Penang Institute Chief Executive Officer Zairil Khir Johari said it would refrain from commenting on the matter.
“No comment,” he said when contacted by FMT.
This follows news that a leaked document on the minutes of a meeting discussing strategies for the upcoming general election by OSF had been uploaded by whistleblower site DC Leaks.
In a PDF document titled “2014 Work Plan for Southeast Asia Program”, Penang Institute was listed as one of the grant-in-kind beneficiaries under its “Political Participation of Citizens” programme.
The contribution is not in cash but in kind – in the form of a study grant to pursue graduate fellowships at the Central European University’s School for Public Policy, in Hungary. It is for two to three people per session.
It was also stated that the selected students would have their tuition, living stipend and travel expenses paid for.
The proposed budget allocation for the purpose ranged from USD588,000 to USD672,000.
Besides, Penang Institute, other beneficiaries listed include:
Comfrell, C4 Malaysia, Pusat Kesedaran Komuniti (Empower), Islamic Renaissance Front, Komas, Merdeka Center for Opinion Research, Suaram, Suaram International, Citizen Journalists Malaysia (Sabah), Unimas, Café Democracy, Internet Dialogue on Law Reform, NBTC Watch, People Information Center, and Patani Forum.
It was earlier revealed that United States-based whistleblower site, DC Leaks, had uploaded a leaked document outlining plans by a foreign group intent on meddling in Malaysian politics through a programme called the “Malaysia Program”.
The document is a leaked minutes of a meeting, allegedly involving members from the Soros-linked OSF and Merdeka Center director Ibrahim Suffian. Ibrahim has since said he was only there for a presentation and left soon after.
The minutes revealed that OSF started working on the 13th General Election (GE13) in 2010, initially anticipating that it would be held in 2011, two years after Prime Minister Najib Razak took over the nation’s top post.
Over the years, Soros has been linked to pro-democracy activities in Eastern Europe and has also been accused of being involved in currency manipulation. Soros became a household name in Malaysia in the late 1990s when then prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad accused him of engineering the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis.