25 Apr 2024, 14:32 Kuching
25 Apr 2024, 07:32 London
The Malaysian press just carried a detailed report on a body apparently named the 1MDB Foundation Special Haji Programme which contains some very interesting statistics. Especially when they allegedly refer to the bankrupt 1MDB, the funds of which were stolen by mega thief Najib Razak and his criminal associates including con man Jho Low.
The press report claimed that the Foundation had stated that some 5700 Malaysians had been helped to perform the Haj since 2011 and went on to claim that the cost of this had been RM 56 million since that same year. Taking the total of pilgrims assisted from the Programme itself the actual number assisted over the years 2011 to 2016 reaches over 4500.
Unless the Programme was very much less generous in the past than it is proposing to be this year, when it is going to give each pilgrim RM9570, that would give a total subsidy to past pilgrims of RM43 million, not the RM57 million claimed by the spokesperson. Very probably at least RM57 million was taken from 1MDB, as stated by the spokesperson, so what happened to the difference of RM14 million? Big money to a rural Malay voter if mere pocket money to mega thief Najib.
Leaving statistics and real or false entitlements out of it the killer question is why were 1MDB funds being used for this purpose at all?
All money borrowed by 1MDB was publicly stated to be for specific development projects (power plants, urban development etc etc.) There was nothing in the prospectuses issued to foreign investors about free trips for Haj performers. Or 680 million US dollar hand- outs to criminal Prime Ministers or even larger thefts by Chinese and other criminals for that matter!
Once more a stupid and loose mouthed official from the majority community has let a cat out of the bag while boasting about how arch thief Najib (whose photo inevitably heads the revealing press article) has used stolen money to buy support on religious grounds. Maybe some Islamic expert from his new political ally PAS can say how that spending fits, or does not fit, with the Koran?
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