KUALA LUMPUR, March 21 — Days after alleging the state of using public institutions to exert pressure on Opposition politicians to switch sides, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim took to Twitter his morning saying he will be meeting Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) chief Datuk Seri Azam Baki.
The Opposition leader said the meeting will be held tomorrow afternoon at the MACC headquarters in Putrajaya and thanked Azam for agreeing to it.
Anwar also expressed hope that the meeting would help in moving towards a better Malaysia.
“I believe efforts to eradicate corruption and abuse of power and position is a serious issue and requires cooperation from all quarters, including from the Opposition and society.
“May this effort be a starting point towards the direction of a better Malaysia, InsyaAllah,” he wrote in a series of tweets on Twitter.
On March 16, Anwar said he would be writing to Azam to seek a meeting and explanation over the alleged use of MACC as a political weapon to pressure MPs into switching sides.
Anwar had said there was concern that government agencies such as the MACC, police and the Inland Revenue Board were used to assert pressure on MPs.
Anwar had also at that time said that several PKR MPs, including for Sekijang, Padang Serai, Sungai Siput, Putatan and Miri, had claimed to have been threatened or to have been offered enticements in attempts to get them to switch support to the Perikatan Nasional administration.
On March 13, Kuala Langat MP Dr Xavier Jayakumar who was the PKR vice-president quit the party, and pledged support for Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin as an independent.
Dr Xavier was the latest senior figure to announce his departure from PKR, after last month’s exit of Julau MP Larry Sng and Tebrau MP Steven Choong. Both also declared themselves independents in support of Muhyiddin.
Another PKR MP, Sivarasa Rasiah claimed that the reason Dr Xavier decided to quit the Opposition was due to pressure from the MACC.
Both the police and the MACC had on March 6 however denied allegations that they were being used as a political weapon against Opposition politicians.
On March 15, the MACC urged politicians who were offered bribes to jump from their party to lodge reports with the anti-corruption body, in order to enable investigations on such matters.
MACC’s deputy chief commissioner (prevention) Shamshun Baharin Mohd Jamil was reported by national news agency Bernama as saying that individuals can be charged under Section 25(1) of the MACC Act 2009 if they failed to report any act of giving and offering of bribes.
