By DayakDaily Team
KUCHING, Dec 28: The Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP) maintains that the contributions it received from then Barisan Nasional (BN) chairman and former Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak were not connected to the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), emphasising that the issue has been thoroughly investigated and settled in court.
In a statement, it criticised the Democratic Action Party (DAP) for allegedly attempting to revive what it calls a long-settled issue involving RM188,132.26 in party funds.
SUPP explained that the donation was received before 2013 and used up before the forfeiture notice was served in SUPP for its operational expense, and the majority went to pay staff salaries, Employees Provident Fund (EPF), and Social Security Organisation (Perkeso).
It added that in 2019, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC)—more than six years later—issued a notice to forfeit RM188,132.26 from SUPP’s bank account.
The party added that the MACC conducted investigations and interviews, and SUPP managed to provide all documents requested to support its stand that the funds received were not from 1MDB, but MACC pressed on and proceeded to file a forfeiture application at the High Court in Kuala Lumpur in 2019.
By July 2020, the High Court had dismissed MACC’s application. MACC then appealed to the Court of Appeal, and eventually withdrew the appeal after multiple postponements initiated on its side.
“SUPP, like any political party in Malaysia, relies on donations from its members and the public. At times, it relies on funding from its main political coalition partners.
“The Sarawak DAP again is trying to resuscitate an old issue by attempting to link a small portion of this fund by DS Najib to SUPP, and is adamant that this money must be returned,” said the party.
The party also said that it has made numerous press statements to assert that the money has nothing to do with 1MDB, and that it had defended the case in the High Court and Court of Appeal.
“DAP and its Sarawak leaders knew about the dismissal and the reasons for it. They are also very familiar with the facts of the case. Yet now they want to resuscitate this issue to confuse the public,” it said.
SUPP said DAP should instead push its federal leaders in the Madani government to focus on how to improve the laws governing political donations.
“Political funding reform is one of the key agendas of the Madani government. DAP is the biggest Malaya-based party and the backbone of the Madani government with the largest number of MPs in Parliament. DAP should use its energy to push for reform and make Malaysia a better place with good governance.” — DayakDaily
