Wan Dal Cha answers RPK on Dr Mahathir and Daim

An old friend had requested for me to publish the piece below in answer to Raja Petra's

1MDB: was it to finance the 2013 GE as alleged?

particularly concerning these paragraphs which more or less summed up RPK's entire assertions,

It seems Daim was smart enough to transfer out everything that his nominees were holding on behalf of Umno. Dr Mahathir, however, has not done so yet and Najib is making sure that he cannot do what Daim has done — transfer out those assets. And while Daim may have been smart enough to transfer everything that his nominees were holding into his name, he, too, refuses to surrender everything back to Umno.

And that is why Dr Mahathir and Daim want Najib ousted. It is not about 1MDB. It is about making sure that Umno and Barisan Nasional no longer have a source of finance. If Najib dissolves Parliament and calls for a new general election he is going to need around RM2 billion or more. And Dr Mahathir and Daim are going to make sure that Umno and Barisan Nasional do not get this money unless Najib resigns.

By the way, the writer Wan Dal Cha, is someone whom I believe knows more about the corridors of power than RPK.

By Wan Dal Cha

The RPK role in the ongoing 1MDB conversation deserves a fair bit of attention. He does seem to favour a particular persuasion.

That one should not fuss over the actual borrowings and those big hints of mismanagement.

His latest posting sought to strengthen this ideology of financial exuberance.

In the process he has inadvertently complicated the “to sue WSJ or not to sue WSJ” debate.

RPK went with the political argument of highlighting the possibility of funds referred to the WSJ report were actually meant and indeed spent for PRU13.

Those people he has been trying to bolster would be naturally upset with this line of defence for it raises all sorts of transparency and ethical questions.

For example, was this method of securing funding discussed at the Supreme Council or if this was always going to be awkward, was this mentioned at the political bureau meeting of Umno?

It does also suggest that 1MDB was doomed from the outset. That it was fine to borrow RM42 billion and only have some power plants to show given its “national service” functions.

Also, in classic fashion the villains were quickly paraded. Replicating the Anwar Ibrahim method, RPK attempted to taint Dr Mahathir and the Umno treasurer of his era, Daim Zainuddin.

The allegation was these two grandees were bent on forcing their way into the matter of election funding.

RPK in so doing has actually given Pak Lah and his people lots of credit. 

That they ran two elections – 2004 and Tsunami-like 2008 chapter – without having to resort to financial magic. Going by the same RPK logic,

Pak Lah too had no grand privatisation schemes to dish out. 

In any case, Dr Mahathir has said he handed over to his successor RM1.4 billion of cash and assets.

By comparison, RPK has never really pretended to be factual in his use and choice of data.

Should we expect another piece by RPK? 

One that is going to argue that he was merely raising a poser on the 1MDB funds vis a vis election funding.

Please refer to Dr Mahathir Mohamad: Snippets