Group wants MACC to investigate TMI over alleged RM3 milliin cash takes

(MMO) – Authorities must investigate The Malaysian Insight news portal that allegedly received RM3 million in several cash tranches this year, Malay rights group Jaringan Melayu Malaysia (JMM) demanded today.

After lodging a report at the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission’s (MACC) headquarters here, JMM president Datuk Azwanddin Hamzah said his group also submitted evidence of several alleged cash transfers to the portal.

He claimed that the use of cash instead of cheques or other forms of financial instruments was suspicious.

“Is this bribe money or foreign funding?” he told reporters outside the MACC office, saying his group tendered 12 pages of purported evidence to the commission.

Azwanddin alleged that the funds may be payment for the portal to create controversy in the country, claiming there was evidence of such efforts in the portal’s recent reportage.

The 12 pages included items such as common owners in the news portal and Hong Kong-based company, Asian Inside Pte Ltd, including the spouse of a senior government official.

The group also asked that the news portal’s executives and reporters be barred from leaving the country, after alleging that they are due to travel to the UK for a “secret meeting” on December 20.

Multimedia and Communications Minister Datuk Seri Salleh Said Keruak last week said the portal was being investigated for allegedly insulting Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, believed to be via an opinion piece on the Royal Commission of Inquiry on Bank Negara Malaysia’s RM31.5 billion trading losses during the Mahathir administration.