Anti-crime crusader R Sri Sanjeevan has published a series of photographs online highlighting the expensive watches worn by politicians.
The Malaysian Crime Watch Task Force (MyWatch) chairperson ( below ) had uploaded several photos on his Facebook page.
As of 8.15pm today, the post had gained close to 13,000 likes and more than 25,000 shares on Facebook .
The pictures show senior officials and politicians wearing different luxurious watches on different occasions.
Among them, six were from BN and three from the opposition.
The officials are Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak, Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, Defence Minister Hishammuddin Hussein, and Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin.
The prime minister's wife Rosmah Mansor and outspoken former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad were also featured.
It also included the late former Kelantan Menteri Besar Nik Aziz Nik Mat, DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang, and PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim, who is serving a five-year jail sentence for a sodomy conviction.
However, not all of them were wearing luxury watches. Lim’s timepiece was only worth RM270.
Rosmah’s watch worth close to half a million
According to MyWatch’s findings, Umno leaders preferred luxury watches and among them, Najib, Rosmah, Zahid, Hishammuddin, and Khairy owned more than one.
The photos showed that Rosmah has four watches and her Richard Mille Lady RM 007 appears to be the most expensive among them; MyWatch’s post claimed it costs RM486,000.
Rosmah’s other watches published on MyWatch, were the Hublot BB Black Magic 114 (RM79,200), Hublot BB Black Magic 48 Baguette (RM225,000), and Franck Muller Master Square Date Diamonds (RM153,500).
Najib, too, has four grand watches, according to the photos.
And the most expensive one is the Hublot Big Bang King Power ‘Red Devils’ Manchester United limited edition, at RM165,000. Najib is a well-known fan of the Manchester United football team.
The rest of Najib’s watches are Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore Carbon (RM120,000), Harry Winston Project Z2 (RM97,500), and Hublot BB Black Magic Black Ceramics (RM50,000).
MyWatch’s photos show that Zahid, Hishammuddin and Khairy have two grand watches respectively.
According to the photos, Zahid is wearing a Richard Mille RM033 (RM293,000) and a ‘cheaper’ IWC Portuguese Perpetual Calander (RM180,000).
It also pointed out that Khairy was wearing a RM160,000 Patek Philippe Nautilus and a Jaegar Reverso, which its price range between RM27,000 and RM180,000.
While Hishammuddin had two Audemars Piguet watches, one is Royal Oak Offshore Chronograph Black Ceramic Bezel (estimated more than RM70,000) and the second one is Royal Oak, estimated to be worth more than RM50,000.
However, Mahathir's watch is a Casio Protrek Triple Sensor Tide Graph PRG-130-1V, priced at RM1,020.
Anwar was wearing the Tag Heuer CAF101A, which is worth RM7,650 and Nik Aziz is wearing an RM330 Casio Prayer Compass WP-310.
And the watch that Lim had on in the picture was the cheapest among those listed - a Seiko Chronograph SND363.
The photo stated that on eBay, it was selling for US$81 or RM270.
Photos that speaks for itself....
Posted by Sri Sanjeevan Ramakrishnan on Friday, 10 April 2015
‘Not an implication of their wealth’When contacted by Malaysiakini , Sanjeevan said that it was an effort done by people in MyWatch and it took them eight to nine months to accomplish the mission.
He said they had photographed the senior officials and the politicians when they were wearing those watches at different occasions and compared them with the price list on several watch manufacturers' websites.
However, he stressed that this does not imply that the politicians were super rich nor was his NGO trying to insult them.
“I just want the public to know what kind of lifestyle these politicians are adopting. For example, Mahathir does not wear a watch on some occasions; same goes for Nik Aziz.
“But look at the prime minister and others. On different occasions, they wear different watches,” he said.
When asked, Sanjeevan said he is not calling a press conference on this matter.
“I don’t want this to become an issue. This is not some exposure. It is just for the ‘general knowledge’ purpose.
“I don’t want to politicise this, this is not about the question of politics,” he added.
Meanwhile, Malaysiakini has contacted Zahid and the aides of Najib, Hishammuddin and Khairy for comment and is awaiting their responses.
