Since taking over the reins in April, 2009, Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak has spent nearly RM9 million on foreign trips.<\/p>\n
PKR Senator Syed Husin Ali revealed a list containing details of the trips in the Parliament lobby this morning.<\/p>\n
The list, provided by the Prime Minister’s Deparment, showed that Najib had gone on 42 official trips abroad which cost RM8,724,895.91.<\/p>\n
The most expensive of these trips were visits to Japan, the United States and Vietnam. The trips cost RM2,094,635.39 and took place between April 5 and 22 this year.<\/p>\n
Najib’s first outing overseas was to Thailand on April 10, 2009 \u2013 a mere week after he took over from former prime minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. It cost RM78,507.55.<\/p>\n
Other notable trips included a nine-day trip to France from Oct 1 to 9 in 2009, where Najib spent a total of RM630,467.<\/p>\n
The most expensive trip to a single country took place between Sept 20 and Oct 8 this year, when the premier spent RM1,043,923 in a visit to the US.<\/p>\n
He also spent vastly different amounts in two separate trips to Thailand.<\/p>\n
In his trip to Thailand from Nov 23 to 25, Najib spent a mere RM3,346.08.<\/p>\n
Two weeks later, in his Dec 6 to 10 Thailand trip, he incurred a cost of RM84,572.04.<\/p>\n
“I want to know what is the real profit from all these trips overseas, and what is the return from all this expenditure,” Syed Husin told the press.<\/p>\n
First Lady<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n The senator also revealed that Najib had spent 274 days out of his 588 days in office (up to Nov 19, 2010) overseas.<\/p>\n This earned considerable ire from Syed Husin, who accused the prime minister of spending half his time overseas, when he should have been taking care of the country’s problems.<\/p>\n Asked if he knew the size of Najib’s entourage in his overseas trips, Syed Husin he said, “We don’t know his (exact) expenses, or the size of his (entourage).”<\/p>\n He also said that the premier brought his wife, Rosmah Mansor, on many of these trips.<\/p>\n However, he could not elaborate which trips were attended by Rosmah.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the senator also revealed that the three-day First Ladies Summit from Oct 13 incurred expenses of up to RM4.498 million.<\/p>\n The summit was initiated by Rosmah, and saw participation from representatives of 16 countries, including Malaysia.<\/p>\n Syed Husin had asked for a detailed account of the summit’s total expenditure. He received a written reply from the Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development.<\/p>\n However, he said that the reply was inadequate as it only showed the total amount, instead of a detailed account.<\/p>\n He also criticised Rosmah for usurping the role of the First Lady, saying that the position was reserved for the Raja Permaisuri Agong.<\/p>\n “What is the basis of giving RM4.5 million to the Najib’s wife to have this conference? What about the role of the Raja Permaisuri Agong?” he asked.-FMT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Since taking over the reins in April, 2009, Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak has spent nearly RM9 million on foreign trips. PKR\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"bo_wartawan":[],"bo_jenis":[],"class_list":["post-4164","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-c48-news"],"better_featured_image":null,"yoast_head":"\n