Malay groups clam up on Najib-Soros meeting

Abdul Rahim Sabri 5:47PM Oct 11, 2012

Several leaders of pro-government Malay pressure groups have refused to comment on the report that Prime Minister Najib Razak had met with billionaire George Soros in 2010.

“I don’t want to comment because I have not read the blog. But in general, all the facts that come from the blogs say that Soros is not friendly to us, but friendly with the opposition,” said Malay Consultative Council (MPM) member Shahbudin Embun.

“That’s all I want to comment. You can go ahead and sleep with Soros,” he said sarcastically when met by Malaysiakini at a press conference today.

Other groups attending the press conference reacted similarly, including the Persatuan Pengguna Islam Malaysia (PPIM), Perkasa as well as the Young Journalists Club Malaysia (KWMM).

When asked they chorused that they have not read the said report.

Last week Subang parliamentarian R Sivarasa during his debate with Perkasa information chief Ruslan Kassim revealed that the PM met with Soros at a the luxury Plaza Hotel in Manhattan on Sept 27, 2010.

Meanwhile during the press conference over the Suaram issue, Shahbudin said, “We as an NGO will defend this country, Najib, and the democratic institution where the king is the head according to our constitution.

“We don’t want interference from any party,” he said.

French judiciary 'completely rejected' Suaram's application 

At the press conference the groups claimed that human rights NGO Suaram had lied over the Scorpene submarine scandal.

They claimed that the French judiciary had “completely rejected” its application as a plaintiff (partie civile, based on a documented titled ‘Ordonnance Constatant L'Irrecevabilite de la Constitution De La Partie Civile’ signed by two French judges on March 13.

“This means the case filed by Suaram had been dismissed by the French courts since March 2012...

“However the opposition want the cheat the people by saying that the complaint had been accepted and its status as a plaintiff is acknowledged by the French courts,” said KWMM president Dzulkarnain Taib.

The former editor of PKR’s mouthpiece Suara Keadilan decried this as the “biggest lie in the nation’s political history” in a bid to discredit Malaysia, its government, and Najib.

He added that on March 16 - three days after the application was rejected - Suaram lawyer William Bourdon had applied to be a “joint plaintiff” on the grounds that Suaram had been working with the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH).

When asked about the fresh application, Dzulkarnain said the status of the application is unknown and asked the media to check with the French courts.

When asked about the fresh application, Dzulkarnain said the status of the application is unknown and asked the media to check with the French courts.

He also refused to disclose the documents that he had obtained, saying that he would do so at the appropriate time.

In addition, he challenged Suaram and opposition parties to deny his claims and demanded that they apologise to the government and the people for the “vile propaganda”.

BN and the pro-government mainstream media and pressure groups have been using Soros as a bogeyman to demonise Suaram for pursuing the Scorpene inquiry in France.

Also dragged into the Soros conspiracy theories were news portal Malaysiakini as well as Pakatan Rakyat.

While the pressure groups have been vocal on foreign funders allegedly trying to bring down the government through Suaram and the opposition, they have been largely silent on the inconvenient revelations made in the course of the Scorpene inquiry.

For example, French prosecution papers have revealed evidence that Najib had allegedly asked for US$1 billion (RM3 billion) for Perimekar as a condition for a meeting with him on July 14, 2001.