Abdul Azeez Rahim, when met by reporters at the Dewan Rakyat today described the criticism hurled at TH by Opposition politicians as nothing other than “political polemic.”

“I am a Barisan Nasional (BN) MP so they want to politicise (the financial standing of) Tabung Haji to the extent of accusing us of going bankrupt. There has been a lot of slander uttered by the Opposition which has been played out through blogs and so on.

“We (TH) have no problems. This is their (Opposition) political propaganda just because I, a politician, is also the chairman. So since they can’t attack me personally, they attack Tabung Haji,” he said.

Earlier this week, Parti Amanah Negara (Amanah) vice-president Mujahid Yusof Rawa raised concerns about the delay by TH in declaring dividends to their nine million depositors, an announcement he claimed that should have been made on January 22.

Mujahid said, although TH had until March to announce the dividends and bonuses, its silence over the matter raised questions on the fund’s financial situation.

Azeez, who is also MP for Baling however gave his assurance that the Malaysian hajj pilgrims fund was not facing any financial problems.

“I would like to announce that the cost for one person to perform the hajj this year is RM18,980 and TH is charging only RM9,980 which means that for the first time, TH is subsidising each pilgrim RM8,910.

“How can TH bear this subsidy if we are losing money?”