NO "EXPRESS HAJ" CASES IN SARAWAK, SAYS DAUD

THIS HOWEVER, WON'T LET OUR GUARD DOWN BUT WE WILL KEEP MONITORING THE SITUATION FROM TIME TO TIME

SO far, there is no report yet of Lembaga Tabung Haji’s (LTH) "Express Haj" cases occurring in Sarawak such had as had happened in West Malaysia recently.

“As far as I am concern, there are no reports of "Express Haj" cases had occurred in this state where pilgrims on the waiting list “jumping” their queues after making “some services payment” to LTH staffers such had happened in Peninsula Malaysia.”

Assistant Minister (Islamic Affair) to Chief Minister Office Datuk Haji Daud Abdul Rahman said this adding therefore, to his knowledge no LTH staffers in Sarawak were picked up by the Malaysia Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) related to this issue.

“This circumstances (no LTH Express Haj cases in Sarawak) however, won’t let our guard down but we will keep on monitoring the situation from time to time,” he added.

"I am not saying that those who had performed their Haj through the “Express Haj” are “haram” because of God knows that but they definitely should had performed their Haj properly and accordingly to the stipulated procedure to achieve “Haji Makbur” (Perfect Haj),” explained Daud.

Daud, who is also Tupong State Assemblyman disclosed this to UnReportedNews™® during an exclusive interview which was held in his office at Baitul Makmur Building in Petra Jaya near the city yesterday morning.

According to a National-paper, due to the uncover of the “Express-Haj” scam, Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Datuk Seri Jamil Khir Baharom had pledged to upgrade the LTH’s computerized database security to overcome weaknesses in haj management to ensure no one can by-pass the haj’s waiting-list names.

In a related matter, Daud told UnReportedNews™® that the quota for Sarawakian pilgrims for last year and this year is only 700 people which is too little, despite the State had been “urging” to the Islamic Affairs in Prime Minister’s (PM) Office for the Sarawak quota to be added up to 1,200 people.

“We (Sarawak) are a bit disappointed with the (PM) office relating to this issue as each year, we had written letter after letter asking additional quota for Sarawakian pilgrims from the Federal government but disappointing, till today, none of our letters were entertained.”

“We literally had even pleaded to them (PM Office) urging them to give priority to those who had not perform their Haj yet but not to those who had performed their Haj as they can opted by using private company (slightly higher cost compared to LTH), as I said, they just won’t listen to us,” added Daud.

-UnReportedNews™®