PETALING JAYA: The battle against graft requires the cooperation of everyone and political parties shouldn’t be fearful of any probe by the authorities if they are not involved in any corrupt practices, says Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
“If you are clean, you don’t have to be afraid.
“How are we supposed to be clean if some of us are not cooperating with the authorities?” he told reporters after a meeting with PKR’s top leaders at the party’s headquarters here yesterday.
Anwar said it was “ironic” that Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin had strongly supported measures to freeze Umno accounts when the Bersatu president was the prime minister.
“Now, Bersatu’s accounts have been frozen due to certain decisions made under his (Muhyiddin) premiership.
“Muhyiddin should have been prepared to explain the needful and stop disrupting investigations by the authorities,” said Anwar.
He also said politicians shouldn’t misuse religion and racial issues to question the government’s efforts to fight corruption.
“The issue of freezing party accounts is nothing new,” he added.
Bersatu’s accounts were frozen by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) on Feb 1.
MACC chief commissioner Tan Sri Azam Baki said two Bersatu accounts were frozen, adding that its probe isn’t related to the alleged abuse of Covid-19 funds.
On a different matter, Anwar said internal studies carried out by Pakatan Harapan showed that the coalition did not suffer from weak support among Malay voters.
He added that Pakatan enjoyed an average of 31% support from the Malay voters in states across the country.
Although the current government isn’t popular in PAS-held states such as Kelantan and Terengganu, he said Pakatan enjoyed “massive support” in several other states.
“The support from some states were higher than 50%, such as Selangor, Penang, the Federal Territories and Negri Sembilan,” he added.
Anwar said it was incorrect to claim that Pakatan only enjoyed 19% of support among Malay voters.
“Otherwise, we wouldn’t have been able to record our GE15 figures,” he added, referring to the 15th General Election last November.
Anwar also said the unity government, which consisted of Pakatan, Barisan Nasional, Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) and Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS), among others, enjoyed more than two-thirds support from MPs and voters.“This is more than two-thirds majority (or 148 seats),” he added.
Anwar as Prime Minister is supported by Pakatan’s 82 MPs, Barisan’s 30 MPs, GRS (six), GPS (23), Warisan (three), two independent MPs, and one MP each from Parti KDM, Muda and PBM.
In November, political analyst Bridget Welsh said a study revealed that Pakatan’s share of Malay votes in GE15 was just 11%.