Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah does not want to be dragged into the latest controversy stirred up by Malaysia Today founder and editor Raja Petra Kamaruddin.
His personal aide Lukman Mohd Ghani said the Umno veteran did not want to comment on the matter as he did not want to be perceived as being involved.
Raja Petra's latest online posting had implicated Razaleigh's aides in his controversial statutory declaration (SD) in 2008 which implicated Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak and his wife Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor in the murder of Mongolian beauty Altantuya Shaariibuu on Oct 19, 2006.
The posting followed his interview with TV3 in which he claimed that he had doubts over the details of the SD.
He went on to name Tengku Razaleigh's former strategist John Pang and an ex-aide Nik Azmi Nik Daud as part of several sources who provided information for his SD on June 18, 2008.
In his posting, Raja Petra implied that he felt that the wrong facts in the SD was to prevent Najib from becoming the Prime Minister and in turn, for Tengku Razaleigh to assume the post.
Lukman said instead of trying to get Razaleigh to comment, the media should instead seek Pang and Nik Azmi to find out the truth about Raja Petra's disclosure.
Pang, a former university lecturer, was once involved in Tengku Razaleigh's campaign to seek nominations for the Umno presidency in 2008.
Nik Azmi, 59, used to work for Tengku Razaleigh when the latter was the finance minister in the 1980s.
Both Nik Azmi and Pang could not be reached for comments.
