KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 21 — Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim has called on all MPs to take a stern stand on the 2021’s Pandora Papers that exposed a global net of corruption, abuse of power and embezzlement.

He blamed a lack of political will in the past to take action against those implicated in the leak, claiming previous administrations were reluctant to take action to protect the big names involved.

"My orders for investigation bodies are to continue with their investigation. And I request that all of you, friends, all 222 MPs take a stern stand, don’t protect — when there is an investigation they immediately question the intention.

"If there is evidence and facts, action will be taken, but if action is taken without facts, then it can be disputed as abuse of power or political motive,” Anwar told the Parliament today during Prime Minister’s Question Time.

"But if money worth hundreds of billions or hundreds of millions of ringgit is been taken out, ignored and protected because they support us, it causes chaos and disaster to the country,”Anwar told the Dewan Rakyat today during the prime minister’s Question Time.

He was replying to a question by Umno’s Parit Sulong MP Datuk Seri Noraini Ahmad who asked the Prime Minister to stat government’s stance on the issue of Pandora Papers that has resurfaced last week and the extent to which investigations and follow-up actions by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission, Bank Negara Malaysia and the police have been carried out.

Recalling the first time the Pandora Papers were made publicly known in 2017, Anwar said he had raised the issue then and ask the then PM Datuk Seri Najib Razak to take action, but said there was no investigation at the time.

Anwar said some 3,000 names — some are legitimate and involve businessmen — in the Pandora Paper have been leaked, adding that the current focus is on political bigwigs.

He said these include former prime ministers, finance ministers, other past Cabinet members who are believed to have abused their power to gain wealth when they were in positions of authority.

He added that his administration has tightened the tender processes to prevent future abuses.

"I want to clarify that there are policies that help the Bumiputera, and there are direct tenders among those companies that can be done, there is no prevention for that.

"But they cannot use the excuse of wanting to help the Bumiputera and ask the companies to give them funds for their personal use or party use.

"With this I give my word to Parit Sulong that these habits have been stopped not just by me as finance minister but by other ministries as it has been decided in the Cabinet,” Anwar said.

The Pandora Papers — an investigation report involving some 600 journalists from media including The Washington Post, the BBC and The Guardian — was released in October 2021, and is based on document leaks from 14 financial services companies worldwide.

Two Malaysians were among the 336 global politicians alleged in the report to be using offshore companies to hide ill-gained wealth.

A Malaysian investigation was announced on October 25, 2021, by former de facto law minister Datuk Seri Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar, who said that the authorities would need time to investigate as the supposed criminal activities took place around 10 years ago.