Public relations mogul Lim Kok Wing has denied any involvement with Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak's scheduled dialogue with NGOs on June 5.
Lim wrote on Twitter that he had nothing to do with the dialogue - titled "Nothing2Hide"- and that he knew nothing of it until he read about it later.
It is uncertain who had accused him of being involved in the event, that was organised by an NGO known as SukaGuam, led by Johor Umno deputy head Khairul Anwar Rahmat.
However, there had been some Twitter users who accused Lim, as Najib's public relations coordinator, of advising the premier to give the event a skip.
Kalau aku jadi strategist Najib.. aku hantar Lim Kok Wing je menyamar ganti berucap kat forum
#Nothing2Hide
pagi tadi
pic.twitter.com/Y4EP4ocvZF
— Abang Bro (@JeffriMS)
June 5, 2015
Conflicting accounts
The dialogue was organised to allow Najib to address certain NGOs from across the country on the 1MDB controversy.
Soon after the event was scheduled to start, SukaGuam announced that Najib would be giving it a miss and instead invited Dr Mahathir Mohamad to address the crowd.
Mahathir spoke for about 10 minutes before the police made him stop.
Najib's absence and the fact that Mahathir was silenced had led to many concluding that the premier was running scared.
According to the police version of events, they had advised Najib not to appear at the dialogue due to security reasons.
The police's account was dismissed by Mahathir, pointing to video evidence showing a known Najib supporter - Mohd Ali Baharom @ Ali Tinju - creating a ruckus alone which resulted in his arrest .
But the organisers had blamed Najib's aide for the embarassing episode.
On the other hand, Najib said it would have been " improper " for him to have an open debate with a former prime minister, especially when they are both from the same party.
