YOURSAY | ‘Puad will be sadly mistaken if he thought the students will believe him.’

'Najib spoke to Bank Negara governor, got permission to bring in RM2.6b'

Aries46: If it was really a donation from the Saudis and PM Najib Razak had nothing to hide, why did he conceal the fact from 2013 until he was exposed by The Wall Street Journal last year?

Why hide it even from his deputy and the party’s supreme council? And why was the purpose of the donation kept changing - from “to fight (the then non-existent) IS” to “to fight GE13” to “in recognition of Umno's contribution to Islam” and so on and so forth?

And if it was a genuine donation, why RM2.3 billion was returned to the donor?

It is understandable that Umno is facing growing pressure from Malay youths here and overseas who question the twin scandals of RM2.6 billion and the 1MDB ‘heist’, but even so can't Department of Special Affairs (Jasa) director-general Mohd Puad Zarkashi at least make it believable?

Pray tell us, Puad, when did Najib get then Bank Negara governor Zeti Akhtar Aziz’s approval? When the billions came in 2013 or after the WSJ exposé in 2015? And why has Zeti kept this a secret?

CQ Muar: Who is Mohd Puad Zarkashi? Isn't he the unwanted Umno candidate who was voted out in Batu Pahat in the last GE? Out of sympathy, Najib 'slotted' him in as Jasa director-general.

And now he came out in defence of Najib with his "tall" story about Umno leaders' knowledge of the RM2.6 billion deposit. Paud even claimed the ex-Bank Negara governor (Zeti) was informed about the transfer. If this was indeed true, why did he take such a long time to reveal it?

Puad also claimed approval was obtained from Bank Negara pertaining to the RM2.6 billion deposit. We hope Zeti will clarify and verify Puad’s disclosure.

Anonymous 2415891461978791: If there was any truth to the Saudi royal family story, the whole matter could have been put to rest on day one.

Najib could have held a news conference with the donor, shown the bank transfer records, shown the written permission from Bank Negara to bring in this huge sum, and explained what it was for.

"Prince Sandy-Foot here gave me US$681 million to buy some elections and go shopping for diamonds, and that's not illegal in Malaysia according to Bank Negara and my AG (attorney-general), and here are the bank records, and here is a nice letter from the prince. Any questions?"

But that's not what happened. As the details rolled out of the alleged scam of 1MDB via Jho Low-Eric Tan's Tanore Finance being the source of the ‘681 American pies’, the sketchy story started to fall apart.

Dingy: As Umno president, Najib is not honest. He kept it a secret until WSJ leaked the matter in 2015. It appears that he meant to keep the money for himself, spending only about one-fifth of the amount on GE13.

Perhaps that was why he transferred RM2 billion to Falcon bank in Singapore. If the money was not meant for him to use, why transferred out and then closed his AmPrivate bank accounts.

How to explain the alleged Jho Low's text to Ambank officers that “681 American pies” were coming to the bank?

How are these Umno supreme council members to tell the people once it is proven in courts that the US$681million came from Aabar BVI, and was part of US$3.5 billion that 1MDB paid to the fake company?

Mushiro: Puad will be sadly mistaken if he thought the Malaysian students in Australia will believe him. If Puad claimed that the massive deposits were not for Najib, then why was the money banked into Najib's personal bank account?

Would the Bank Negara governor allow RM2.6 billion to be deposited into Najib's personal account? This would have broken all banking rules. Puad has to be more convincing than this.

Bluemountains: State-sponsored students have no other option but to sit down and listened to the story. Will they believe in the story?

I have my doubts, unless the storyteller can show the paper trail for the RM2.6 billion 'donation'.

Vijay47: Oh dear, this is getting to be painfully embarrassing. Not that members of Umno are apparently lying blatantly - that has always been a justified expectation - but that they are telling tales so crudely.

Come on, Umno, surely you can do a better job. After all these months, somebody remembered that - hold on, all is above board! That the whole series of transactions amounting to RM2.6 billion had actually received Zeti's kind approval.

Silly Najib, in his haste to sign all those many documents which he has no time to examine, the poor man forgot about Bank Negara giving the all clear. After being pilloried and running from pillar to post, how fortunate that he recalled things with greater clarity.

How logical Puad's explanation - funds to combat Islamic State and help the Palestinians; the funds cannot be transferred through regular channels, they need to be in Najib's personal account.

I just cannot wait for the next Jasa chapter, the one where genies and unicorns appear. Riza Aziz, there's a hit movie in here.

Anonymous_1408265047: " O, what a tangled web we weave when first we practise to deceive." - Sir Walter Scott.

The only problem with this story is that it is two years too late and it contradicts the AmBank story. It also turns up just after we have a new governor for Bank Negara who, it appears, is more compliant with his master’s wishes.

If there was to be a speck of truth in this tall tale, it would have turned up long ago.

Zeti, silence on RM2.6b is no longer an option

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