KOTA KINABALU, Feb 8 ― Umno secretary general Tan Sri Annuar Musa has suggested that the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission’s (MACC) probe on the allege transfer of RM90 million from his party to PAS was triggered by the Cameron Highlands by-election.

He told a press conference here after a meeting with Sabah Umno that the “sudden heat” from MACC on the two parties came after the Umno-PAS collaboration had produced positive results.

“After the by-election, all of a sudden they’re going after PAS and Umno. After it showed that our cooperation brought positive results in Cameron (Highlands), there was suddenly more pressure on PAS, Umno and Najib,” he said, referring to Umno ex-president and former prime minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak.

Annuar warned the Pakatan Harapan (PH) government that the public is watching and that they can see that the graft investigation was a “distraction ploy”.

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“But we should tell the government ― you can cheat some people some of the time. You can cheat some people some of the time, but you cannot cheat all the people all of the time. Now the people are judging you, where you fail to keep to your promise and your performance, and the statements from ministers.

“People are feeling disgusted, and they’re showing their displeasure through their ballots in the by-elections,” he said, adding that the party was confident of winning the coming Semenyih by-election after their victory in Cameron Highlands.

The Umno-led Barisan Nasional (BN) broke its losing streak in four by-elections since the 14th general election when its Orang Asli candidate Ramli Mohd Noor won the Cameron Highlands parliamentary seat on January 26.

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The Semenyih by-election, which will be held on March 2 with nomination on February 16, was called following the death of Pakatan Harapan’s Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia assemblyman, Bakhtiar Mohd Nor, 57, of a heart attack on January 11.

Annuar said Umno welcomes the MACC investigation into the alleged RM90 million payout.

He said MACC has been monitoring the party’s accounts, as well as Najib’s and if there were any suspicious payments especially of such a large amount, they would have noticed it.

“Any investigation is most welcome. This matter concerns PAS, so we have no right to say anything but as far as we are concerned, our accounts has been scrutinised by MACC.

“RM90 million is a huge figure ― they should have found it much earlier, right? If they can find RM90, they would’ve found RM90 million too. But go ahead and investigate,” he said.

The investigation comes after PAS announced it had settled their defamation suit against Sarawak Report editor Clare Rewcastle-Brown who claimed PAS had received money from Umno.

An audio recording featuring PAS central committee member Nik Mohamad Abduh Nik Abdul Aziz allegedly talking about the money surfaced as part of the evidence.

BN broke its losing streak in four by-elections since the 14th general election when its Orang Asli candidate Ramli Mohd Noor won the Cameron Highlands parliamentary seat on January 26.

With Ramli’s 12,038 votes, BN comfortably retained Cameron Highlands with a majority of more than 3,000 votes. PH’s M. Manogaran secured 8,800 votes, while two independent candidates Sallehudin Ab Talib and Wong Seng Yee had a combined tally of 590 votes.