FORMER DAP VICE-CHAIRMAN REVEALED HE WAS OFFERED MONEY BY US-BASED GROUP TO ‘MONITOR’ 2008 GENERAL ELECTIONS

(Malaysian Digest) – Former politician Tunku Abdul Aziz Ibrahim claims he was once invited to lead the monitoring team during the previous election for the Opposition, with the funds being provided by a US-based organization.

According to Tunku Aziz, he was approached with the offer in a meeting arranged by senior PKR officials with two representatives of the National Endowment for Democracy’s National Democratic Institute from United States, with the individuals offering generous payoffs if he agreed.

“I was told to lead the team of observers for the 2008 General Election and was offered a great deal of money if I cooperate.

“However, I turned down the offer because I won’t work with any NGO that is financed by foreign funds,” he revealed, Berita Harian reports.

The former president of Transparency International Malaysia, and a former national vice-chairman of the DAP said, at the time he had just returned from overseas and did not hold any post in any local grouping but he chose to turn down the offer as there appears to be a hidden agenda.

“I will not sacrifice my soul and dignity to work with any such NGO from the United States, as we are well aware that they have intentions of exerting US influence in the region and effect regime change,” he stated at a press conference yesterday.

He explained that he is not interested to work with organizations from the United States that has hidden agendas to conquer the world and would rather accept funds from smaller countries like Australia, Finland and New Zealand.

Earlier on, the BERSIH organisation led by Maria Chin Abdullah and S Ambiga, admitted that they had accepted RM70,000 from Open Society Foundation (OSF) to fund the movement in order to influence the 2008 General Election.

OSF which is funded by George Soros is based in the United States and is alleged to be he was involved with clandestine activities to influence the political scene in Malaysia by funding various local organisations sympathetic to Opposition and anti-government causes.

The exposure of the extent of OSF involvement within the local political arena in Malaysia was triggered by DC Leaks which uploaded into the public domain online a document which appeared to be the minutes of a meeting with local NGOs.