JULY 9 — The latest twist in the 1MDB saga is depressing for several reasons. Chief of course is the fact that Najib Razak still has not denied the flow of US$680 million (RM2.6 billion) into accounts in his name.

Instead - if documents on the internet purporting to be his lawyers’ letter to the Wall Street Journal are to be believed - he appears to have asked the WSJ, ever so politely, if what they were really trying to say, with malicious intent is that he “misappropriated” the money. Truly the honorable gentleman’s delicacy in this matter is to be applauded. What grace to check first, if the publication actually meant to libel him, before suing it for libel.

The sum in question — US$680 million — is so large I had to Google it to get my head around it.

Turns out it was also the same amount of money Felda Global Ventures was planning to pay for a 37 per cent stake in Eagle Plantations - at 72 per cent more than the current market price according to one estimate. But that’s a digression.

It is also just under twice the amount the UNHCR wants to spend on keeping refugees in Syria alive in all of 2015 (US$363 million).

Or 3.8 times the amount of net revenue the government expects to collect from GST after giving back most of it in the form of BR1M and other financial assistance, ie RM690 million (see the 2015 budget).

And just over three times the amount the government intends to spend on maintaining and developing schools this year (also in the budget).

There. Now I can imagine what US$680 million is worth. I don’t know about you but it seems like quite a staggering lot to me.

So it makes me wonder:

1) Why this special task force comprising the Attorney-General’s chambers, Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission, and police, seems more eager to find out who leaked the information about the accounts, than where the money came from and where it went;

2) Whether Bank Negara was aware of such huge sums of money being transferred into these accounts. And, if aware, whether they did anything about it;

3) Why Umno’s other leaders seem quite so eager to stand by their chief in the face of such allegations, and so unable to accept that any investigation of a person by institutions that report to said person, is not going to appear independent, even if it is;

4) Where the money went;

5) And, most of all, why Najib can’t afford lawyers who speak English fluently. Jatuh muka or not that letter?

No one is answering any of these questions. So I can only conclude: Najib may be the focus of the story at the moment, but the reaction of Umno’s leaders and our institutions, which are supposed to protect us, are worth watching much more because they reveal so much about the state of affairs in this country. 

That, for example, no one in Umno appears to be surprised enough at the enormity of the sum or the fact that it has allegedly gone into personal accounts to say anything other than they support Najib.

That state institutions are so eager to support the ruling party they will appear to expend more urgency in finding out who leaked the information than whether there is any truth to the allegations and, if so, what happened to the sums of money. 

That none of us are very surprised by the above two reactions.

The message I’m taking home this holy month of Ramadan — from 1Malaysia Development Berhad, Mara and Felda - is this: it is more tolerable to our ruling party and state institutions to use government agencies — some set up with the express purpose of helping the poorest — to gamble with state funds, arrange kickbacks for a privileged few, and leave ordinary people to bear the risk of such schemes going sour, than it is to reveal anything to the public about such schemes.

I have no words left to express the disgust and anger I feel over this.

* This is the personal opinion of the organisation and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail Online.