FORMER premier Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad has lamented that each time he criticised or exposed his successors’ misconduct, they were more inclined to find faults and threaten to reveal his alleged misdeeds from when he was prime minister.
“Rather than finding ways to address and rectify their wrongdoings, the prime ministers and their supporters would just attack me,” he said in a statement on X on Monday (June 24).
“This started with Pak Lah (Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi) and his fourth floor (boys), Datuk Seri Najib Razak and his 1MDB scandal and now with Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and his lies about reforms and combatting corruption.”
For the record, the “4th floor boys” referred to Abdullah’s team of young aides operating a storey below the prime minister’s office in Putrajaya who were alleged to have run the show and called the shots on various policy and administrative matters.
Between 2004 and 2009, Abdullah, the then prime minister, was constantly criticised for his reliance on these aides, who were accused by critics of being gatekeepers to the prime minister.
According to Dr Mahathir, it was not wrong to reveal his misconducts. In fact, he had even attempted to offer explanations and was more than ready to be investigated.
“Under the previous administrations, I had come under the scrutiny of royal commissions of inquiry (RCIs) and police investigations. My family had also been investigated by the Inland Revenue Board (LHDN) and now by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC).”
Dr Mahathir further pointed out that rather than looking into his exposures of the prime minister’s misconducts, government departments had been too busy investigating him.
“This was what happened during Najib’s time with his 1MDB scandal. He was cleared of any wrongdoing by the attorney-general he had appointed, and the same goes for the police, the MACC (whose chief commissioner was replaced with one of Najib’s supporters) and other agencies that should be investigating the scandal,” he stated.
“The same thing is happening today. After I sued Anwar for constantly accusing me of corruption and abuse of power, I had given him the opportunity to reveal the evidence to back his allegations.”
Dr Mahathir said based on Anwar’s past statements about him, the prime minister would already have boxes of documents allegedly containing proof of his misconduct.
“Isn’t the court the best place for Anwar to prove his accusations? Unfortunately, to this day he has no evidence. Rather, he continues to make use of political platforms to boast that he is the best person in combatting corruption,” he added.
“When told to reveal his evidence in court, he remains silent while agencies such as the MACC were instructed to investigate my children as if they have anything incriminating that could be used against me.
“This means for 30 years he had levelled accusations against me without any evidence and now when I sue him, he continues to use the MACC to help find the ‘evidence’ of my misconduct.” – June 24, 2024
Main pic credit: Getty Images
