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Malaysia’s anti-corruption net tightens around Anwar’s rivals after decades of bad blood: ‘it’s a smart move’
- Mahathir Mohamad and Daim Zainuddin are among the old adversaries of PM Anwar Ibrahim to be swept up in a wide-ranging anti-corruption investigation
- Anwar has denied any involvement in the crackdown, which stems from the Pandora Papers leak. But the timing couldn’t be better, one analyst says
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Be it a vendetta or a pre-emptive strike against rivals who are determined to derail his government, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim appears to have made his move with a corruption purge aimed at the powerful clans of Mahathir Mohamad and Daim Zainuddin.
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Now he has to stay the course, analysts and political insiders say, and hope a public frazzled by years of destabilising back-room political manoeuvres – and enraged by corruption – rallies behind his 14-month-old administration.
Anwar, who has been jailed twice himself, has already received a stark warning on the consequences of failure.
“Power is brief,” Daim’s wife, Naimah Abdul Khalid, said after she was charged on January 23 by Malaysia’s Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) with failing to declare her assets, which include the now-seized 58-storey Ilham Tower. “There is always a reckoning for those who abuse it.”
But at the end of a stunning week in Malaysian politics, which also saw a new king ascend the throne and disgraced former leader Najib Razak have his 12 year jail sentence halved by the pardons board, Anwar appears to be sitting pretty.
While the 72-year-old prime minister’s timing may be right, he has taken on formidable – if aged – rivals with the money and motive to come back at him.
Daim, the 85-year-old former finance minister under Mahathir and patriarch of one of Malaysia’s most connected business families, was charged on Monday with failing to disclose assets.
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