The startling accusation by a Perak PKR leader that he was offered RM50 million to engineer defections has forced a former deputy minister to come out and clear the air.

zainal abidin zin pc 030209 01 Zainal Abidin Zin, the former deputy defence minister, today confirmed that he took PKR leader Fauzi Muda to meet Deputy Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak at his official residence in Putrajaya.

This took place three days after the March 8 general election, which saw Perak falling into the hands of the opposition by a slim majority of three seats.

However, the Umno veteran denied that any monetary offers were made during the close-to-midnight meeting involving about a dozen individuals.

"I believe that at no point of time during the meeting was any money offered to Fauzi. The meeting took place rather openly," he told a press conference in Kuala Lumpur.

He added that none of the parties at the meeting had mentioned anything to him about financial offers having been made.

The former deputy minister also claimed that he did not know that Fauzi was an opposition politician at that time.

Zainal was responding to the explosive revelation by Fauzi yesterday that he was offered RM50 million on that night as a reward if he could get two Pakatan Rakyat representatives in the state to cross over to Barisan Nasional.

perak pkr pc fauzi muda pc statutory declaration 010209 02 Fauzi ( right ) also claimed that he was approached again several months later for the same task, but this time the reward was slashed to RM5 million per person.

The PKR Ipoh Barat division head had signed a statutory declaration detailing what transpired during the meeting.

Fauzi conceded that he had no concrete evidence to back his allegation but dared the deputy premier to deny the claim.

Contacted this morning for comment, one of Najib's aides was tightlipped on the matter.

'Personal and business matters'

Meanwhile, Zainal said Fauzi had sought the help of their mutual friend and Umno member Sulaiman Mansor to help arrange a meeting with the deputy premier.

"Fauzi said he wanted to meet Najib and asked for my help to bring him there. So I agreed because he was Sulaiman’s friend. So both of us picked him up at the Jalan Duta toll plaza," he said.

Zainal also claimed that he had no knowledge that Fauzi was a PKR leader and that was his first meeting with him.

The former deputy minister said he too had wanted to meet Najib to discuss his defeat to a PKR candidate in the Bagan Serai parliamentary constituency in the elections.

"When I picked him up from the toll plaza, I did not ask who he was...I didn't even know he was a PKR leader because I trusted Sulaiman," said the 68-year-old retired politician.

He said Fauzi had only mentioned that he had some 'personal and business' matters to discuss with the deputy premier.

This contradicted what the PKR leader had stated in his statutory declaration. Fauzi had claimed that "he had no choice but to follow them to see Najib to discuss political issues."

'He did not look happy'

Zainal also said that the March 11 encounter was the first and last time he had seen Fauzi.

najib tun razak photos 211008 02 According to him, the PKR leader "did not look happy" after meeting the deputy premier for more than an hour.

“When we were about to leave (Najib's residence), he did not tell us what he told Najib but I could see from his facial expression that he was not happy.

"I did not want to ask him anything further because I did not want to be seen as ' jaga tepi kain orang ' (being nosy)," he added.

Zainal also revealed that many people, including Umno leaders, were at the deputy premier's residence that night regarding their respective problems.

"The meeting was an open discussion where everyone had a chance to talk to Najib," he said.

Responding to a question, Zainal denied that Najib had at any point taken Fauzi to a private place for a chat.

"I can assure you that they did not do that (talk in private) because there were many people during the meeting and Najib was there the whole time," he said.

Police reports lodged

In a related development, two police reports were lodged today against Fauzi and another Pakatan Rakyat state leader for alleged slander.

In the first, Ipoh Barat Umno Youth chief Syamsul Baharin Putra Ahmad Shibi lodged a report at the Sungai Senam police station in Ipoh claiming that Fauzi had defamed Najib with his statutory declaration.

"Fauzi's statement gives the impression that a national leader is immoral and corrupt. This can cause tension among the people," he was quoted as saying by Bernama.

Meanwhile, at the Ipoh police headquarters, PPP Youth chief Jason Chang lodged a police report to have senior Perak executive councillor Ngeh Koo Ham investigated for claiming that several BN assemblypersons in Perak and Negeri Sembilan would be crossing over to Pakatan.

Chang told reporters that Ngeh's statement had caused instability in the two states and uneasiness among the people.

Earlier report

'Najib promised RM50mil for defections'