Malaysia’s revolving door of corruption, persecution hurts support for Anwar’s crackdown

A Malaysian public that’s accustomed to politics shaping prosecutions largely sees PM Anwar Ibrahim following in the footsteps of his predecessors
Until he can make clear exactly what sort of reforms his government is pursuing, observers say Malaysians’ lack of trust in the system will persist

Malaysia

Joseph Sipalan

Published: 6:00pm, 9 Apr 2024

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In Malaysia, a corruption crackdown barrelling towards the family and allies of former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad has failed to ignite much enthusiasm, observers say, as the public largely sees through the headlines and suspects politics rather than transparency is at play.

The country’s corruption problem was once again thrust under the spotlight on April 1 when the king, Sultan Ibrahim Iskandar, described corruption as the greatest scourge of a nation that ranks 57th out of 180 countries on Transparency International’s 2023 Corruption Perceptions Index.

“My honeymoon is over, now go catch the bees,” the king said after a meeting with Azam Baki, the chief commissioner of Malaysia’s anti-corruption agency, presenting him with a container of honey to mark the end of the “honeymoon” period.

‘Go catch the bees’: Malaysia’s king gifts honey to anti-corruption chief

The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) certainly has been busy in recent months, even investigating tycoons whose businesses and profiles soared during Mahathir’s first 22-year stint as prime minister.

Last week, prosecutors charged “Casio King” Robert Tan Hua Choon for allegedly “cheating” his way into a government contract worth nearly 4 billion ringgit (US$842 million) for the supply, repair, maintenance and management contract of vehicles for federal use.

Tan, seen as close to Mahathir associate and businessman Daim Zainuddin, had previously secured a similar contract worth billions of ringgit in the 1990s while Mahathir was in charge.

Nai’mah Abdul Khalid, wife of Malaysia’s former finance minister Daim Zainuddin, leaves a court in Kuala Lumpur on March 22. She and her husband have been charged with failing to declare assets. Photo: EPA-EFE

Daim and his wife Nai’mah Abdul Khalid, have also been charged with failing to declare their assets. Meanwhile, Mahathir’s two eldest sons have been asked to declare assets they accumulated since 1981, the year their father first took power, as the corruption probe zeroes-in on those closest to the 98-year-old ex-leader.

Mahathir and those who have been implicated in the crackdown deny all wrongdoing, alleging political persecution by Anwar Ibrahim now he is in the prime minister’s office after a decades-long wait.

Many among the Malaysian public – accustomed to politics shaping prosecutions – are inclined to agree, seeing Anwar as following a pattern set by his predecessors, while his allies walk free.

Last year the attorney general ditched a cascade of corruption charges against Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi – whose once-powerful Umno party was instrumental in giving Anwar a parliamentary majority to claim high office – triggering public outcry.

As Malaysia’s Ahmad Zahid walks free, will 1MDB-plagued Najib Razak be next?

“If they could not even follow through with the 47 charges [against Ahmad Zahid] then to the people this [corruption crackdown] will all fail,” said Jiah, a 45-year-old food vendor in Kuantan, Pahang state, who only gave one name.

“PMX has been a disappointment,” he said of Anwar, Malaysia’s tenth prime minister.

Malaysians saw a ray of hope in 2022, when the country’s apex court ordered former prime minister Najib Razak to begin serving a 12-year jail sentence for corruption linked to a former unit of scandal-wracked state fund 1MDB.

But his sentence was halved in January by a pardons board headed by the country’s previous king, triggering public outrage and questions about whether the government had anything to do with the reprieve granted to a figure who remains deeply influential within Umno.

Former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak arrives at Kuala Lumpur High Court last week after filing a judicial review application in a bid to serve the remainder of his prison sentence for corruption under house arrest. Photo: EPA-EFE

Analysts say Anwar cannot avoid the perception that he is going after political opponents, especially as his storied rivalry with Mahathir dates back decades.

“Depending on who you ask, there is some perception that the cases so far have involved actors allegedly linked to the former prime minister,” said Shazwan Mustafa Kamal, a director with government risk consultancy Vriens & Partners.

Mahathir sacked Anwar as his deputy in 1998 after a falling out, and later had him jailed on charges of corruption and sodomy – allegations that Anwar and his supporters have denied.

The split triggered a political movement driven by Anwar and his supporters that claimed to reform the decades of rent-seeking and crony capitalism they said thrived under Mahathir.

Mahathir Mohamad speaks at his office in Putrajaya in January. His storied rivalry with Anwar dates back decades. Photo: AP

Observers say Anwar’s challenge now is convincing the Malaysian public that he is indeed the broom that sweeps clean, as he promised during his election campaign.

“The PM definitely has to do more to address public perceptions and the reality of the systemic and institutional rot of corruption in the economy and state apparatus,” said Jason Loh Seong Wei, who heads the social, law and human rights arm of independent Malaysian think tank Emir Research.

A good first step towards addressing public distrust in the system would be giving the MACC and attorney general’s chambers a greater degree of independence, according to the Centre to Combat Corruption and Cronyism (C4 Centre).

Both the MACC’s chief commissioner and the attorney general are appointed by the king on the prime minister’s advice and are widely seen as highly politicised entities.

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“Whether or not the MACC is pursuing a witch hunt is far less important than the fact that … it is possible under the present framework for the body’s powers to be misused for political gain,” C4 Centre chief Pushpan Murugiah told This Week in Asia.

“It is more important to discuss whether or not the government is introducing a legal and political environment that seeks to prevent corruption as opposed to addressing it after the fact.”

Until Anwar can make it clear what sort of reforms his administration is pursuing, he is likely to have to deal with the reality that people simply do not trust the system.

“Now going after those who made his life miserable in the past,” said Facebook user Terence Huang. “Next time will be his turn. Never ending.”