(August 4): The people should be happy that the RM2.6 billion that was in Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak's personal accounts were not from 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), Communications and Multimedia Minister Datuk Seri Salleh Said Keruak said today.

In a new blog posting, Salleh, who has just joined the Cabinet a week ago, said that Najib's critics could never be satisfied despite the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission's (MACC) declaration that the money was from political donations.

"So what is the issue now? Should they not be happy that the money was not stolen from 1MDB as alleged? That is what they demanded to know and that was what MACC confirmed," Salleh said.

"If Najib tells them that the donation did not come with strings attached would they believe him?"

He added that whatever Najib said would have "never" satisfied his critics and that was why the prime minister allowed MACC to investigate the matter.

The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) previously published an article quoting an "unnamed investigator", saying that almost US$700mil (RM2.6 billion) of 1MDB funds flowed into the Najib's personal accounts before the 13th general election.

1MDB refuted the claim, while Najib denied taking any funds for personal gain.

Despite threatening to sue WSJ, Najib never explicitly denied the money being in his accounts.

Some of his Cabinet members had defended the holding of the alleged political donations in a personal account, saying Najib had the power to do as an Umno trustee. – The Malaysian Insider