This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on October 31, 2017

KUALA LUMPUR: Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, replying to questions in Parliament yesterday on his official trip to the US last month, said he did not pay for the invitation from US President Donald Trump.

Najib also dismissed the significance of where he had stayed during the visit after opposition leader Datin Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail asked why he had not been invited to stay at the president’s guest house, unlike Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong who was accorded the privilege during an official visit earlier this month.

“Although I did not stay in Blair House, I received an invitation to play golf with President Trump, and he ushered me to the car,” Najib said.

“We do not have to go into details in all these things [because] these are not policy-related issues. We must prioritise policy matters, and in terms of policy matters, we received the highest honour from the US administration,” he added.

Wan Azizah also questioned if Najib and his entourage’s stay at the Trump International Hotel in Washington was paid for using taxpayers’ money. The prime minister did not confirm whether the expenses were paid for by Putrajaya or the US government, stressing only that he did not pay for the invitation to meet Trump.

“I did not pay anything for the invitation [but] my predecessor did that to get an invitation from President Bush,” said Najib.

There had been allegations that former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad paid lobbyists millions of ringgit to arrange a meeting with then president George W Bush in 2002. Mahathir has denied the allegations.