Nazri now denies APCO set up Najib-Obama meet

APCO had no hand in arranging Najib’s meeting with Obama, said Nazri. — Reuters pic

By Shazwan Mustafa Kamal- The Malaysian Insider
 
KUALA LUMPUR, April 20 — The government’s public relations consultant, APCO Worldwide, had nothing to do with Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s meeting with US President Barack Obama last week, Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz revealed today, in a reversal of an earlier statement.
The Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department had previously said the consultancy did a good job, as Obama had agreed to meet Najib at the sidelines of a nuclear security meet in Washington DC.
“I would like to say that no money was paid to have this meeting with President Obama, and APCO was not employed for the sole reason of fixing a meeting with President Obama. That’s a blatant lie,” Nazri told The Malaysian Insider today.
APCO has been in the limelight over the past weeks for its alleged Israeli links, brought up by Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, who has since been referred to the powerful parliamentary rights and privileges committee for his claims.
The Dewan Rakyat will debate the motion to refer him to the committee this Thursday, but Anwar and his Pakatan Rakyat coalition have been using the issue as campaign fodder for the April 25 Hulu Selangor by-election.
“I’m not surprised, coming from Anwar being a desperate person, he’ll try to spin anything. He’ll even say that he’s the last of the prophets in the world, such is the desperation that he’s in,” Nazri said.

Anwar has continued to use APCO as ammunition against Barisan Nasional. — file pic

However, Nazri’s comments contradict those he made a week ago, when Batu MP Chua Tian Chang showed Nazri’s written reply in the Dewan Rakyat that the government paid APCO RM76 million for its services. Nazri also said later that APCO was employed to repair the government’s relations with the United States, which had been in abeyance for nearly three decades under former prime ministers, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.
“APCO did a good job. Obama only set aside time to see Najib and (Chinese President) Hu Jintao. China is China, but Obama agreed to meet Najib.
“The money we pay is worth it, it is giving good returns to us,” the minister said then.
Nazri today repeated his comments that hiring APCO had been good for the country.
“Definitely, I think we all know when APCO was engaged, it is to give a good image of Malaysia in the US and also the world. More so the US, as you know 22 years of Mahathir and six years of Pak Lah, there were never really any effort to make us come closer to the US.
“We cannot make US come to us because there more than 200 independent countries in the UN, it has to be from us,” he explained today.
He pointed out that engaging APCO did not mean the government would pay for a meeting with the US president.
“If what Anwar said is true, [that] many of the dictators use APCO, but I don’t think they were able to see the president of the United States. You can employ any lobbying firm, as many as you like, but if president doesn’t want to see you, you don’t get to see him.  “So, to say APCO was used solely to get an appointment with the president of the US, that’s a bit simplistic, not [a] well-thought-of accusation,” said Nazri.

Nazri maintains hiring APCO has been good for Malaysia. — file pic

The minister added that Malaysia was a healthy democracy and that Najib was headed in the right direction to lift the country’s image. “He is doing his best. His liberal policies help,” he said.
Nazri also pointed out that four US undersecretaries have visited him in his capacity as a minister and it reflected the superpower’s intent to engage Malaysia.
“The moment we showed that indication, they embraced it straight away. And we got a lot of things done which helped with our law infrastructure, and I’m very pleased with the progress made. And I think Anwar is very envious of the attention given to Najib.
“He had a field day when we ignored the US. It was his territory and the Americans now know the true Anwar. He has been hitting the Zionists and the Jewish lobby in the US,” Nazri added.
The minister also claimed that the US was “not very happy” with Anwar, noting “he’s been seen as willingly abandoning his friends just to gain political leverage”.