An article in the business magazine said the pilgrims fund issue could potentially do more damage than the string of probes over political funding that the Najib administration has had to endure recently.
While noting that Najib was still standing tall despite the investigations into the RM2.6 billion he received in his personal bank accounts as well as allegations of financial impropriety at 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB), TH was a different case altogether as it involved the fund’s almost nine million Muslim depositors, the prime minister’s biggest voter base and “cuts to the heart of religion” in a mostly Muslim nation like Malaysia.
“With an election due by 2018 he (Najib) needs the votes of the Malay majority”, the article said, pointing out that it was this group mainly who returned him and Umno to power in 2013 at a time when most Chinese and Indians voted for the Opposition instead.
“The coalition led by Umno, which has ruled since independence in 1957, won the last election with its slimmest margin yet,” said the report.
It also cited the controversy over the pilgrim fund’s purchase of land from 1MDB, as well as Bank Negara Malaysia’s warning to TH that its liabilities had exceeded its assets and its reserve levels were in the negative.
“While the deposits are government-guaranteed, that hasn’t stopped Malaysians from worrying that their savings are at risk or that dividends of 5.5 per cent to 8.25 per cent in recent years will evaporate,” the report said, adding that soon after the central bank’s letter was made public, depositors “flooded” TH’s Facebook page, enquiring about their dividend payments and expressing concern of the alleged mismanagement of their funds.
Bloomberg quoted PKR vice-president and TH’s vocal critic Rafizi Ramli as saying: “Because of the lack of trust in the government, more and more Malays are looking at Umno more critically than before. It’s too early to say that those Malays who are disillusioned will switch to the Opposition but we definitely have made a breakthrough.”
Bloomberg also spoke to Oi Ei Sun, an analyst at the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore, and Najib’s political secretary from 2009 to 2011, who said, “People in the rural heartlands (many of whom are contributors to TH) are the pockets of voters crucial in the next elections.
“If anything happens to Tabung Haji, a lot of people will feel insecure and angry.”