The Goofer Aminah Abdullah: “I’m not sure it was bribery”

Penanti’s independent candidate Aminah Abdullah today said she did not know the offers she claimed to have received from two PKR leaders amounted to bribery until the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) explained it to her.

By Din Merican

“The officials told me that the offers amounted to corruption. Only then did I really know it was bribery,” she told journalists, after handing over similar evidence to the Election Commission (EC) office at 11am today. EC officer Noormah Shaari accepted the items from Aminah and her husband Mohd Rofi Osman.

Aminah’s latest statement, however, contradicted what she said last Saturday after the nomination process, when she told journalists that she had been offered a cash bribe.

The duo implicated but not named by Aminah – supreme council member Cheah Kah Peng and Lim Eng Nam, a special officer to Penang state executive councillor Law Choo Kiang – have briefed the party leadership on the issue.

“They have categorically denied that they had attempted to bribe (Aminah) and told the leadership that they went on their own initiative to see her and persuade her to withdraw,” Law (left) said when contacted. He also said that PKR strategic director Tian Chua is heading an internal investigation into the allegations.

When going public with her allegations yesterday, Aminah said the duo had come to her house in Jelutong on May 13, and told her that they had the blessings of PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim.

Disclosing details of the alleged offers, she said they had offered to reimburse her campaign expenses to date – about RM80,000 – and offered her a top post in a municipal council if she pulled out of the by-election and returns to PKR. An alternate scenario was that, if she contests and wins, she would be rewarded with a Penang government post for returning to PKR.

In Sunday’s by-election for the state seat, she will face PKR’s Mansor Othman and fellow Independents Nai Khan Ari Nai Keow and Kamarul Ramizu Idris.

‘We were close friends’

Aminah claimed the duo met her three times and made several phone calls to her to persuade her to withdraw. The conversations, she said, were recorded in three parts in separate compact discs. Asked if she was the one who had demanded the RM80,000, she said she had only told the PKR officials that she had spent this amount, including the election deposit of RM8,000.

As to whether the duo are Cheah and Lim, she replied: “Why ask when you already know their identity?” Aminah, the former Penang PKR women’s wing head, related that Cheah and Lim were her close friends while she was in the party for almost 10 years. She vehemently refuted the suggestion that she had betrayed close friends and failed to honour their friendship when she had recorded their conversation without their knowledge.

“I did not betray my friends. I only took precautionary steps to safeguard myself,” she said angrily, alleging that PKR leaders routinely record discussions. She reiterated that she would not have revealed the details except for the challenge by PKR state chief Zahrain Hashim, and insisted that her disclosure was to “uphold justice and truth”.

On another claim that her safety was at stake after making her allegations, Aminah said she has not received any threats up to now. She lodged a report yesterday seeking police protection for herself and her family. Aminah had left PKR in 2007 under acrimonious circumstances after a fallout with the state party leadership.

Read more at: http://dinmerican.wordpress.com/2009/05/27/the-goofer-aminah-abdullah-im-not-sure-it-was-bribery/