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Media Statement
by Lim Kit Siang  
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(Parliament, Tuesday): In one fell stroke, former Prime Minister Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad has confirmed the  US$1.2 million (RM4.6 million) scandal involving US superlobbyist Jack Abramoff in arranging the 2002 meeting him when he was Prime Minister and President Bush although he maintained that he “did not touch the money at all”.

He said the Government did not pay US1.2 million to secure the meeting between him and  Bush in 2002, though he admitted: “It is true that someone paid the money but it was not the Government.”

He said:

“I did not touch the money at all. In the US, it is a practice that if you want to meet their leader, you have to go through a lobbyist and the lobbyist has to be paid... That is their system. It is not corruption at all and it is very open, but they don’t reveal names."

Mahathir cannot be more wrong. This is not the US system. It is the corrupt US system. This is why Abramof is now regarded as a criminal and  avoided like a plague by American politicians - embroiled at  the centre of the biggest corruption scandal in recent US political history.

The Los Angeles Times report    “Abramoff Bragged of Ties to Rove” on 15^th February 2006  quoted “an eyewitness to the activities” that  Abramoff had contacted Bush’s presidential adviser Karl Rove on at least four occasions to help arrange a meeting. “Finally, the former associate said, Rove's office called to tell Abramoff that the Malaysian leader soon would be getting an official White House invitation.”

The White House had officially distanced itself from the report and claimed that the Mahathir-Bush meeting was arranged through “normal channels”.

Mahathir had however  debunked White House claim of innocence, confirming  multi-million ringgit Malaysian lobby efforts in 2001 and 2002 to arrange for a meeting between him and Bush.

Former Cabinet Minister and Mahathir protégé  Datuk Seri Megat Junid Megat Ayub had been named in the international media as the central Malaysian figure who headed the “shadowy Malaysian group” which linked up with the corrupt Washington DC lobbyists to arrange for the Mahathir-Bush meeting in 2002.

Megat Junid should step forward to fully clarify his role in the RM4.6 million payment of US superlobbyist Jack Abramoff to arrange the 2002 meeting.

Mahathir should also tell the whole truth, as nobody believes he does not know about the US lobby  operation headed by Megat Junid or the sources of the RM4.6 million funding.

The statement by the longest-serving Prime Minister in Malaysia that it is it is a normal US practice “that if you want to meet their leader, you have to go through a lobbyist and the lobbyist has to be paid” is most shocking.

It raises two questions:

Firstly, it meant that the RM4.6 million lobby effort for the Mahathir-Bush meeting in 2002 had government sanction. How much government funds were expended on it, and if no government monies were overtly used, how were those in the “private sector” reimbursed and/or compensated for their lobby activities – and the identities of all the Malaysians, apart from Megat Junid, who were involved.

Secondly, the present Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi met President Bush at the White House Oval Office on July 19, 2004.  How much was expended, whether directly by the government or indirectly by “non-government” sources to lobby for this Abdullah-Bush meeting, and who were the lobbyists enlisted for this assignment?

(21/02/2006)