PRIME Minister Najib Razak is “squeezing” money from individuals and companies to boost the government’s coffers ahead of the 14th general election, Dr Mahathir Mohamad alleged in his latest blog post.

At the same time, Putrajaya is also hampering the opposition’s fund-raising by telling businessmen not to make donations, the former prime minister said.

“Najib fears financial support for the opposition. To stop this, Najib resorts to threats and harassments against potential donors to the opposition.

“This takes the form of squeezing individuals and companies for extra income and corporate taxes. Income tax people would reclassify allowances and make them taxable. Tax would be demanded on these newly taxable items and backdated by 10 or 20 years. Suddenly, taxpayers find that they have to pay millions in back taxes,” the Pakatan Harapan chairman said.

These taxpayers were also warned not to donate to opposition parties nor be seen near them, he said.

“With that, not only will the opposition be deprived of funds but the government would collect more taxes. At a time when businesses are not doing well, the government records more taxes being collected.”

Dr Mahathir, who also heads Bersatu, said businessmen were pressured in other ways, including with accusations of money laundering.

He said these were signs that Putrajaya was short of funds as it needed to service huge loans taken by state investment firm 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), while maintaining the federal government’s operations and expenditure.

The government would also not be able to repay the RM55 billion loan it took from China for the East Coast Rail Link, he said.

At the same time, the government also needed more money to counter voter sentiment against Najib and his administration, Dr Mahathir added.

“Najib believes if the amount given is big enough, voters would vote him,” Dr Mahathir said, listing several examples of such spending allegedly aimed at influencing the electorate.

These included incentives to Felda settlers, a new pension scheme for armed forces veterans, allowances for the chairmen and secretaries of Village Development Committees (JKKK), and more cash handouts, including to fishermen and through BR1M (1Malaysia People’s Aid Scheme).

“Basically, these are bribes, blatant bribes which are against the law,” he said, questioning where the money would come from.

The government could borrow funds but would struggle to repay and accused Najib of “dragging the country to bankruptcy”.

Dr Mahathir also warned that Najib could prevent the opposition from offering an alternative to BN in the election just by refusing or delaying PH’s registration with the Registrar of Societies, or it could also de-register Bersatu. – December 15, 2017.