Malaysia’s former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad on Tuesday challenged investigators to prove his alleged abuse of power while in government, as a widening crackdown by anti-corruption authorities pulls in his family members and allies in the business elite.
The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) has so far charged three people, including two business tycoons, for graft and summoned Mahathir’s two eldest sons for questioning over their assets.
It has yet to lay any formal allegations against Mahathir, who Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim has claimed had amassed billions of ringgit while in power.
Mahathir ‘the primary suspect’ in Malaysia’s anti-corruption probe, sons say
Mahathir ‘the primary suspect’ in Malaysia’s anti-corruption probe, sons say
Critics have accused Anwar of using the MACC to embark on a witch hunt against his mentor turned arch-rival Mahathir, who is 98.
Citing an MACC notice sent to his son, Mahathir questioned why the agency had concluded that he had committed an offence under section 23 of the MACC Act – which deals with abuse of power while holding government office – if he was not formally being investigated.
“As far as I know I have never been investigated. But the MACC notice said I have committed an offence,” the two-time prime minister said in a statement.
“The inspector-general of police said I was not treated like a criminal. But the notice [sent] to my son, Mirzan said that the MACC found that ‘an offence … had been made by Mahathir bin Mohamad’.”
Mahathir, who in late March was released from hospital after nearly two months of treatment for an infection, has repeatedly questioned the basis of the ongoing graft sweep, which he describes as politically motivated.
In 1998, Mahathir sacked Anwar as his deputy and later had him jailed on charges of corruption and sodomy. Anwar and his supporters have denied any wrongdoing, and a bitter two-decade rift has defined relations between the pair.
Last month, Mahathir’s two eldest sons said the MACC had ordered them to assist in investigations into their father in a case where he was the “primary suspect”. The MACC said it could not say what the investigation was about, Mokhzani, one of Mahathir’s sons summoned by the agency, said in a Bloomberg report.
The MACC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Malaysia’s ‘Casio king’ charged as corruption probe nets another Mahathir ally
Malaysia’s ‘Casio king’ charged as corruption probe nets another Mahathir ally
Mahathir, who last year filed a 150 million ringgit (US$31.3 million) defamation suit against Anwar, said the prime minister had to this day failed to provide proof that he had abused his position and amassed a fortune worth billions of ringgit.
“Even I did not know I owned billions of ringgit … This means until now I have not been found guilty. If the MACC has proof, show it,” the 98-year-old said in his statement.
Mahathir has accused Anwar of selective persecution after the MACC instructed his sons to declare their assets dating back to 1981 – the year that Mahathir came to power in his first 22-year stint as prime minister.
The MACC said the notice issued in January to Mokhzani, 63, and his 65-year-old brother Mirzan was related to investigations into leaked offshore business records revealed in recent years by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, a global media network.
That same month, prominent businessman and long-time Mahathir associate Daim Zainuddin and his wife Nai’mah Abdul Khalid were charged separately with failing to declare their assets.
Malaysian tycoon Robert Tan Hua Choon, dubbed the “Casio King”, was charged in early April with allegedly making false declarations in 2019 to win a US$840 million contract to run the government’s fleet of vehicles.
The 83-year-old businessman, widely seen as close to Daim, had previously secured a similar multibillion ringgit concession to manage the federal government’s vehicle fleet that ran for 25 years starting in 1993 – at the height of Mahathir’s first term in high office.