Is it true deputy minister has been in NZ for 3 months, asks Najib

 

Sarawak Report claims that Segamat MP Edmund Santhara has not been seen on the ground, with office staff standing in for him instead at functions with the people.

PETALING JAYA: Former prime minister Najib Razak has asked whether it is true that deputy federal territories minister Edmund Santhara has been in New Zealand for nearly three months now.

This follows a claim by Sarawak Report that the Segamat MP had flown to New Zealand on Dec 23 and had yet to return. It also claimed that his family were permanent residents there, while his children studied in Auckland.

In a Facebook post, Najib said the matter needed to be explained and addressed by the government or it risked inviting a major backlash from the people.

“At a time when regular folk can’t cross districts or states, an elected representative earning wages as an MP and deputy minister can go back and forth crossing international borders to be in a foreign country with his family for nearly three months?”

Attempts by FMT to contact Santhara and federal territories minister Annuar Musa for confirmation on the matter were unsuccessful.

Citing Santhara’s Facebook posts, Sarawak Report had said he had not been seen on the ground, with office staff standing in for him instead at functions with the people.

Meanwhile, a Malaysiakini report said Santhara was in New Zealand to attend to family matters and had actually returned to Malaysia a day before Federal Territories Day on Feb 1, but had left soon after that. - FMT