(Sept 29): Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said he enjoyed a “good personal relationship” with US President Barack Obama, a friendship, he said, was forged outside formal settings.

Speaking to Malaysian students in New York, Najib said this was why he could play golf with Obama “for four hours”.

He also quipped that he was the only Malaysian prime minister to have played golf with the US president, a Malaysian student who attended the session told The Malaysian Insider.

The student, who did not want to be named, said Najib said he forged personal ties with Obama for the sake of Malaysia.

Najib is in the United States to attend the 70th session of the United Nations General Assembly on October 1.

At the session with Malaysian students, Najib also reminded them not to believe everything reported on blogs and news websites.

Embattled Najib, who is under scrutiny at home and in some countries over alleged irregularities in his brainchild, state investment firm 1Malaysia Development Bhd, met the students at the Malaysian Consulate in New York yesterday.

He is also under pressure over a RM2.6 billion political donation channelled into his personal accounts. He has not explained where the money went, although he said he had held it in trust for Umno, the ruling Malay party which he leads.

Najib’s golf game with Obama in December last year drew flak as it took place while Kelantan, a rural Malay heartland state in the northeast of the peninsula, experienced one of its worst episodes of flooding.

The floods displaced thousands of people, many of whom still have not received new homes. – The Malaysian Insider