Anwar: CNN report shows Najib fears Pakatan
By Shazwan Mustafa Kamal, The Malaysian Insider
KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 28 — Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has quickly turned a CNN report linking him to Saudi funding into a sign that the ruling Barisan Nasional’s (BN) was jittery over Pakatan Rakyat’s (PR) headway.
International broadcaster CNN reported last night that Datuk Seri Najib Razak had accused Anwar of being sponsored by two Saudi princes in upcoming elections but a secret investigation found no such evidence.
Anwar said today Najib’s attempt at linking him with Saudi royals was proof that the prime minister was afraid of PR’s political relevance in the country.
“This report shows the fear and desperation on the part of Datuk Seri Najib to suppress the growing influence of Pakatan Rakyat who work hard everyday… to save Malaysia from all the mistakes made by a weak leadership of the country’s administration and wastages from worsening corruption,” Anwar said in a statement.
The PR de facto leader further claimed that Najib was anxious over the federal opposition’s widely-publicised reform plans — spelt out in its “Buku Jingga” launched last month — which contained instant reform measures to be implemented by PR within the first 100 days of taking over Putrajaya.
“He (Najib) realises that the document shatters the illusion of reform Umno-BN has promised to the people. The Umno president knows that people will not blindly accept mere announcements of transformation plans made solely for ‘advertising’ purposes,” added the 63-year old opposition leader.
He also mocked Najib for refusing to take part in a public debate on PR’s reform plans, saying that the PM instead resorted to personal attacks.
“I am not surprised if the PM would go overseas not to attract investments but to suppress and say bad things about me,” said Anwar.
While the CNN report said that Anwar had been cleared of any Saudi links, it also revealed that a fundamentalist Muslim organisation with links to the opposition leader had benefitted al Qaeda through its support of politicians in Muslim countries.
CNN reported that “the investigation found that hundreds of millions of dollars of Saudi money had been funnelled to leading Islamist politicians and political activists overseas. It also found that al Qaeda and the Taliban were still able to use Saudi Arabia for fund-raising, despite numerous measures to choke off those sources of cash.”
CNN said the nine-page summary of the secret report states that the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist political group present in many Muslim countries, was trying “through its many affiliated charities and organisations — often with the funding of unwitting private Saudi citizens — to spread its influence by providing support for candidates in Islamic democracies.”
