ANWAR: UMNO IS WORTH RM100 BILLION

Yes, Tun Dr Mahathir and Tun Daim created this system to protect Umno and to make sure they never again face the same financial problem they faced back in 1988 when Umno’s assets and bank accounts got frozen. And those who came after Dr Mahathir and Daim just continued with what was party policy, Anwar included.

THE CORRIDORS OF POWER

Raja Petra Kamarudin

Anwar Ibrahim said that Umno is worth at least RM100 billion. I do not know whether this is true but that was what Anwar said. And he said this after he had been sacked from Umno and the government. When he was still in Umno and the government and when the opposition alleged that Umno is worth billions Anwar denied it and said that that was plain fitnah (lies).

The problem, explained Anwar, is that the RM100 billion is not entirely in cash or in Umno’s bank account. Some of it is in cash but much more is in assets and investments. And most of it is in the name of trustees and nominees and not in Umno’s name.

So what Abdul Rahman Dahlan said yesterday (see below) is true because Anwar, too, confirmed the same thing about 17 years ago. And if it was RM100 billion 17 years ago, as Anwar said, then it is probably worth more than that today.

Anyway, I have already written about this matter before but maybe some of you did not believe it at that time. Even when Anwar revealed this 17 years ago many probably thought that he was ‘sour grapes’ and was just trying to badmouth or smear the party that had kicked him out and about three weeks later arrested him and sent him to jail.

The whole thing actually started soon after the Team A versus Team B tussle for power, which resulted in Umno getting deregistered. When the Registrar of Societies deregistered Umno, two new ‘Umno’ parties were formed — Umno Baru and Umno Malaysia (Umno Malaysia had to change its name to Semangat 46 because the RoS would not allow two parties with the name ‘Umno’)

Both Umno Baru and Semangat 46 claimed to be the ‘genuine’ Umno party or the reincarnation of the old Umno. And since both were claiming legitimacy, and hence were claiming that the old Umno’s assets belonged to them, the RoS froze those assets and bank accounts.

To prove that you are the legitimate Umno you would need to show the RoS that at least 70% of the old Umno members are now members of your so-called ‘new’ Umno. Only then can the new Umno claim that is still the same party as the old Umno and, therefore, take possession of the assets of the old Umno.

So for three years Umno Baru scrambled like mad to get the old Umno members registered as members of the new Umno. Yes, it was a colossal job that took three years because it was not easy to find three million members who either did not exist, had already died but were still registered as members, were only ‘paper’ members or ‘phantoms’, and so on.

Finally, they managed to obtain the required number of old Umno members to register as members of the new Umno and the RoS then allowed the new Umno to take possession of the old Umno’s assets. Meanwhile, during that time, the new Umno was broke and did not have any money to operate and even faced legal suits for unpaid debts and overdue loan repayments.

To prevent such a thing from ever happening again, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad decided that Umno must no longer hold its cash, assets and investments in the name of the party. If anything happened to the party then Umno would, again, be in dire straits.

And that was when Dr Mahathir and Tun Daim Zainuddin decided to set up a new system where all Umno’s cash, assets and investments would have to be placed under the names of nominees and trustees. And three of the many of these nominees and trustees would be Umno’s President, Deputy President and Treasurer.

But those were not the only three nominees and trustees. The Umno President, Deputy President and Treasurer, in turn, had their own nominees and trustees. And that was when names such as Tajuddin Ramli, Halim Saad, Yahya Ahmad, Samsudin Abu Hassan, Khalid Ahmad, Ahmad Nazeri, Ahmad Sebi Abu Bakar, Syed Ibrahim Syed Mohamed, Hamzah Zainuddin, Vincent Tan, Ananda Krishnan, Francis Yeoh, and many, many more started appearing onto the Malaysian corporate scene.

So, for over 30 years or so, probably 100 or more very fortunate Malaysians became multi-millionaires and billionaires. Of course, these nominees and trustees were not holding Umno’s wealth 100% on behalf of Umno. Some of it belonged to Umno and some of it belonged to the nominees and trustees. They helped make Umno rich but they, too, made themselves rich. That was only fair: they should be rewarded for helping Umno get rich and for acting as Umno’s trustee and nominee.

The problem is some of these people got greedy. Not enough they had a share of the billions they were holding in their name, they decided why share 50% with Umno when they can have 100% all to themselves. And that was when the shit began to hit the fan (which is another story for another time).

Tun Dr Mahathir, Tun Musa Hitam, Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, Tun Daim Zainuddin, Anwar Ibrahim, Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, Muhyiddin Yassin and many more of the Umno leaders right down to the division chiefs and wakil rakyat (MPs and state assemblymen/women) all know about this arrangement. It is a ‘secret’ shared by probably one million Umno people.

But Dr Mahathir, Anwar, and all those Umno and ex-Umno people who are opposed to Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak, cannot reveal this. If they do then they would have to admit that they were part of the system and were involved as well.

So they have to say that the money that was in Najib’s personal bank account was stolen from 1MDB. They cannot say that Najib was merely operating a trustee or nominee bank account on behalf of Umno. They cannot say that the money came from donations. They cannot say that this is legal and provided for under Umno’s party constitution. If they do then they will have to admit that they, too, did precisely the same thing.

Yes, Tun Dr Mahathir and Tun Daim created this system to protect Umno and to make sure they never again face the same financial problem they faced back in 1988 when Umno’s assets and bank accounts got frozen. And those who came after Dr Mahathir and Daim just continued with what was party policy, Anwar included.

And do you think all the previous Prime Ministers, all the previous Deputy Prime Ministers, all the previous Finance Ministers, the Umno Supreme Council, the Cabinet, the Umno division chiefs, Bank Negara, the Anti-Corruption Commission, the Attorney General, the Inspector General of Police, etc., are not aware of this?

Of course they are aware of it. They have been aware of it for the last 30 years or so long before Najib became Prime Minister. But they are pretending they do not know anything because they want to use this issue to bring down the Prime Minister. Furthermore, they do not want to be accused of being part of this system that Dr Mahathir created when Umno was deregistered and the new Umno was formed.

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Rahman Dahlan: Umno president has trust account provided under party constitution

(Bernama) – The Umno constitution provides for the party president to have a trust account on behalf of the party, said Barisan Nasional strategic communications director Datuk Seri Abdul Rahman Dahlan.

He said it was not only Datuk Seri Najib Razak who had a trust account on behalf of Umno but also the previous Umno presidents.

“I wish to inform that the Umno constitution provides for the party president to have a trust account on behalf of the party.

“It is not impossible or surprising if the (current) Umno president and previous presidents have a trust account for the party,” he told reporters after opening the Kubang Pasu Umno Youth delegates meeting here today.

Rahman, who is urban well-being, housing and local government minister, said the money currently in a trust account under Najib’s name as the Umno president was not from 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) or public funds.

Source: Malaysia Today