SCL Group Southeast Asia chief Azrin Zizal and his former boss and ex-Kedah menteri besar Mukhriz Mahathir have accused each other of lying over the role of Cambridge Analytica (CA) in Kedah during the 2013 general election.
"Mukhriz said CA worked for BN. This again is not true... The 2013 election advice for Kedah was provided to Mukhriz personally.
"At no time has CA or its parent SCL Group ever worked for or been paid by BN or any part of the government of Malaysia.
"Perhaps – while Mukhriz continues to deny my work for him and deny the benefits he gained from the advice I provided to him from CA and SCL Group for Kedah during the 2013 general election – he will also deny Kedah winning an extra six parliamentary seats, winning over the state and him becoming menteri besar?" he asked in a statement today.
Azrin's statement is in line with the Prime Minister's Office saying yesterday that neither the government nor BN had ever contracted CA.
Mukhriz had dubbed the PMO statement "misleading," and an attempt to divert attention away from the "possible use of illegal campaign tactics as admitted by CA for BN."
When contacted today, Mukhriz said that he stood by his earlier statements.
"Azrin is clearly lying... His claims that BN’s win in Kedah and my subsequent appointment as MB was all his doing is absolutely delusional.
"He should be reminded that it was CA themselves who claimed in their website that they helped Kedah BN. I never admitted to knowing anything about that," the Bersatu deputy president told Malaysiakini.
Mukhriz added that CA and SCL Group are currently accused of deceit and the dissemination of fake news for the benefit of political parties who employed them.
"To expect Malaysians to now believe what they say is asinine," he said.
'Absolutely false'
Azrin had previously served with Mukhriz while the latter was deputy international trade and industry minister.
Mukhriz said Azrin stopped working for him when he became Kedah menteri besar in 2013.
However, Azrin refuted this, saying he continued to serve Mukhriz until 2015.
"This is absolutely false. I worked for Mukhriz personally and provided communications and strategy advice for him until 2015, including during the 2013 general election, and afterwards when he became menteri besar.
"I will provide proof if he continues to falsify the truth," he said.
Mukhriz said he would be interested to know how Azrin would prove to have worked for him when he was menteri besar.
"Every media representative in Kedah knows that my media officer while I was MB was and still is Mohd Fisol Jaafar," he said.
CA received international attention after it reportedly misused millions of users’ personal data on Facebook for political ends.
The data analytics firm was also accused of using entrapment tactics against political opponents, including sending operatives to offer bribes, and springing “honey traps.”
CA’s managing director Mark Turnbull was caught on an undercover video by UK's Channel 4 as saying that the firm's job was to discover deep-rooted fears of its target audience.
"It's no good fighting an election campaign on the facts, but actually it's all about emotion," he had said.
Additional reporting by Norman Goh
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