‘MACC should probe DAP, Amanah political funds’

MARANG: While claiming that Pas will give its full cooperation to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) investigation on the source of its political funds, party president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang wants the commission to exercise fairness by giving similar treatment to other political parties, especially DAP and Parti Amanah Negara (Amanah).

He said Pas did not fear MACC investigations because most of its activities were funded by donations from its more than one million members.

“We are active in 190 divisions and have opened thousands of Pasti kindergartens and hundreds of schools.

“We give back what we have collected to the people through party activities. In this respect, we will use the donations collected to fight the aborted defamation suits (against Sarawak Report editor Clare Rewcastle-Brown) to fund future party activities.

“Whatever activities that we have conducted came from our own pockets. The people were willing to donate because they trusted the party and this was reflected when we captured Terengganu, retained Kelantan, nearly won Kedah and won a lot more parliamentary and state seats in Pahang in the last general election,” he said after his weekly usrah at the Rhusila mosque here yesterday.

He added that the success also proved that the slander thrown at Pas failed to influence voters.

“We want to continue with our work and put this (out-of-court settlement of the defamation suit) behind us.

“The recent statement from my political secretary (Syahir Sulaiman) is sufficient.

“But in all fairness, MACC should also investigate the source of political funds from other political parties, especially DAP and Amanah,” he said.

When asked to comment on the out-of-court settlement against Rewcastle-Brown through an order of consent, dated Feb 1 at the London High Court of Justice, Queen’s Bench Division, he said: “We feel that there is no need to waste the court’s time and we acted on the advice from our lawyers because we wanted to carry on with other things.”

Hadi added that the MACC should question other political parties on the number of branches and where the funds for political activities came from.