Photo released last week shows Sungai Petani deputy Umno chief distributing cash to women aboard bus en route to general assembly.
KUALA LUMPUR: Senator Shahnim Mohamad Yusoff, who is also Sungai Petani deputy Umno chief, has admitted that she did hand out cash to Wanita Umno members aboard a bus in the lead up to the party’s general assembly last week.
In a report in MalayMailOnline today, she confirmed on her Facebook page and wrote: “I’m Shahanim Binti Mohamad Yusoff and I admit to giving money to Umno members and constituents from the villages who come to KL once a year during the general assembly.”
The photo, first released by Sarawak Report, the UK-based whistleblower website whose founder-editor is Clare Rewcastle Brown, identified Shahanim as handing out RM50 notes to Wanita Umno members and constituents aboard a bus en route to the Umno General Assembly last week.
Since the photo’s release, public backlash against the senator ensued and she addressed criticisms via social media by stating: “Let me be insulted for giving, rather than ignoring my villagers who had come to KL. Let the whole world make this viral, but I am still me. I will continue to share my fortune with the less fortunate.”
“One has to have a big heart to be a leader. I am me and I admit that I had given. Thanks to Allah, we could share this fortune, not just among the aunties but also odd job workers and poor students.”
The allegations of cash distribution in exchange for support are nothing new, but resurface at a time when questions related to money politics and fiduciary responsibility within Umno leadership have taken centrestage and created a rift within Malaysia’s largest Malay-based party.
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