KUCHING: Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP) president Datuk Dr Sim Kui Hian claims to have never seen the purported RM500,000 cheques issued to the party in 2012 and 2013.
According to his official Facebook page bearing the name Dr Sim Kui Hian, it was mentioned that the party’s finances were handled by the president and that he had no knowledge of the so-called cheques – alleged to have been issued by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak.
Dr Sim, who is also the Barisan Nasional (BN) candidate for Batu Kawah, said he only become SUPP president in 2014. Prior to that, he held the post of secretary-general.
“Reference is made to a viral image of a cheque purportedly made to SUPP published in Sarawak Report. Party finances are handled by party president only. Since coming into office as party president in Sept 2014, I have never received such a cheque,” Dr Sim wrote in his posting yesterday.
Images of the RM500,000 cheques – issued on Sept 2, 2012 and April 5, 2013 – went viral online and widely perceived as visual evidence of payments made personally by Najib to SUPP. It raised question as to why the national BN chairman and Umno president was making donations up to RM1 million to the party.
News portal Sarawak Report, in its May 4 news posting, said the cheques bore a familiar signature of that of the prime minister. The purported cheques were also reported to have come from account number 2022009694, which Sarawak Report linked to Najib’s AM private bank account in Kuala Lumpur. Dr Sim hoped the people were not easily duped by such claims he deemed to have been fabricated by the opposition to turn the tide on SUPP and BN. He reminded voters that the state election was a time for the people to work on solving issues faced by Sarawakians.
“This is Sarawakians’ state election, and I sincerely hope that voters will not be misled by opposition propaganda coordinating with foreign agencies to distract voters from solving the real issues that we as Sarawakians face,” he said.
SUPP was named as one of the recipients of bank accounts belonging to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak in a report by Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) on March 29.