He said this was because the foundation’s source of funds was connected to 1MDB, which is still under investigation.
“Between 2011 and last year, 5,711 haj pilgrims were sponsored, amounting to almost RM57 million,” he said in reply to an oral question from Ahmad Maslan (BN-Pontian) in the Dewan Rakyat today.
To a supplementary question from Ahmad, who urged the government to consider allowing the 1,200 pilgrims who had already received offer letters to perform the haj this year using their own funds, Mujahid said priority was given to those performing the haj for the first time.
“I want to clarify that their quota came from the 1MDB foundation, so the new government will not take this quota from Tabung Haji even though the recipients are willing to pay for their pilgrimage,” he said.
To Hasanuddin Mohd Yunus (PH-Hulu Langat) who asked whether the award of sponsors to selected candidates was politically motivated, Mujahid said there were clear political elements present in 1MDB’s haj programme.
Hasanuddin had cited a statement by former prime minister Najib Razak (BN-Pekan) urging sponsored candidates to continue supporting Barisan Nasional.
“Since the haj sponsorship programme by the 1MDB foundation was introduced in 2011, more and more candidates were handpicked by Umno division chiefs and comprised even Village Development and Security Committees,” he said.
“This is in contrast to the programme’s initial objective of sponsoring the haj for Muslim leaders in the country who have never performed the haj, according to the fifth pillar of Islam.”
In 2011, he said, there were only 111 sponsored candidates.
“But the numbers kept increasing. For instance, in 2013, the figure increased to 800, and up until 2017 there were 1,100.
“The nomination process for the foundation was done with their names handpicked by Umno division leaders. It is clear that this was a political agenda using funds from the 1MDB foundation. And we all know what happened to 1MDB.”