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In a space of just four months, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) has raided houses linked to two politicians and recovered millions.

The first case was in Selangor in October last year, when MACC seized S$1.5 million from these places following the arrest of two persons, including a former executive of Mentri Besar Selangor Inc (MBI).

The money is reported to be graft paid to a prominent politician in relation to sand mining contracts in the state and meant for political purposes.

Last week, MACC displayed RM177 million in cash and valuables seized from the houses during its investigations into four ex-aides of former prime minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri. The investigations were in relation to the spending of RM700 million on promotional activities related to the Keluarga Malaysia campaign that Ismail ran during his tenure as prime minister.

Interestingly, in both instances, the money seized was largely in foreign currency.

In the Selangor case, it was mostly in Singapore dollars. As for cash seized last week, only 14 million was in ringgit. The rest was in foreign denominations. There were also gold bars worth RM16 million.

Why was the cash seized denominated mostly in foreign currency? Was it because the bulk of the money changed hands overseas? And how did so much cash in foreign currency find its way into the country?

What’s astounding is the vast amount of cash still swirling around politicians after the 2018 general election, especially when the possibility of a shift in political alignment arises.

Hence, when the balance of power changes in Putrajaya, politicians who are not friendly with the government of the day but are holding vast amounts of cash that they cannot account for are easy targets.

They can easily be implicated in offences related to money laundering and abuse of power.

In the probe into the RM177 million case, Umno has distanced itself from the cash uncovered. This is very unlike the case involving the now-jailed Datuk Seri Najib Razak where more than RM114 million was found in a condominium in May 2018 after BN lost power.

Apart from cash, police seized jewellery and valuables such as hand bags from Najib’s house, estimated to be worth RM800 million.

Umno and Najib had claimed that the money belonged to the party and not to the latter personally. According to reports, the money was returned in August 2021, which coincidentally was about the time Ismail took over as prime minister from Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.

In both the Selangor MBI and Keluarga Malaysia cases, so far there is no single political party that has claimed the money.

Irrespective of that, what would be more interesting to know is where the money came from and whether the source of income can be justified. In most such situations, the money is said to come from business individuals and corporations.

In the past, Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar Albukhary had been named as giving donations in cases involving Umno president Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and Muhyiddin.

Syed Mokhtar, through his companies, had donated to Zahid Hamidi’s foundation and Bersatu, when Muhyiddin was its president.

In Zahid’s case, he was also charged with receiving bribes from three companies amounting to RM42 million for allegedly helping them obtain a MyEG Services Bhd (KL:MYEG) project.

In the case of Umno treasurer Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor, property developer Tan Sri Chai Kin Kong of Aset Kayamas Sdn Bhd was implicated in giving him political donations to the tune of RM2 million.

The outcome of the cases against the politicians has been different in each situation.

Ahmad Zahid was given a discharge not amounting to an acquittal (DNAA) on charges related to criminal breach of trust and money laundering that allegedly was transacted via his foundation, Yayasan Akalbudi, in September 2023.

In 2021, when the government was under the rule of Pakatan Harapan 1.0, Tengku Adnan’s corruption case was dismissed.

As for Muhyiddin, in September last year, the prosecution was successful in its appeal at the Court of Appeal to restore charges against him involving RM232.5 million.

The charges were related to abuse of power when he was the prime minister between March 2000 and August 2021. Because of the differing outcomes, the current administration of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has come in for a lot of flak for allegedly practising selective prosecution.

This is especially after Zahid’s DNAA, which continues to haunt the Anwar administration.

However, Anwar has defended himself against the allegations of selective prosecution, saying that he does not interfere with the judiciary and that the key people in charge when Zahid was given the DNAA were appointed by his predecessors.

The present Chief Justice Tun Tengku Maimum Tuan Mat was appointed in 2019 when Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad was the prime minister. In 2023, when Zahid was given a DNAA, Tan Sri Idrus Harun was the attorney-general and Tan Sri Azam Baki the chief commissioner of MACC.

Both were appointed in 2020 after Muhyiddin became the prime minister.

It is still early days to understand how RM177 million in cash came to be in the possession of Ismail’s aides.

But what is clear is the need for legitimacy and transparency in political funding. The Political Funding Act, which has been much talked about, has yet to be tabled in parliament.

Currently, matters related to political funding, such as donations, are governed largely by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission Act and Anti-Money Laundering Act. Both come under the purview of MACC, which is the most powerful and feared government agency these days.

According to a political party treasurer, a general election would involve at least RM800 million being spent. This is on the basis that each division needs up to RM5 million before the election machinery starts to roll. There are 222 parliamentary seats and the total amount comes to more than RM1 billion.

This is a lot of money to be transacted through opaque dealings in the name of donations. Which is why transparency in political funding is a necessity and no longer an option.

M Shanmugam (m.shanmugam@bizedge.com) is a contributing editor at The Edge

The views expressed here are the views of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of the Daily Express. If you have something to share, write to us at: Forum@dailyexpress.com.my