KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 15 — Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has said that his deputy Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi had never asked for his ongoing court cases to be withdrawn.
In an exclusive interview with Thai PBS, Anwar credited the Umno president for not interfering in the judicial process.
“So far, he has never intervened. We have to go through the process. He had never asked me to drop the cases he is facing now,” he was quoted as saying.
Anwar said this when asked how he, as the Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition chairman who championed against graft, could work with Zahid who is facing corruption charges.
The prime minister stressed that good governance remained the unity government’s agenda, which Zahid had to adhered to.
Zahid, who is also the rural and regional development minister, is accused of 47 charges of corruption, criminal breach of trust and money laundering linked to funds of the charitable foundation Yayasan Akalbudi.
Meanwhile, Anwar pointed out that it was not right for certain quarters to discredit a person when the system was already corrupted.
“When they become the opposition, they raise corruption issues daily, but they still award RM100 million worth of contracts to their sons-in-law and cronies. If you want to deal with it, do it transparently,” he said.
Apart from good governance, Anwar said steering the country out of corruption was among the agreements made between PH and Barisan Nasional when it formed the unity government.
He said that both coalitions were aware and agreed that the nation needed political stability to chart a new future.
“Political instability will kill the country politically and economically.
“For the last few years, nothing was moving. There was no policy or direction and because of that, leaders took the chance to squander as much as possible,” he was reported saying.
