Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad speaks during a press conference after chairing the Pakatan Harapan presidential council meeting in Kuala Lumpur October 5, 2018. — Picture by Miera Zulyana

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 5 — The government declined an unnamed firm’s RM100 million contribution to Tabung Harapan Malaysia on the belief it had ulterior motives, said Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

The fund was started to consolidate attempts by Malaysians to donate money towards paying down the national debt after the new government asserted that this was over RM1 trillion.

“Recently when a company donated RM100 million to TH; though it was only a donation, we did not accept it.

“The company offering it had other intentions which is why we could not accept it,” he said, after chairing a Pakatan Harapan presidential council meeting here today.

The Pakatan Harapan chairman was addressing concerns over the depleting funds of the ruling party, which must come up with a formula to finance the party soon.

Although donations are one of the alternatives, Dr Mahathir said such a practice may open the party up to corruption.

“When we were the Opposition, we had fundraising dinners to collect money.

“But at that time, we were not yet in power and were not able to return the favour with certain conditions.

“We discussed it the whole morning but couldn’t find a solution,” he said on the timeline for the formula to be introduced.

Dr Mahathir announced the creation of the fund on May 30 to enable Malaysians to make donations to reduce the country’s debt levels. The fund stood at RM193.98 million as of September 28.