“PAS has lots of money”: Party to provide funds for Bersatu in upcoming state polls
“PAS has a lot of money. If Bersatu has no money, we will give them money,” PAS Dewan Ulama chief Dr Nik Muhammad Zawawi Salleh was reported as saying by the Malay daily when met at the Parliament building yesterday.
(Focus Malaysia) – PAS has announced that it will provide funds for Bersatu to face the upcoming state elections in six states following the freezing of the latter’s accounts by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission.
In a recent interview with Utusan Malaysia, PAS Dewan Ulama chief Dr Nik Muhammad Zawawi Salleh said PAS will always throw its support behind Bersatu in the face of the state polls that are expected to be held this year.
“PAS has a lot of money. If Bersatu has no money, we will give them money,” he was reported as saying by the Malay daily when met at the Parliament building yesterday.
“Actually PAS doesn’t need a large sum of money [to contest in the elections]. I personally used only a few thousand ringgit of my own money when I contested in the previous election. The rest were contributed by PAS members. So what can we say?”
The Pasir Puteh MP’s statement further dispelled rumours that PAS may exit the Perikatan Nasional (PN) coalition as Bersatu no longer has access to the money to fund its campaigns in the state polls.
Earlier this month, the MACC froze two of Bersatu’s bank accounts with about RM40 million in them over allegations that the party received contributions from some 10 contractors who received various projects when the party was running the government.
In response to the freeze, Bersatu president Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said the party will write a letter to the MACC with a request to unfreeze its accounts, which are currently under probe.
Muhyiddin, who again denied claims Bersatu received ill-gotten funds while he served as prime minister, said the request was to ease the party’s operations including paying wages to its staff and office rentals.
Meanwhile, Bersatu deputy president Datuk Seri Ahmad Faizal Azumu said the party’s experience in dealing with funding constraints in the 14th general election (GE14) will help the party face the upcoming state polls.
“Bersatu’s accounts have been frozen for over a month and we admit it had an impact on the party, especially in paying our staff’s salaries but right now we can’t do anything,” he told Utusan Malaysia last week.
“It has made it difficult for us to move effectively for the upcoming state polls, but lessons from GE14 have given us a lot of experience in using our existing strengths.
“It is not impossible that with the momentum of the rakyat’s support from GE15, Insya Allah, we can win more seats specifically in Selangor.”
