KUCHING, July 19: Sarawak United Peoples’ Party (SUPP) must return the RM3.5 million it received from 1MDB if recent revelations were true.
Citing latest media reports, Bandar Kuching MP Dr Kelvin Yii said SUPP was believed to have received a total of RM3.5 million in four transactions between Feb 13, 2012, and April 8, 2013, instead of RM1 million as reported previously.
“With the new expose on the alleged money trail on various political parties, including SUPP, purportedly misappropriated from 1MDB and SRC International, it is important for the party president to come clean on the actual amount received as well as revealing their intentions on whether these illicit funds would be returned to the rightful parties,” said the Sarawak Democratic Action Party (DAP) leader.
Various media outlets reported this week that at least RM470 million from 1MDB was channelled to several political entities in 102 transactions between February 2012 and April 2013.
United Malays National Organisation (Umno) received the lion’s share of the fund with RM417.4 million, followed by MIC (RM20.55 million) and MCA (RM16.5 million). Other political parties named in the report included LDP (RM3.5 million), Upko (RM2 million), PBRS (RM1 million), PPP (RM700,000) and Gerakan (RM300,000).
A total of RM3.55 million was also alleged to have been channelled to various Barisan Nasional branches, while Barisan-friendly IPF received RM1 million.
The report claimed that SUPP received RM500,000 on Feb 13, 2012, followed by another RM500,000 on March 4 the following year. The party was believed to have received RM2 million on March 20 and another RM500,000 on April 8.
On July 2 this year, the 1MDB special investigative taskforce announced that more than 400 bank accounts were frozen on suspicion of receiving funds allegedly originating from the state investment fund amounting to RM1.1 billion.
SUPP president Datuk Dr Sim Kui Hian recently confirmed that the party’s account was frozen. He said the party would cooperate and comply with any investigation by the authority.
“RM3.5 million is not a small amount. I’m sure they would have been aware of such money that passed through their accounts. SUPP should have come clean when these allegations were made many years ago and state the actual amount received, if they really had nothing to hide.
“Questions also have to be asked if SUPP are still willing to be transparent over the alleged funds channelled into their accounts, based on all the investigations and allegations in multiple countries on the source of such funds,” Dr Yii said. — DayakDaily
