KUALA LUMPUR: DAP elder statesman Lim Kit Siang has warned that before Wednesday’s Cabinet meeting and before the expiry of his 96-hour ultimatum to them, all Ministers and Deputy Ministers should declare whether they have received funding from Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak’s RM2.6 billion personal accounts for the 13th General Elections campaign in 2013, and if so, how much did they each receive.

“I want in particular to name the following eight Ministers and two deputy ministers to declare the funds they had received from Najib’s RM2.6 billion personal accounts,” said Lim who is also DAP Parliamentary Leader and Gelang Patah MP.

He named the ten as follows:

1. Defence Minister and Umno Vice -President Hishammuddin Hussein;
2. Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Azalina Othman;
3. Second Finance Minister Ahmad Husni Hanadzlah;
4. Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai;
5. Foreign Minister Anifah Aman;
6. Rural and Regional Development Minister Ismail Sabri;
7. Agriculture and Agro-based Industry Minister Ahmad Shabery Cheek;
8. Education Minister Mahdzir Khalid;
9. Deputy Agriculture Minister Tajuddin Abdul Rahman; and
10. Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Razali Ibrahim.

Lim was expressing appreciation that the Barisan Nasional Backbenchers’ Club (BNBBC) Chairman Shahrir Samad, a former Federal Minister, was the first to confirm the posting on the Sarawak Report website on Saturday which named him as one of those who had received funds from Najib’s RM2.6 billion personal accounts.

In the past two days, he reminded, that he had asked the two individuals whom Sarawak Report had revealed as having received RM1 million and RM2 million respectively to publicly confirm or deny, saying that they cannot keep silent as they are bound to be questioned on the matter when Parliament reconvenes on October 19, as both of them are MPs.

Now that Shahrir has admitted receiving RM1 million from Najib’s RM2.6 billion personal accounts for the 13th General Election campaign, said Lim, it was now the turn of the Deputy Minister for International Trade and Industry, Ahmad Maslan, to confirm whether he received RM2 million from Najib’s RM2.6 billion personal accounts for the 13th General Election.

Shahrir’s confirmation of the Sarawak Report posting was an acknowledgement of the credibility and reliability of the reports in the Sarawak Report website although it has been accused of being recklessly irresponsible in making “baseless allegations” against Umno/Barisan Nasional (BN) leaders, said Lim. “There has not been a single case of any Sarawak Report posting shown to be false or untrue.”

Sarawak Report said that Najib had distributed funds from his private accounts to a few Umno leaders, who are now proving to be some of the Prime Minister’s strongest defenders in the present crisis, reiterated Lim. “Let Najib say a simple ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ to the latest Sarawak Report revelations.”

The recent Cabinet reshuffle three weeks ago on July 28 was not to have a more dedicated and professional Cabinet to better serve the people and country, charged Lim. “It was to create a 1MDB Cabinet to better protect Najib from having to be accountable and transparent on the twin controversies i.e. the RM42 billion 1MDB scandal and the RM2.6 billion in Najib’s personal accounts.”

In fact, continued Lim, Najib has now the most number of Ministers in the Prime Minister’s Department. “There are now 11 Ministers with the latest addition of Azalina Othman.”

The number of Ministers in Najib’s Prime Minister’s Department was even bigger than the first Cabinet of the country when it achieved Merdeka in 1957. “The Cabinet then was made up of only 10 Ministers.”

The annual budget for the Prime Minister’s Department alone is a walloping RM19 billion, which is about 20 times more than the full Federal Government budget when the country achieved Merdeka 58 years ago. “The Federal Budget then was around RM800 million.”