Rosmah's aide: Will Mukhriz declare boats to Rafizi?

Rizal Mansor, the aide of the prime minister's wife, has challenged Bersatu vice-president Mukhriz Mahathir to declare his assets.

This follows the asset declaration exercise by some 30 prospective Pakatan Harapan candidates on Sunday, organised by Invoke Malaysia, a voter sentiment research and advocacy group headed by PKR vice-president Rafizi Ramli.

"We are eager to know how many boats and ships will be declared by Mukhriz. How many were given to his children?

"Perhaps Mukhriz is not ready to share that with us. Maybe he can declare his assets to Rafizi behind closed doors," said Rizal in a statement.

The boats were a reference to recent news reports which claimed that Meera Alyanna Mukhriz, the granddaughter of Harapan chairperson Dr Mahathir Mohamad, owned her own yacht and lived a life of luxury.

Invoke Malaysia had offered campaign funds for prospective Harapan election candidate in exchange for asset declarations, and a written pledge to not switch parties after being elected.

Rizal said he was disappointed that none of the Harapan bigwigs - DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng, Mukhriz, PKR vice-president Nurul Izzah Anwar, DAP publicity chief Tony Pua, PKR deputy president Mohamad Azmin Ali and Bersatu president Muhyiddin Yassin - have joined the asset declaration exercise.

"All this while, these are the people who are always challenging others to declare their assets and accusing others of graft.

"Of the 222 parliamentary seats and 505 state seats which will be contested, only 30 people are willing to declare their assets," said Rizal.

He added that opposition parties have always challenged others to declare assets, but would waver and make excuses when asked to do the same.

By failing to participate in the exercise, said Rizal, the public will question if top Harapan leaders wanted to hide their riches.

Based on the asset declaration exercise, he pointed out that PKR secretary-general Saifuddin Nasution had RM1.6 million in declared assets, despite only being a one-term MP.

"He is only an ordinary MP, who always talk about the poor and accusing this country's leaders of corruption.

"Imagine if Lim - who is someone with the authority to approve a feasibility study for tunnels, development of hills for luxury projects - declares his assets?

"How many homes with swimming pools or without swimming pools will he declare?" he said.- Mkini