Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak purportedly revealed that BN spent RM1.5 billion for the 13th general election in a meeting with Umno liaison chiefs, according to former Kedah menteri besar Mukhriz Mahathir.
Mukhriz claimed that he was told about this after quizzing Najib in the meeting about the RM2.6 billion that was deposited into the latter’s personal bank accounts, which the prime minister stated was a political donation from the Middle East.
Therefore, Mukhriz questioned how Najib could return RM2.03 billion of the RM2.6 billion if RM1.5 billion was spent on the election.
“What I find strange and curious about the RM2.6 billion which he claimed was an Arab donation is, if having spent RM1.5 billion in the 13th general election, only RM1.1 billion is left.
“How can he return RM2.03 billion to the Arabs? How did the (remainder of) RM1.1 billion become RM2 billion?..
….. he (Tengku Adnan) said: ‘We spent a lot for the 13th general election. We had to spend a lot to make sure we win’ but he said he cannot reveal how much was spent.
“Then suddenly the (Umno) president (Najib) interjected, he said he can reveal how much was spent in the 13th general election. He said we spent RM1.5 billion,” said Mukhriz.
The former MB said he was shocked and questioned how BN could perform even worse than the previous general election despite spending such a huge sum
“Then Ku Nan replied: ‘you’re still young, what do you know’,” said Mukhriz
How can it be legitimate for a ruling party to buy an election?
Yet, these people are prepared to even admit to buying GE13, since it appears in their eyes to be a marginally better excuse for stealing billions from the public purse than merely putting it into their own pockets.
But, as Mukhriz rightly points out, the figures show that they did that as well.
Najib and his cronies are of the opinion that their own party stalwarts, who hold those bought parliamentary seats (many from Sarawak) will be more tolerant of this money having been used to buy an election than to further enrich Najib and his family.
However, as far as the rest of ordinary Malaysians are concerned it means that not only did Najib steal their money, he stole their election as well.