FORMER finance minister Lim Guan Eng has strangely received praises from rational Muslims for wholesome efforts to restore the financial health of ailing Tabung Haji from mismanagement under the Barisan Nasional (BN) administration.
This follows a revisit to a revelation by former UMNO information chief Shahril Hamdan who paid tribute to the then DAP secretary-general that the “parking” measure he had undertaken had enabled the world’s largest Islamic pilgrimage savings cooperative to pay dividends to contributors.
“Although I was in the opposition at the time, I didn’t see it as a problem but rather it was a creative way to resolve the situation in the short term,” he spoke in in the Keluar Sekejap podcast that he co-hosted alongside former health minister Khairy Jamaluddin who has since returned to the UMNO fold.
But at that time, there’re certain quarters in Muafakat Nasional, especially UMNO and PAS folks, who criticise by injecting a racist tone to the effort to transfer unprofitable Tabung Haji assets to a special purpose vehicle (SPV) (Urus Jamaah Sdn Bhd) under the Finance Ministry (MOF).
You can check my statement back then as the UMNO Youth vice-chief … I don’t like that narrative but nevertheless that narrative was played out.
Editor’s Note: One of the obvious mismanagements of Tabung Haji is the breach of Section 22 of the Tabung Haji Act which stipulated that the hajj fund cannot declare a bonus to depositors if its liabilities exceed its assets.
But to politically placate its depositors, Tabung Haji had in 2012 paid out RM2.46 bil in bonuses at 8% against a net profit of RM2.15 bil. In 2014, it paid RM3.24 bil at 8.25%, the highest bonus rate since 1998 against earnings of RM2.98 bil.
Bitter truth to swallow
The rewind of Shahril’s admission which has since become viral has somehow vindicated both Guan Eng and DAP of selling Tabung Haji assets and more so interfering in a Muslim affair with the intention to impoverish “the 100% Malay/Muslim depositors in Tabung Haji”.
As can be gauged from the recent TikTok post by @fitnahapahariini which has since garnered 354.7K views, 17.3K likes, 1,003 comments and 3,398 reposts/shares, the level of awareness has grown by leaps and bounds that “Guan Eng is indeed the Tabung Hsji saviour”.
“Not MCA, not MIC but DAP who saved the hajj fund. the rights of Muslims. UMNO is the destroyer while PAS instigates racism. These are facts,” remarked one commenter.
Elsewhere, Shahril’s vindication of DAP was shared by Threader @hana_032246 to convey to her brethren that “apparently, the DAP that you despise is the one who saved the assets of the hajj fund first”.
“This isn’t a Chinese fund but a savings fund for Malay Muslims to perform the hajj,” she jibed in a stinging post which has attracted 4.6K likes, 238 comments, 1K re-posts and 781 at the time of writing.
“Who stole the money? The MALAYS whom you worship now … after the RCI (Royal Commission of Inquiry) findings is made public, there will be many names that you’ll least expect to be exposed. Talk about Hidup Melayu but the reality is MELAYU MAKAN MELAYU (MALAYS EAT MALAYS).”
“We should be ashamed of DAP. They saved money belonging to the hajj fund yet got accused for selling its assets,” confessed one commenter.
“Tell this to the Walaun (PAS diehards) … they won’t listen … can’t accept because their brain is already rotten … only know how to fault DAP all the time,” added another with one declared that such hard-hitting truth “can get me labelled as a traitor of race and religion if shared on my WhatsApp group” – July 28, 2026
