NAJIB TRIAL | Former premier Najib Abdul Razak's administration paid research firm Centre of Strategic Engagement (Cense) RM150,000 a month for daily analysis of Chinese media content.
Cense director and co-founder Rita Sim told the Kuala Lumpur High Court today that her firm was commissioned by the late minister Jamaluddin Jarjis, while the payment came from Najib's AmBank account.
Deputy public prosecutor Muhammad Saifuddin Hashim Musaimi: What is the activity of Cense?
Sim: It performs surveys, public policy research and Chinese media monitoring services.
Saifuddin: Your company did surveys and work for the Prime Minister's Office?
Sim: Yes. We did Chinese media monitoring services. We will look at six Chinese dailies and social media sites. We pick up points and issues that affect the Chinese community, summarise them and send them to the PMO media office.
Saifuddin then enquired if Jamaluddin was holding any positions in the PMO at the material time, which the witness did not confirm.
She said meetings with Jamaluddin were held at the PMO. According to her testimony, Cense had rendered services to the PMO sometime between 2014 and 2015.
Sim is the 14th prosecution witness in Najib's money laundering and criminal breach of trust trial involving funds meant for SRC International Sdn Bhd.
During cross-examination, lead defence counsel Muhammad Shafee Abdullah tried to establish the purpose for political parties to engage Cense.
Shafee: Rita, do you agree with me that it is important for any political parties, like BN, to understand Chinese issues if they want to address Chinese dissatisfaction with the government?
Sim: The Chinese community should be the concern of all political parties, not just BN. The government of the day must derive policies (to address the needs) of the Chinese community as the community is part of Malaysia.
Shafee: What are the issues?
Sim: The Chinese community have a lot of issues with education and the Unified Examination Certificate. (Then there is) the middle-income trap or urban poor involving the Chinese community. Everyone thinks the Chinese are rich, but that is not true. Many earn below RM5,000. Then there is housing and so on.
At one point, Shafee asked if the federal government increased the number of Chinese vernacular schools during the material time, to which Sim replied in the negative.
"There was never an increase in vernacular schools, just (financial) allocations," she replied.
During cross-examination, it was also established that Sim was once an executive director at Sin Chew Media Corporation Berhad (SCMCB) in charge of daily operations.
She was also involved in the merger exercise involving SCMCB, Hong Kong Ming Pao Enterprise Corporation and Nanyang Press Holdings to form Media Chinese International Limited (MCIL), the biggest Chinese newspaper group outside of China, Taiwan and Hong Kong.
- Mkini
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