Questions over Mecca pilgrimage fund testing Umno supporters
(MMO) – For Malaysia’s 18 million Muslims, the ultimate in holy duty is to travel to Mecca, a pilgrimage that can require decades of saving. Now the fund that holds much of their money is under a cloud, a fresh challenge for a scandal-hit government.
Concerns over unpopular and unprofitable investments at the government-linked fund may erode loyalty to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak among his main supporters ― rural-based ethnic Malays ― and potentially do more damage than a clutch of political funding probes that have been running for months.
The premier has so far weathered the fallout from a US$681 million (RM2.8 billion) donation investigation and alleged financial impropriety at state investment company 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB). But controversy over the Hajj fund known as Lembaga Tabung Haji ― a statutory agency under the Prime Minister’s Department ― cuts to the heart of religion in the secular Muslim nation, and the fund has almost 9 million depositors.
Najib is already grappling with a slowing economy, and ordinary Malaysians face rising living costs. With an election due by 2018 he needs the votes of the Malay majority, who returned him and the United Malays National Organisation to power in 2013 as Chinese and Indian Malaysians shifted to the opposition. The coalition led by Umno, which has ruled since independence in 1957, won the last election with its slimmest margin yet.
“The Hajj is fundamental to Islam and Islam is now a core component to political discourse within the country,” said Terence Gomez, a professor at the University of Malaya. “Because they are dealing with the savings of so many people, and many of them are core to Najib’s constituency, he has to be very careful,” he said. “Najib cannot afford to lose the Malay ground.”
