BETWEEN taking political donations from Malaysian corporates and Saudi Arabia, former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak told the court last week that he preferred the latter, ostensibly in the belief that he would be less beholden to a foreign nation, even though the amounts accepted were huge by any standard.

“For the general election, I wanted to be financially independent. I should not and we should not be beholden to corporate sponsorship, although it is within the ambit of the law,” he said during re-examination by his lawyer, Harvinderjit Singh.

Najib purportedly received a total of US$800 million in early 2013 from the late King Abdullah ibn Abdul Aziz Al-Saud, a donation he maintains that was given to him “to ensure the continuity” of his Barisan Nasional coalition government, or one that was indirectly meant to fund the 13th general election.

Najib claimed that King Abdullah was impressed with his leadership, Malaysia’s moderate practice of Islam and the harmony between Muslims and non-Muslims in the country.

According to Najib, the Saudis are also particularly generous in supporting Muslim countries around the world.

Still, his claims of an US$800 million donation from King Abdullah have never been confirmed in black and white. In April 2016, Saudi foreign minister Adel Ahmed Al-Jubeir confirmed the donation, but towards the end of 2018, he backtracked on his earlier comments and clarified that the funds had nothing to do with the Saudi Arabian government.

The prosecution contends that the donation was sent via a series of transactions from Tanore Finance Corp into Najib’s AmBank account.

Following the conclusion of the general election on May 5, 2013, Najib had returned the unused portion of the donation of some US$620 million to the donor as a gesture of good faith, he said, “before it became an issue”.

Najib explained he was not comfortable with such a large sum of money lying in his account and knew that the issue of confidentiality would arise. Moreover, he did not want the donation to be made public to avoid “misconceptions”.

“The Saudis support other governments around the world and they continue to do so. Nothing was out of context,” he said.

While the Tanore account has since been linked to fugitive financier Low Taek Jho, better known as Jho Low, Najib said he believed that the money had indeed come from Saudi royalty, pointing to letters confirming the donation from the Saudis.

The letters are also a point of contention as prosecutor Datuk V Sithambaram had previously put to him that the copies of the letters that Najib had produced were forged. Najib disagreed with the assertion but no one else has stepped forward to confirm their authenticity.

Asked by the prosecution if the funds had been used to buy votes, Najib replied, “I don’t want the sense of owing gratitude to anyone. The donation could fulfil our party’s requirements. It doesn’t include vote-buying, but includes events that we hold and the billboards, for example.

“It was important and also a relief that I could call on this source of donation, as opposed to corporate figures, which I admit, was the practice before. I wasn’t doing anything different from what my predecessors had done.”

While he claimed that he would prefer to not resort to political funding by corporates, Yayasan Rakyat 1Malaysia (YR1M), a foundation involved in corporate social responsibility projects, had relied on corporate funds for so-called social programmes.

In July last year, former YR1M chief executive Ung Su Ling testified that the foundation received RM230 million from Genting Group, which was used to fund social programmes and projects.

The foundation also received RM210 million and RM3 million from 1Malaysia Development Bhd and Petroliam Nasional Bhd respectively.

Najib’s argument that he would be more independent by relying on foreign donations to fund his party’s campaigning aside, most democratic countries have banned the practice over concerns of foreign interference in elections.

The trial continues on Monday before Justice Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali.