Rafizi accuses pro-Najib influencer of 'misleading' Malay voters

Rafizi Ramli slammed social media influencer “Lim Sian See” for deliberately writing statements that do not portray “whole truths” to sway Malay voters’ mindsets.

The economy minister made the accusation in the latest episode of “Yang Bakar Menteri” (YBM) podcast with Lim, who was unmasked as Eric See-To, the BN strategic communications deputy director when Najib Abdul Razak was prime minister in the run-up to the 2018 election.

“Lim Sian See has a huge following among the Malay electorate; in fact bigger than some Umno leaders.

“You run Najib’s Facebook (account), so why do you spread untruth, defending the indefensible?” asked Rafizi.

The PKR deputy president particularly referred to See-To’s defence of the 1MDB scandal despite the publicised investigations, court cases and convictions connected to it. Investigators allege at least US$4.5 billion was misappropriated from the sovereign fund.

To this, See-To said he would continue defending Najib, as the former Umno president had allegedly been subjected to “great injustice” with his imprisonment over the SRC International case.

Recovered funds

Commenting on 1MDB, See-To alleged the Madani government deliberately does not publicise the amount of 1MDB-linked money the investigators have recovered out of the money stolen.

To this, Rafizi “thanked” See-To for acknowledging the return of the money, as it shows that the money was stolen in the first place.

“Going by his (See-To’s) logic, we can steal money, but as long as we return it later, the theft won't be considered a crime.

“That is not the concept. The concept is a company was established to help the people, but money was later swindled, and until now, we cannot recover (the stolen money). Part of the stolen money was used for personal gain.”

Spinning the narrative

See-To further said the Inland Revenue Board should not have imposed a hefty RM1.5 billion tax bill on Najib for not declaring his income of about RM4 billion for the period between 2011 and 2017, including the RM2.6 billion "donation" from the Saudi royal family.

He argued that since Najib had returned US$620 million from the US$681 million, the money cannot be considered as income, and thus, should not be taxable.

"Najib did not use the money for personal money. If he wanted to steal it, why would he park it in his account?

"Those who stole (money from 1MDB), like (former 1MDB general counsel) Jasmine Loo, and (former Bank Negara governor) Zeti (Akhtar Aziz's) husband; those who stole and parked (the money) overseas (are still free), while those who did not steal for personal gain and gave for charity is now in prison," See-To lamented.

This was in reference to Najib's conviction in the RM42 million SRC International corruption case. The former Umno president was initially jailed for 12 years and fined RM210 million, but later, his jail term was halved to six years, and his fine was reduced to RM50 million.

At this juncture, Rafizi accused See-To of "spinning the narrative" around the issue, by not giving proper context to confuse the electorate, especially the Malays.

See-To denied this, saying that he was merely defending the truth when no one else wanted to.

He then challenged the government to rebut his writings with sources and take action against him if he had spread anything untrue online.

Rafizi agreed, saying that previously no action could be taken against See-To's writing as he was "hiding" behind the Lim Sian See persona, but now that the latter's persona has been revealed, it would be easier to rebut and report his writing, if need be.

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