Come back and shed light on bribery claims, Selangor urges Raja Petra

(The Star) – The Selangor state government is willing to pay the travel cost for blogger Raja Petra Kamarudin to come to state office to shed some light into his bribery claims.

Selangor Mentri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim‘s political secretary Faekah Husin said Raja Petra, who is currently living in self-imposed exile overseas, should be responsible for his statements and provide more information to his claims of corruption in the Pakatan Rakyat-held state.

“He should not make wild accusations just to undermine the state government’s efforts. We do sympathise and understand his disappointments of having to live in exile amidst personal problems, but making wild accusations will not help him return home. It will instead further dent his image,” she said in a statement Monday.

Faekah said providing further information was the least Raja Petra he could do to help the state government combat corruption, more so since he was of Selangor royal blood.

“His accusations that there are corrupt practices in Selangor…are serious. We urge him to step forward to provide detailed information to the state government so that detailed investigations can be carried out.

“We are willing to pay for his travel costs, The state has allocated RM15mil to combat corruption and abuse of power, an amount which has been included in the Selangorku Geran,” she added.

Raja Petra, a once close ally of Pakatan leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, recently gave an interview to selected mainstream media and an online portal where he spoke on a variety of issues, including Anwar’s possible irrelevance, his sodomy trial and the state in Selangor.

He claimed that corruption was still the same in Selangor and that people still had to pay “under table” money to get things done.