'Soros is irrelevant to me', proclaims KJ

Financial speculator George Soros is “irrelevant”, said Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin Abu Bakar.

“The only thing to say about that is that there are some margins and fringes within my political party that obviously sees a certain line of attack.

“I don’t see that line of attack, so no. Soros (left) is irrelevant to me,” he said at a public forum on 'Vision for Economic Development for Malaysia' in Kuala Lumpur last night.

Khairy was responding to a question from a member of the audience, who asked him, “What are the chances of Soros becoming the prime minister? I mean between you, (current prime minister) Najib Abdul Razak, and (Sungai Siput MP) Dr Jeyakumar Devaraj, he seems to be the best choice”.

The crowd of about 200 in the packed hall burst into laughter as soon as the question was finished.

Jeyakumar was one of the speakers at yesterday's forum, alongside Khairy and Petaling Jaya Utara MP Tony Pua.

Then prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohammad had accused Soros of triggering the 1997 - 1998 financial crisis, but of late he was also alleged to have been trying to overthrow the government by funding NGOs such as human rights group Suaram.

'Specify the type of foreign funding'

When approached after the forum and asked about his stance on a possible new law to curb foreign funds meant to destabilise the nation, Khairy (right) said he can’t comment on the issue until the specifics of the law becomes clear.

However, he cautioned that the type of foreign funding needs to be specified clearly.

“If the foreign funding has obviously ulterior political purposes, then that’s something for us to be concerned about.

“But if the foreign funding is, for example, from the UN, charitable foundations, for social work, for health, and stuff like that... I think we need to be careful when we talk about foreign funding and identify what kind of foreign funding we are talking about here,” he told Malaysiakini.

When asked about Suaram’s specific case, he said the matter is up to the Companies Commission of Malaysia (CCM), which is still investigating it.

De facto law minister Nazri Abdul Aziz (left) had reportedly said that such law should begiven consideration, after it was mooted by several MPs.

"The influx of foreign funds for such purposes will cause us to become agents of foreign powers and we will be forced to create lies to destabilise the country. That is very bad.

"What if Israel is one of that foreign powers when all this while we are seen as a country with a strong anti-Israel stance? We have to make sure things like this will not happen in our country,” Bernamaquoted him saying.