PKR vice-president Rafizi Ramli denied he gained in exposing the National Feedlot Corporation Sdn Bhd saga and instead claimed he had suffered financially and faced threats to his personal freedom.

He also said what he earns now as an MP is only 30 per cent of what he used to earn as chief financial officer of a public listed company.

“My net pay is RM10,000 a month as an MP, and I donate part of it to a service centre. This pales in comparison to the six charges I am facing. I do not see how it vindicates me to push this issue, ” he said today in court.

When asked by his lawyer Razlan Hadri Zulkifli during re-examination what issue was that, the first-term federal lawmaker said it was to make people realise the importance of accountability.

“The biggest problem in the country is how public money is being spent and the lack of accountability for public money that had been misspent or abused.

“The public is being burdened more and more with new taxes, and normal families have to bear this without realising that there's mismanagement of public funds, as with NFC. I want Malaysia to hold public officials accountable for public money. If you fix that, change will come gradually,” he said.

Rafizi was testifying in the suit filed against him and Malaysiakini by NFC and its chairperson Mohamad Salleh Ismail.

Salleh had claimed that Rafizi's March 7, 2012 press conference, alleging he had used the RM74.1 million fixed deposit from a government loan from the NFC project to secure the loan to purchase eight KL Eco City condominiums, had resulted in him being charged and that the total loan of RM86 million was seized.

Earlier during cross-examination by David Morais, Rafizi admitted he did not check with Salleh that the Public Bank loan offer for the purchase of eight condominium units at KL Eco-City had been withdrawn.

Morais: Did you verify with Salleh?

Rafizi: I did not, After Nov 16, 2011, the first plaintiff (Salleh) came out with a media release on why the business model was using public funds to secure loan. Part and parcel of his business model was the purchase of eight more units (at KL Eco-City). He was sticking to the model and there was no need (to verify).

Morais: You are making an assumption on this?

Rafizi: He had admitted publicly before that the (NFC) project was not on schedule so he bought properties.

Morais: How did you know these purchases were related to the project?

Rafizi: From the two properties in One Menerung. This is his business model and corporate structure of the project where he would use his personal name. Also with the three expensive condos in Singapore, what did it have anything to do with the project?

Morais: You made the assumption that the purchase of the KL Eco-City units is not related to the project?

Rafizi: I made reasonable assumption based on what happened or otherwise.

Morais: Did you offer my client to verify your assumption?

Rafizi: No.

The PKR vice-president who is also Pandan MP, told the court that his only interest was to see the RM250 million loan recovered for the good of the public, but until today, this had yet to happen.

Rafizi added despite various revelations, there had been no action or response from the government regarding safeguarding the sum.

It was as if, he said, the management of the funds was not in the interest of the public. However he believed the government had to answer for it, as well as make sure this kind of thing did not happen again.

Criminal offence

To questions from senior lawyer Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, he agreed that receiving anonymous documents regarding the accounts of Salleh and NFC, could be an infringement under the Banking and Financial Institution Act. This raised the possibility of criminal offences committed not only by him, but also the sender.

Rafizi added he was not aware that under the law, if a person received confidential or private documents, that person should lodge a report under Section 202 and 203 of the Penal Code. He said he did not do this.

The Pandan MP was also asked whether he knew that Salleh's wife Shahrizat Abdul Jalil was a key figure in Umno, as the head of the women's wing.

“In my experience it is the government officers who assist in Umno or BN campaigns and they come from the Welfare Department, Rela and the Special Affairs Department,” he said.

Later, Malaysiakini's editor-in- chief Steven Gan, journalist Aidila Razak and former video producer Shufiyan Shukor, who took the video of Rafizi's press conference, testified regarding the event.

They were represented by lawyer K Shanmuga.

Kuala Lumpur High Court judicial commissioner Azizul Azmi Adnan fixed July 8 for submissions.