TUN DAIM Zainudin’s wife has claimed that he is being persecuted because of his success as a businessman and is being made a target of a “campaign of disinformation and misperception”.
Addressing reporters after arriving for questioning at the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission headquarters in Putrajaya this morning, Toh Puan Naimah Khalid claimed that Daim’s success is being used as an excuse to tarnish his good name and portray him as a corrupt person.
“In our free and democratic country, it is not an offence to work hard, be successful in business and industry, and become wealthy as a result,” she said, reading a prepared statement at the building’s entrance while being flanked by her lawyer and two sons.
“In fact, it is good for the nation as it builds the economy and provides jobs. But my husband is persecuted for the success,” she claimed.
“His success is now made an excuse to slander his reputation and paint him as a corrupt person.”
Naimah said that it is public knowledge that Daim was a very successful businessman prior to joining government in 1984.
He was already widely referred in the media at that time as a tycoon and multi-millionaire before taking public office forty years ago, she added.
“Now a campaign of disinformation and misperception is being relentlessly spread, suggesting that because he’s very wealthy, he’s therefore corrupt.
“There is no sense of logic in this and no successful businessman in the country will be safe from such an insinuation,” she said.
“And such accusations do not easily go away once out in the public domain.”
Naimah along with her two sons Muhammed Amin and Muhammed Amir had arrived at the MACC headquarters at 10.10am after being called in to assist in the corruption investigation on her husband.
She also apparently hit out at Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
“Most importantly, the office of the prime minister should never be used to besmirch the reputation of individuals by insinuations and thinly veiled accusations of wrongdoing or be used to settle old political scores.”
“Yet this is exactly what the prime minister has been doing – by suggesting on several recent occasions that my husband has illegal wealth but without proof… without providing an iota of evidence,” she added.
“Is the prime minister suggesting that hardworking and capable Malay businessmen cannot become wealthy without resorting to improper or illegal means?”
‘Anwar does not like Daim’
Naimah said that this would only serve to perpetuate “false stereotypes” about the capabilities of the Malays.
“We know Anwar does not like Daim. But surely Anwar should respect the principle of innocence unless guilt is proven in the court,” she added.
“In Malaysia now, are tenuous suppositions issued from the prime minister’s bully pulpit adequate to condemn a person?”
Naimah stressed that she and her sons extended their cooperation to the MACC as required by the law even though they question the motive of the investigation.
She added that they know they will be eventually vindicated.
Daim is being investigated under Section 23 of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Act 2009, and Section 4 (1) Anti-Money Laundering, Anti-Terrorism Financing and Proceeds of Unlawful Act 2001 (AMLATFPUAA).
On December 30, the MACC said that it had opened an investigation paper in February 2023 based on information from the Pandora Papers.
As part of the investigation, on June 7, 2023, a notice under Section 36(1)(a) of the MACC Act 2009 (Act 694) was sent to Daim requesting that he make a written and sworn statement to declare all his assets whether inside or outside the country within 30 days from the date the notice was issued.
“Daim had applied for five extensions, and he was granted the extensions on July 6, 2023; August 10, 2023; September 11, 2023; October 11, 2023, and the last on November 14, 2023, to declare all his assets,” MACC had said in a statement.
As part of the investigation process, the public prosecutor issued a notice of seizure on Ilham Tower, a property linked to Daim, on December 18, 2023, under Section 38(1), MACC Act 2009 (Seizure of immovable property), the agency said. – The Vibes, January 10, 2024
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