KUALA LUMPUR, July 18 — DAP secretary-general Anthony Loke has conceded that Malaysia’s coalition government could not have been formed without Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi as Umno would have been unlikely to join forces with Pakatan Harapan (PH) otherwise.
In an interview with Chinese-language local daily Sin Chew Daily ahead of next month’s six state elections, said DAP has not forgotten the existing corruption charges against Zahid and that the court process would still go on, but also said that there is still a need to work with Zahid.
“Any court cases have to go through the court process to be decided, we did not say that he is deputy prime minister, the case will be dropped now, he still has to go through trial at court,” Loke was quoted saying.
“Now, he is head of Umno and BN, this is a reality that we have to accept. We respect his position, and have to cooperate with him, because he represents the political party and coalition. You cannot say, now he is a burden and want to discard him, politics is not like that,” he said, after being asked if Umno president and BN chairman Zahid would be a burden to the unity government.
Following the 15th general election, no single party or coalition won enough parliamentary seats for a simple majority of 112 to form the federal government.
A unity government was later formed with the partnership of DAP’s Pakatan Harapan (PH) and Umno’s Barisan Nasional (BN) and other political parties, with their total seats held hitting a two-thirds majority.
“This is the situation that we all know now. The main principle of the unity government is that cannot interfere with other political parties’ politics, whoever is [Umno] president we also have to accept,” he reportedly said.
Loke was also reported saying that DAP should not interfere on who should lead Umno as that would be the latter party’s internal matter.
“If want to say this person can, that person cannot, there would be no end to the matter. As for whether Zahid is a burden, should let Umno itself decide,” Loke was quoted saying in the report.
In the High Court in Kuala Lumpur, Zahid is currently facing 47 charges including 12 counts of criminal breach of trust in relation to charitable foundation Yayasan Akalbudi’s funds, but was reported to have sent two sets of representation letters — which other accused persons have also done in the past — to the attorney general on the case.
The trial was previously put on hold as the prosecution needed more time to look through the documents numbering more than 200 pages from the representation and to also wait for the outcome of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission’s (MACC) plans to further investigate Zahid’s case. This case is scheduled to come up before the High Court in Kuala Lumpur on August 1.
While the contents of the representation letters have not been specified, accused persons can generally send in representation letters to the attorney general for various purposes, such as to seek for charges to be withdrawn or to be replaced with alternative charges that carry a lower penalty.
The High Court in Shah Alam had on September 23, 2022 acquitted Zahid of all 40 charges in a corruption case. Zahid was later reported to have sent a representation letter to ask for the prosecution to discontinue its appeal against his acquittal.
The prosecution’s appeal against Zahid’s acquittal has yet to be heard and is scheduled for case management at the Court of Appeal on July 28.
