Disclose reasons for funding Perkasa and amount, Kit Siang asks Putrajaya

(CNN) - With Perkasa’s secretary-general admitting to receiving funds from several government agencies, DAP’s Lim Kit Siang demanded today Putrajaya disclose the sum and justify to Malaysians the reasons to financially support an organisation the opposition lawmaker claimed had threatened a “holy war” against the country’s minorities.

In quizzing the alleged tacit approval of Perkasa by the government, the opposition party’s advisor called for the Auditor-General and a parliamentary committee scrutinising public funds to look into the matter.

“What were the various and total funds provided to Perkasa by MKN, BTN (both of which were under the Prime Minister’s Department) and Jasa (under the Ministry of Communications and Multimedia) in the past four years and the specific objectives of each funding?

“What were the justifications for MKN, BTN and Jasa providing funding to Perkasa?” the DAP parliamentary leader asked in a statement today, referring to the National Security Council, National Civic Bureau and Special Affairs Department respectively by their Malay initials.

In his statement, he pointed out that Perkasa’s secretary-general, Syed Hassan Syed Ali, had admitted to being funded by the three government agencies.

Lim also demanded to know if other government agencies had funnelled funds to Perkasa under the table, since the group was founded in 2008.

The Gelang Patah MP further asked if the government had also furtively slipped funds to “other extremist and racist NGOs” even if the groups had overtly contradicted the 1 Malaysia policy that advocated inclusiveness and was meant to unite the country’s diverse races and religions.

The federal lawmaker insisted on a full disclosure of the funding and the government agencies involved.

“The Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) should give top priority to this serious lapse by the Auditor-General in the past four years, calling up both the Auditor-General and the heads of the various government agencies providing secret funding to Perkasa and other NGOs in the past four years so that a special PAC report on this matter could be tabled in the March meeting of Parliament,” he said.

In his statement, Lim cast a spotlight on the alleged ties between Perkasa and the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition, asking why the coalition leaders did not seek to find out the “real relationship between the BN government with Perkasa” from the prime minister.

He pointed out that Perkasa vice-president Datuk Zulkifli Noordin contested under the BN ticket in Shah Alam during Election 2013, while the BN candidate in Pasir Mas purportedly pulled out of the race in favour of Perkasa president Datuk Ibrahim Ali, then an independent candidate for the federal seat.

“Although both were defeated, the question remains as to the role of MCA and other BN component parties in endorsing their candidature on behalf of BN,” Lim said.

In his statement too, Lim asked whether the Cabinet knew that the government was funding Perkasa.

“When did the government secret funding of Perkasa begin, in what form and under whose authority? When was approval by Cabinet given or was the secret government funding of Perkasa so secretive that the Cabinet was completely kept in the dark?” he said, pressing for answers on which ministers and BN leaders had knowledge of the “surreptitious funding”.