RM7.36 billion

To my simple mind, 7,360,000,000 is an incomprehensible figure. It's just a number to me. I cannot fathom how big it is is. It's incomparable.

Likewise, to my simple mind, RM7,360,000,000 is also an incomprehensible amount. How many 10-kilogram bags of rice can this buy? How many mouths can this feed? I don't know.

The biggest amount I have ever signed for a cheque was RM1 million. The money did not belong to me. I was still with Ban Hin Lee Bank in the early 1980s and was just one of a few co-signatories authorised to move money around to cover our inter-bank positions. Even when signing away millions, I was at wit's end trying to think what RM1 million could have meant to me. I failed in this simple task.

So it seems that I'm failing again with this figure of RM7,360,000,000 (the Americans call it 7.36 billion while the British calls it 7.36 thousand million). How much is this in terms of the house I live in, in terms of the car I drive around, in terms of the Penang Bridge toll that I pay daily, in terms of the amount I spend on food daily?

I don't know but I know for sure that this is an awfully big number. Big enough to make me wonder how RM7.36 billion could have been spent away in three years.

Yet this is what happened. RM7.36 billion (or RM7.36 thousand million) was the total amount given away as Wang Ehsan to the Terengganu state government and someone, somebody, some where made jolly with it within three years. Yes, they did spend his money. But who did? On what? And who benefited? Ahh...these are the questions!