Malaysian and Hong Kong anti-graft authorities found that the money was a “political donation” to Sabah Umno and was not meant for Musa’s personal use.
In the ensuing debates on the issue, however, Pakatan Rakyat (PR) lawmakers chided Nazri for declaring Musa innocent without providing proof that Hong Kong’s Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) had cleared the chief minister of its own accord.
According to Nazri, the ICAC had closed the case after the MACC discovered in its probe that the money in Chia’s possession was meant for Sabah Umno and not Musa.
