Urban Wellbeing, Housing and Local Government Minister Abdul Rahman Dahlan has denied that former journalist Lester Melanyi got paid for a confession against whistleblower website Sarawak Report .

"No. It's not true. You go and read (the report) carefully, " he said.

The Malay Mail Online yesterday reported yesterday that the former journalist admitted that he had been paid to say that Sarawak Repor t and its founder as were frauds who had doctored documents in a bid to malign government agency 1MDB and Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak.

Lester, however, declined to reveal the amount he had received and its source.

It was also reported that Sarawak state minister James Masing had commented that Rahman Dahlan had made a 'wrong move' by using Lester's 'confession' .

To this, Rahman ( photo ), who is BN strategy communications director, said the 'message is more important than the messenger'.

He, however, admitted that he didn't know if Lester was a credible person or otherwise

"I don't know.  The messenger is not important, what is important is the message,” he told reporters when met at Najib's open house in Putrajaya today.

"Let the investigators see if (Lester's confession is) correct," he said while urging the authorities to speed up the investigation.

Wants him to spill

Yesterday, The Malaysian Insider quoted James Masing, who is also PRS president, as saying  he would not listen too much to what Lester said or pin much hope on his claims.

"I'm quite surprised. If Abdul Rahman had asked me, I would not have advised him to use Melanyi), said Masing.

 

When asked about Masing's criticism. Rahman Dahlan repeated that the message is more important than the messenger and that in this, he was quoting PKR Pandan MP Rafizi Ramli and DAP Petaling Jaya Utara MP Tony Pua, 

To a question if BN verified if Lester's claims were genuine before holding the press conference on Wednesday, the Umno leader retorted, "Why don't you ask Rafizi  and Pua this when they open their mouths?  "

"I have never met him (Lester)," he added.

Rahman also denied that Lester's video confession was a strategy used to counterattack the opposition.

"There is no strategy. What I did was a press conference, because my government has been tarnished," he said.

His job was also to tell the police about the video, he said.

"Lester must say it out, no holding back.  I want him to spill whatever he has to say," said Rahman.

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