PKR has vowed to reveal a string of new details to show the abuse of public money in prime minister Najib Razak's campaign involving Israeli-linked image consultant firm APCO and scandal-ridden British production company FBC Media.
Its Secretary general Saifuddin Nasution said he expected new development on the scandal involving the Malaysia government and the two companies.
“We expect more developments on the matter ahead of the 2012 budget. We will continue to scrutinise this issue more closely and expose them, ,” he was quoted as saying by Keadilan Daily over the weekend.
Saifuddin was responding to news that some RM57 million had been paid by Najib's administration to FBC.
Saifuddin said the coming revelation would revolve around a contract between FBC Media and APCO Worldwide, in which the former paid US$70,000 to the latter in an earlier engagement before dealing with the Malaysian government.
“The government of Malaysia then paid APCO RM77 million. This is revealed by Anwar Ibrahim (Opposition Leader) in Parliament,” recalled Saifuddin, the Machang member of parliament.
Last month, British daily The Independent reported that entries in the Malaysian government's Supplementary Budget 2010 show that FBC Media (UK) was allocated RM28.35 million, or £6 million, for work on a "Global Strategic Communications Campaign" ordered by the Malaysian government in 2009.
Following the revelation, Britain's BBC suspended all programming produced by FBC, which since 2009 had produced at least four BBC documentaries praising the Malaysian government.
Besides BBC, news channels CNBC and CNN had also been supplied with the same programmes produced by FBC.
Between 2008 to 2009, Malaysia paid FBC a total of RM57.68 million, while the Sarawak state government under Taib Mahmud spent RM15 annually for the same purpose.
It was also revealed that Najib's outspoken wife Rosmah Mansor spent RM1.5 million to take up two full page advertisements in a New York daily to announce her visit to the US as the ‘First Lady of Malaysia’, a title which has been continously disputed by Malaysian legal experts.
Saifuddin said the revelations were a slap on Najib whose government claimed Anwar paid to appear in a CNN interview.
“This is an embarrassment to Malaysia and the government’s image. They once alleged that Anwar had paid CNN to be interviewed in the programme titled 'Connect the World', which CNN had strongly denied.
"Instead, it was revealed that it was the Malaysian government which paid FBC Media to lobby so that Najib could appear in CNBC, CNN and BBC. And this violates journalism ethics,” he added.
- Harakahdaily
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.