Business tycoon has nothing to do with party, say PKR leaders and Zaid
By Sira Habibu, The Star
PETALING JAYA: Maverick businessmen Datuk Soh Chee Wen has been dragged into the PKR chaos.
However, PKR leaders and Datuk Zaid Ibrahim have distanced themselves from allegations in political circles that Soh was behind the mess that was happening in the party.
“The allegations are nothing but political trash talk,” said PKR strategic director Tian Chua, adding that propagating the point that financiers could control the party by sponsoring certain politicians was an insult to the members’ intelligence.
“Only really stupid politicians can be used as puppets,” he said, commenting on recent speculation that Zaid’s campaign for the deputy president’s post in PKR was sponsored by Soh.
“We can gain cheap publicity by talking about it in the blogs but it serves no purpose, as in reality, it is almost impossible to execute such plans (that enable sponsors to control the party),” he said.
Zaid, who was PKR’s losing candidate in last year’s Hulu Selangor by-election, had since pulled out of the deputy presidency race and also resigned from the party altogether.
In a previous blog posting, Zaid denied any involvement with Soh and also questioned if the attempt to link him to Soh was part of a smear campaign aimed at labelling him as a traitor and a greenhorn.
Zaid said that as far as he knew, Soh was a close friend of Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and that he had been of assistance to PKR.
Zaid’s aides also denied Soh’s involvement in internal party campaigns.
Since early this year, there had been talk in cyberspace that Soh was the banker for PKR and had also helped to organise the party’s strategies.
Soh was also said to have financed the Malaysia Today news portal and allegedly supported its editor Raja Petra Kamarudin’s stay in London.
He was also believed to have played a big part in the Permatang Pauh by-election that returned Anwar to Parliament.
Soh was charged in court over the RM424mil Omega Securities scandal about a decade ago and went missing for three years during the trial. He returned in 2002 and was convicted and fined RM6mil.
