Najib next to be exposed for abusing public funds: PKR to reveal details on Friday

PKR leaders will expose another scandal on Friday, this time directly involving Prime Minister Najib Razak for allegedly having corruptly used public money for personal purposes.

Rafizi Ramli, the PKR strategy director, and Zuraida Kamaruddin, the PKR Women's chief, are due to hold a press conference on March 9 at 3.30pm at their party headquarters in Tropicana, Petaling Jaya.

"It has got to do with Najib and the abuse of public funds. The shenanigans by the Umno-BN has gone out of control and we believe that it is high time the people of Malaysia send a strong message that corruption will not be tolerated - especially if it is committed by the Prime Minister himself," Rafizi told Malaysia Chronicle.

The PKR leader declined to give any further details.

The Kazakh connection

But the 59-year-old Najib has just come under fire for sanctioning the controversial purchase of a luxury apartment in Kazakhstan by the National Feedlot Centre, which is a cattle breeding project run by the family of Women's minister Shahrizat Jalil.

The acquisition of the apartment has been slammed and Najib urged to come clean, given that NFC has no business undertaking cattle rearing outside of Malaysia and for making such an expensive non-core purchase. The RM1.7million apartment is used as an office and located in the southern city of Almaty. It was bought in September last year, just a few months after NFC signed on to help the Kazakh government breed cattle.

DAP MP Tony Pua has pointed out that the purpose of the RM250 million government loan granted to develop NFC was clearly stated in the loan agreement, which is to establish and operate “a National Feedlot Centre to be consistent with the Government of Malaysia’s policy of developing, promoting and nurturing the production of beef and beef products…”

"Based on the loan agreement, NFCorp is certainly not meant to be raising cattle in, or acquiring meat from Kazakhstan, much less buying an 'apartment' there," Tony said in a statement out on Thursday.

Daughter's engagement

This is not the first time that Najib has angered Malaysians with his Kazakh connections. During an official visit there in June with wife Rosmah Mansor, the couple had allegedly taken with them scores of personal guests to attend their daughter's engagement party to the nephew of a top Kazakh leader.

The guests are believed to have traveled first class as part of the official entourage and the expense was queried in Parliament. The foreign ministry was forced to admit that the traveling bill came up to a whopping RM1.1 million.

However, despite repeated queries, the Najib administration refused to answer PAS lawmaker Dzulkefly Ahmad's request as to  “how much of it was for personal matters and whether anyone in the entourage was not necessary for the WIEF.”

Meanwhile, Rafizi and Zuraida also plan to announce the latest development in their defense against the RM100million lawsuit launched by Shahrizat against them over the NFC disclosures.

"We will keep the public up to date as the latest development in the lawsuit pressed by Shahrizat against us," said Rafizi.

Malaysia Chronicle