Ask Muhyiddin why he defended Najib keeping party funds, Rafidah told

© FMT MEDIA SDN BHDPETALING JAYA: Barisan Nasional (BN) has urged former minister Rafidah Aziz to quiz PPBM president Muhyiddin Yassin over a purported audio recording of him defending party funds being placed under the Umno president.

Responding to Rafidah’s latest attack on Umno over some RM2 billion found in Prime Minister Najib Razak’s personal bank account in 2015, the coalition said the former Umno Wanita chief should ask Muhyiddin on remarks he made, supposedly during an Umno Supreme Council meeting on Sept 9, 2015.

“Please ask Tan Sri Muhyiddin what did he mean when he had said that he was aware of an internal conspiracy to topple PM Najib at that time and why he had said he had no problems about the special Umno president fund that Muhyiddin (said) was a long-standing Umno practice ‘dari dulu lagi’,” said Barisan Nasional Strategic Communications deputy director, Eric See-To.

“I am sure that Tan Sri Muhyiddin will confirm to Rafidah what she already knows – that it was always the practice that the Umno president holds the funds on behalf of the party,” he said.

In an audio recording uploaded on YouTube in March 2016, Muhyiddin is heard saying that he has no issue with Najib managing party funds.

“I never asked. I have been a deputy president since 2009. I have never questioned about (Umno’s) special fund, because I know that the special fund is managed by the president himself,” said Muhyiddin in the audio clip uploaded in March 2016, months before he was sacked from Umno.

Muhyiddin was removed as deputy prime minister in July 2015, and was sacked as the Umno deputy president in June 2016.

This followed his fallout with Najib over some RM2.6 billion (based on exchange rate in 2015) deposited in the Umno president’s personal bank account.

Najib said the money was a donation from Saudi Arabia to fund Umno’s election campaign in 2013, denying reports that it was linked to 1MDB.