A minister apologised to parliament today for giving an incorrect answer in the House in June over a pro-BN advertisement , which was controversial because it denounced the previous administration as 'corrupt and rotten' while praising Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Mohd Nazri Abdul Aziz explained that his answer was a 'genuine mistake' as the government officer who prepared the reply he read out then could not read Chinese and was therefore not aware of the advertisement.

"It is also about politics, government officers are not politicians and they did not really know what was happening," he said in his winding-up speech.

In June, Nazri denied BN's involvement in the embarassing advertisement and claimed that 'anonymous sources' were responsible for the advertisement published in Chinese newspapers in the run-up to the March 21 polls.

The full-page advertisement, which featured a BN logo, stated that the government was 'corrupt and rotten to the core... with no aspect of life untainted by corruption'.

It added that along the years, only Abdullah had the tenacity to declare war against corruption and he is just like Justice Bao - a Chinese legendary figure synonymous with justice and integrity

Nazri however today denied that the government was 'corrupt and rotten to the core' as claimed in the advertisement.

"We used Justice Bao as an example because of his spirit in fighting corruption and bring justice. It did not mean BN was corrupted," he said, adding that no political party would be 'crazy' to admit itself as corrupt.

Money politics

The house also erupted into a heated argument this afternoon over the claims of money politics in the just-concluded Umno elections.

Opposition Leader Lim Kit Siang (DAP-Ipoh Timur) urged the government to investigate the alleged bribes given out on the night before the Umno elections in envelopes containing RM2,000-3,000.

His allegation angered several Barisan Nasional MPs who demanded him to substantiate his claim.

Syed Zahari (BN-Kota Bahru) told Lim not to make wild allegations as not all the Umno members were involved in money politics.

"I did not even receive a single ringgit, Umno members also have dignity," he said.

Nazri, on the other hand, said that the government is serious in fighting graft, such as the alleged money politics in Umno.

"Please be patient. The Umno assembly has just ended. You can see that even a serving minister would be charged if found guilty," he said, referring to former land and cooperatives minister Kasitah Gaddam who was charged with corruption involving RM40 million.