KUALA LUMPUR, May 30 — The Save Malaysia movement insisted today that the 1.27 million signatures for its Citizens’ Declaration petition are genuine, pointing out that it had rejected 253,505 dubious signatories.
Save Malaysia secretary Datuk Kamarudin Jaffar also denied that the non-partisan movement led by former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad had any dealings with Azharuddin Othman, a man who claimed to have sold names from electoral rolls for the Citizens’ Declaration, or with Syarul Ema Rena Abu Samah known as “Ratu Naga”, a woman who allegedly received the data from Azharuddin.
“The GSM believes that what is eventually submitted to the Yang Di-Pertuan Agong must be worthy of the trust and burden of responsibility entrusted to us by the people who have signed the document,” said Kamarudin in a statement, using the initials for the Save Malaysia movement.
“The GSM reiterates that it has undertaken efforts to remove dubious signatories. The updated verified online signatures received were at 1,071,997. We rejected a total of 253,505 because of duplication and incompleteness.
“The balance of 200,000 was collected as hard copies. Audit of the signatures received continued to be carried out to ensure their integrity and authenticity,” he added.
Azharuddin claimed last Thursday that he was offered RM5,000 to provide 1.2 million names for the Citizens’ Declaration petition that calls for Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s resignation, but allegedly received only RM1,000.
News portal Malaysiakini reported recently Syarul Ema Rena denying knowing Azharuddin.
The online version that the Save Malaysia movement uses for the Citizens’ Declaration petition is in a Google Forms format, with signatories required to fill in their name, IC number, email address and the date. Their actual signatures are not required.
