This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on March 23, 2018

KUALA LUMPUR: Petroliam Nasional Bhd (Petronas) has come out to deny the claim that it paid over US$2 million (RM7.82 million) to data firm Cambridge Analytica on behalf of the federal government to influence Malaysian voters.

“Petronas wishes to categorically deny the allegations against the company made by online portal Sarawak Report on March 20, 2018, and any association with data consultancy Cambridge Analytica and its parent company SCL Group,” the national oil corporation said in a statement yesterday.

Sarawak Report, in the March 20 article, claimed that Petronas was used as a front to channel the monies to SCL Group, the parent company of Cambridge Analytica, back in 2014.

The portal claimed that it sighted an 85-page proposal provided to Petronas in 2014 “which clearly indicate” that the company paid SCL Group over US$2 million “to target and influence key opinion formers in swing constituencies in Sabah and Sarawak specifically in favour of the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition”.

“Petronas was moreover instructed to provide full financial support to a plainly expensive parallel operation anticipated by the company, which was to target the wider Malaysian media in order to cultivate journalists into providing friendly coverage,” Sarawak Report claimed.

Cambridge Analytica is a London-based data firm, famous for being hired by the Donald Trump campaign during the 2016 US presidential election.

The company has been in the local spotlight following an undercover report by Britain’s Channel 4 News on March 19, which caught on video executives of the company mentioning that it has conducted data mining and analysis to provide targeted messaging services in Malaysia.

The Prime Minister’s Office has since issued a statement denying that BN has ever hired Cambridge Analytica and SCL Group. But it added that the SCL Group country representative had confirmed that “Cambridge Analytica’s advice on the 2013 general election was provided personally to [Datuk Seri] Mukhriz Mahathir, PPBM’s deputy president”.

SCL Group Southeast Asia chief Azrin Zizal, who claimed he was a former press officer for Mukhriz up until 2015, said he provided the firm’s advice to the former boss to bring Kedah under BN’s banner in the 2013 election.

Mukhriz, however, has said he is “not aware” of Cambridge Analytica’s involvement in Kedah during the election. He also said Azrin had only worked under him until 2013.