PKR not afraid of Zahid's threat to sue: Don't hide behind Zahid - Rafizi tells Najib

UPDATED PKR will not bow to Defense Minister Zahid Hamidi's legal threat to sue but will instead embark on a nationwide tour of military camps to inform servicemen that their pension money was at threat from a questionable deal announced recently by Boustead Holdings Bhd.

"Keep telling the army servicemen that Boustead has nothing to do with the LTAT because that will surely ensure the Pakatan Rakyat of victory in GE13," PKR strategy director Rafizi Ramli told a press conference on Wednesday.

He was referring to the growing debacle over a RM160mil deal announced by Boustead, which is 61%-owned by the Armed Forces Pension Fund (LTAT), in which it agreed to pay RM30mil to a firm controlled by controversial businessman Deepak Jaikishan and RM130mil to Raja Ropiaah, the Selangor Umno Women's chief.

The deal has been hit by scandal following revelations by Deepak, a former close friend of Prime Minister Najib Razak's wife Rosmah Mansor, that he had paid "millions" to Najib's family to secure the green light for a land privatization project from the Defense Ministry.

Najib lacking in moral courage?

PKR has accused Najib of instructing Zahid to push through the Boustead deal so as to "silence" Deepak's string of scorching corruption expose's, and Rafizi - a UK-trained auditor - has since dug out a long list of "improper" and questionable clauses in the privatization agreement that he said was "clearly written" to benefit Ropiaah's firm rather than to "safeguard the public and the Defense ministry's interest".

"The prolonged silence from Najib is really not helpful. To let Zahid answer for him - if he is a leader of any moral courage - it is unbecoming that a subordinate has to answer on his behalf," slammed Rafizi.

Be neutral, speak up for the servicemen - Boustead directors told

He also called on the directors of Boustead to remember that their job was to protect the stakeholders of the firm - the largest of which was the LTAT. Boustead, Rafizi reminded, had already profited tremendously from the innumerable Defense Ministry projects it received as a result of the LTAT's stake, and thus, should not bite the hand that feeds it.

"This is a question of governance. The directors are appointed by the Defense Ministry. They will say they are independent but have they put the interest of the stakeholders (the servicemen) first and those of the politicians last."

Nationwide tour

PKR and PAHLAWAN - a retired servicemen group - will kick off their tour on Thursday night with a ceramah (olitical rally) for the Setiawangsa army camp, followed by the naval base in Lumut, then to the Sungei Besi camp in Jalan Tun Razak as well as to another in Port Dickson. The activists also plan to go to Kuantan and Butterworth.

"Word will spread. Every month, a certain amount is deducted from their salary to go into LTAT. They won't take kindly to any abuse of their funds," said Rafizi.

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