Pakatan Harapan chairperson Dr Mahathir Mohamad believes that Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak’s trip to the United States was not to fight for the Rohingya and instead, was a mere photo opportunity with President Donald Trump.

And the former premier claimed that Najib had paid just for the photo opportunity.

“I think the media knows that a photo opportunity is more important,” said Mahathir in a press conference at the opposition leader’s room in Parliament today.

He was responding to Najib who yesterday said that he was able to persuade Trump to include the oppression and cleansing of ethnic Rohingya in Myanmar into their discussion despite this not being on the initial agenda.

This, Najib had said, was among examples of Malaysia’s influence on the US and other world powerhouses.

Najib also said that the special treatment given by Trump in their meeting last month was a manifestation of the friendship between Malaysia and the US.

According to the premier, the efforts of Malaysia, together with other parties, had led the US to provide US$32 million in humanitarian aid to the Rohingya, as well as its decision to cut off its military assistance to Myanmar.

Najib had also insisted that he, unlike Mahathir during his time as premier, did not need to fork out money to meet the US president.

The prime minister previously claimed that Mahathir had spent millions to secure a meeting with former US president George W Bush, which the Harapan chairperson had denied.

Mahathir had met with Bush in 2002 and had for years been accused of paying for the meeting.