Abdul Rahman defends RM2.6b donation by overseas donors to Umno president

KUALA LUMPUR: Barisan Nasional strategic communications director Datuk Abdul Rahman Dahlan has defended the RM2.6 billion donation by overseas donors to Umno president and Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak.
In a no holds barred questions posed by journalists on why overseas donors would be generous by giving a huge amount of donation to Umno, Abdul Rahman responded: "Why not?"
He said there was nothing wrong for overseas donors to channel money to the party for a good cause.
"There are donors out there who believe in certain objective that they want to donate and in this case, they donated to Umno," said Abdul Rahman, after launching the Malaysia Day Ride 2015 registration campaign at PWTC this morning.
He added: "They (donors) want 'orang kampung' houses and rural roads to be fixed, giving better access to education and raise the quality of lives. Yeah, why not to Umno?
He pointed out that Umno should not be the only political party to be under scrutiny on political funding, "when the rest of political parties are also getting donations from overseas".
Abdul Rahman, who is also Urban Wellbeing, Housing and Local Government Minister, then provided a comparison with Saudi Arabian billionaire Prince Al-Waleed Tallal generosity of donating USD$32 billion to charity recently as well as other renowned global philanthropists including Bill Gates, Warren Buffett and Mark Zuckerberg.
"Prince Waleed donated USD32 billion without questions to anyone whom he thinks need the money. Bill Gates also donated billions of dollars," said the Umno Supreme Council member.
On a related matter, Abdul Rahman has refused to accept DAP's invitation to attend and witness a fund-raising dinner for the opposition tomorrow, citing Penang Chief Minister's tricky intention.
"Thank you Lim Guan Eng for inviting me to the dinner. With me being there as a Minister, he wants to legitimise the DAP's collection (drive) and he wants to show, 'This is how we raise funds.'
"Come on, I was not born yesterday. DAP is spending much more than what they are getting from tin Milo donations. So I don't want to legitimise the show they are putting up," said the Kota Belud MP.
To a question whether Umno would also reveal its accounting books to heed the opposition's call, Abdul Rahman replied: "Well, that's what they said, let's open it up. That's what PM also said, isn't it? But PKR doesn't agree."
"The fact that in 2010 PM had already said that he was willing to do the political reform, you can't deny the political will of the PM. He was the first one of all political party's president to do it," he added.