Promote BN, stay away from Soros attacks, says Umno deputy minister

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 12 — The ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition should show its good qualities instead of attacking Pakatan Rakyat (PR), Deputy Higher Education Minister Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah said yesterday.

He was commenting on news reports that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak had met with American currency speculator George Soros in New York in 2010.

Saifuddin (picture)said the meeting showed that it was better to promote BN instead of condemning PR, news portal Malaysiakini reported him as saying today.

“That’s why I say so. I know elections are around the corner and we should campaign to win the support of people.

“However, I’d prefer to talk about the values that BN can bring, rather than condemn others,” the Umno supreme council member was quoted as saying.

“If it is true that Najib had met Soros, then we shall wait (and see) what really transpired in that meeting,” he said.

Last month, former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad had claimed that Soros wanted to “control” Malaysian politics and “choose his own man to be prime minister”.

Dr Mahathir had also last week said that “a vote for the opposition is a vote for Soros.”

Saifuddin reportedly said: “If we show the downside of other people’s product, we can’t control its quality whereas we can control (the quality of) our products.

“What if Soros, whom we are condemning (now), comes up with a statement that suits us tomorrow or the day after?

“That’s why I’m not too interested in attacking Soros or Suaram,” he said.

Suaram has been at the forefront of exposing alleged corruption in the multibillion ringgit Scorpene submarine deal this past year.

Following reports in the mainstream media that Suaram had received funds from organisations linked to Soros, the human rights watchdog has been the target of investigations by the federal government.

Six government agencies had started their probe on Suaram, with the Companies Commission of Malaysia (CCM) saying that it plans to bring charges against the group for “misleading accounts”.

Last month, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz had said that the receipt of foreign funding was not an issue.