Muhyiddin lets his audience decide Najib’s credibility

Delegates to the Umno Pagoh meeting indicate they don't believe the PM's story about receiving a RM2.6b donation.

PAGOH: Umno Deputy President Muhyiddin Yassin left it to his audience to decide whether he should believe what Prime Minister Najib Razak told him about the so-called donation of RM2.6 billion from someone in the Middle East.

After giving some details of his conversation with Najib on the issue, he asked delegates to the Pagoh Umno Youth, Wanita and Puteri annual meeting: “Do I believe it?”

The crowd responded with a loud “No.”

And then Muhyiddin said: “When someone tells you something, just believe it,” adding: “I’m just afraid that the Umno disciplinary council will call me up.”

He posed another question: “Is this wrong?” Again, the crowd chorused with a loud “No.”

Before the repartee, Muhyiddin told the meeting he learnt of the RM2.6 billion deposit only after reading about it in the Wall Street Journal.

He said he asked Najib where the money came from and the reply was that it came from the Middle East. But he said Najib would not disclose the identity of the donors.

“So I asked him, ‘Why did the RM2.6 billion go into your account?’ Najib merely answered that the donors told him to deposit it into his account.”

On Monday, the MACC said in a press statement that the funds had come from donors and not from 1MDB as claimed.

However, it did not disclose the identity of the donors. Neither did it explain the purpose of the donation.

Yesterday, it said it had identified and interviewed the donors but could not reveal their identities. It also said Najib would be called in to explain the donation.