Malaysia’s Mahathir slams Anwar over corruption probe against son Mirzan, challenges government to charge him
- The probe against Mirzan Mahathir concerns the sale of stakes in some government-linked corporations
- Mahathir slams Anwar Ibrahim’s government for abusing ‘the law to threaten people’ and says he is ‘prepared to be investigated’
The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) last week (January 18) ordered Mirzan Mahathir, the eldest son of the two-time premier, to declare his domestic and overseas assets within 30 days.
The order was part of investigations into the sale and purchase of some government-linked corporations (GLCs) and revelations from the Panama Papers.
Mahathir, now 98, said the investigation into his son was a clear case of selective persecution, especially after senior leaders including Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and MACC chief Azam Baki were cleared of corruption following investigations into their separate cases.
“I am prepared to be investigated. I can tell you which bank accounts, everything. The government can have access,” the former prime minister and sworn rival of Anwar told reporters.
“But don’t make use of government law in order to threaten people.”
At a conference at his office in Putrajaya, Mahathir accused Anwar and his administration of using the ongoing corruption crackdown as a front “to make sure I am found guilty” of some crime and hide the fact that the government does not enjoy majority support.
“People who form the government or become prime minister must be somebody who has won the election. But he has lost the election. A number of parties who lost the election joined together to take over the government,” Mahathir said.
“I challenge Anwar to call for a general election today.”
Anwar rose to the premiership in November 2022 at the behest of the King, on the condition that he formed a unity government that included his allies and political rivals after a deeply divided national election that saw the rise of a formidable Malay-Muslim parliamentary minority bloc.
Last year, the attorney-general dropped a corruption case against Ahmad Zahid while Azam was earlier cleared of wrongdoing over his stakes in several publicly listed companies.
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Mahathir said he has also been accused by Anwar of enriching himself while he was in power, something that he said has not been proven by any evidence.
“Instead of investigating Anwar for making wrong statements, my son is being investigated and I am being threatened,” Mahathir said at the conference held at the Perdana Leadership Foundation.
The nonagenarian leader, however, has also faced accusations of alleged corruption over the 22 years of his first prime ministership across everything from the finance to manufacturing sectors - allegations that he has denied.
Critics have said that the crackdown is an attempt at revenge by Anwar, whom Mahathir sacked as his deputy in 1998 and was later jailed on charges of corruption and sodomy.
Anwar and his supporters denied the charges. He was released on a royal pardon in 2018, during Mahathir’s second term.
The prime minister last week brushed off talk of a conspiracy to take down his rivals, saying that Malaysia “must show examples of taking brave action against the corrupt”.
Daim’s wife and two children were also summoned for questioning at the MACC’s headquarters last week, as part of investigations into revelations of the family’s alleged wealth of at least 25 million pounds (US$32 million) in the Pandora Papers.
Mirzan is a director of several companies including Philippine oil and gas company Petron and its parent firm San Miguel.
In 1998, he had also reportedly sold off his entire Hong Kong and Malaysian shipping operations and two liquefied natural gas companies under his Konsortium Perkapalan listed group to state-owned energy giant Petronas, a move seen as a bailout as Petronas answers directly to the prime minister - who was Mahathir at that time.
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Mirzan’s younger brother Mokhzani also built a fortune off oil and gas and was named among Malaysia’s 50 richest people on Forbes’ 2020 list.
Mahathir has long maintained that his children’s fortunes were made honestly.
The Pandora Papers is a massive leak of financial documents in 2021 which exposed the offshore financial activities of politicians, celebrities, and business leaders around the world.
The MACC last week said it had launched investigations in October 2022 on “all entities named in the Pandora” Papers and also an earlier batch of leaked documents called the Panama Papers.
