Isa Samad does a U-turn on his Perkasa statement

(MM) – The leaders of Malay rights group Perkasa had previously benefited from Umno when they were then part of the political party’s leadership, Tan Sri Isa Samad has said.

In noting Perkasa’s denial that it had received any funding from Umno, Isa agreed and clarified that his previous remarks did not mean that the non-government organisation (NGO) was under Umno’s care.

“If they say don’t have, it’s alright, what I meant is the Perkasa leaders that before this were Umno leaders.

“They had previously received benefits from Umno before this,” the Umno supreme council member was quoted as saying by Malay-language daily Utusan Malaysia.

Last Friday, Perkasa deputy president Datuk Abdul Rahman Abu Bakar said Umno has never contributed a single sen to Perkasa’s struggle.

The Perkasa leader dismissed Isa’s recent comment that the non-governmental organisation (NGO) has received help from the Malay nationalist party as a baseless claim.

“Until today, Perkasa has never received even a single sen in funds or contributions from Umno,” Abdul Rahman was reported saying by Utusan Malaysia last Saturday.

“Therefore, I dare to say that Perkasa has never been under Umno’s protection, as what was claimed by the Felda chairman recently,” he added, referring to Isa.

Isa had recently said that Perkasa had no right to threaten to take over Umno’s role of protecting Malay interests, claiming that the right-wing group was dependent on the Barisan Nasional (BN) lynchpin.

Abdul Rahman was also quoted as saying last Friday that Perkasa had the right to request for aid from relevant government agencies to run community programmes.

“Dong Zong, Hindraf and Sisters in Islam, for example, can ask for funds to run their programmes, so why do you need to question contributions to Perkasa?” he said, referring to several other non-government organisations.

Perkasa chief Datuk Ibrahim Ali said at the group’s fourth annual general assembly recently that Perkasa was prepared to adopt an adversarial role in the 14th general election, should Umno fail to deliver on the Bumiputera Economic Empowerment Agenda.