PETALING JAYA: PAS president Tan Sri Abdul Hadi Awang (pic) has dispelled talk that the party had received RM90mil from Umno, saying that it would have been able to take control of the country if this had been true.
Furthermore, he said the amount was “too cheap” to buy the Islamist party.
Dismissing such talk as “fictional stories”, he said PAS had been able to contest in elections from the money contributed by its members nationwide, noting that these funds did not even amount to RM1mil.
PAS conquered three states and became a part of the Federal Government by joining forces with Umno and Bersatu and defeating the already shaky Pakatan Harapan administration, he said.
“Hence, if the RM90mil was true, PAS would definitely have been able to control the whole country,” he said in a Facebook post yesterday.
Earlier this month, DAP’s Seri Delima assemblyman Syerleena Abdul Rashid lodged a complaint with the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), accusing Hadi of corruption, money laundering, and tax evasion.
The report came about after DAP chairman Lim Guan Eng called for an explanation from Hadi on a RM1.4mil settlement with Sarawak Report editor Clare Rewcastle Brown in his defamation suit against her.
(PAS had sued Rewcastle Brown for libel over an article on Aug 6, 2016, which alleged the party had received RM90mil in bribes from Umno. In 2019, Hadi opted for an out-of-court settlement.)
Hadi said yesterday that had PAS been in possession of RM90mil, the money would have been spent well in investments that yielded a 10% return.
He said it would have been suicidal of Umno to give RM90mil to PAS.
He said if it was indeed true that the party had such an amount, PAS would have been able to counter Pakatan, which had funds to splurge on social media campaigns to “spread lies”.
PAS could not afford social media campaigns to begin with, he claimed.
