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Explainer | What is behind Malaysia’s corruption crackdown that’s ensnared Daim Zainuddin, former aide of Mahathir Mohamad?
- Investigators are looking into the wealth of high-profile politicians and businesspeople named in the Pandora and Panama Papers
- PM Anwar Ibrahim, whose enmity with Mahathir goes back decades, says the clampdown is part of efforts to push government reform and tackle endemic corruption
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Naimah Abdul Khalid did not mince her words in her rebuke of Malaysia’s Anwar Ibrahim on Tuesday. “Power is brief,” she said, accusing the prime minister of using a corruption crackdown as a cover to get back at his political rivals.
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Addressing a mob of reporters at the Kuala Lumpur court, the wife of veteran politician and businessman Daim Zainuddin accused Anwar of co-opting the country’s anti-corruption agency and top prosecutor to pursue a political vendetta.
“I say this to you, Anwar Ibrahim, that power is brief and there is always a reckoning for those who abuse it,” Naimah told reporters after she was charged with failing to declare her assets as part of an investigation by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) into her family’s wealth.
The agency has been closing in on high-profile politicians and businesspeople named in the Pandora Papers and Panama Papers. So far, they happen to also be linked to Anwar’s former mentor-turned-nemesis, Mahathir Mohamad.
Mahathir has described the ongoing investigations as selective persecution, even claiming that the MACC had done nothing to look into allegations raised in 1999 that Anwar had squirrelled away billions of ringgit under multiple accounts.
The MACC on Wednesday denied Mahathir’s claim, saying an in-depth probe was launched while he was still prime minister, and there was no case against Anwar.
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Naimah is the first to be charged in connection with the corruption crackdown.
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