JOHOR BARU – Letters of demand are not enough to silence Perikatan Nasional (PN) information chief Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali, as he doubled down that corruption allegations linked to the Jana Wibawa initiative are part of a conspiracy against the coalition.
In a statement, Azmin reminded that the allegations against former Bersatu information chief Datuk Wan Saiful Wan Jan were in April 2022, which was during Umno’s Bera MP Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob’s tenure as prime minister, not PN chairman Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.
“The timing of the alleged offences was not during the PN government, and the chargesheet does not mention Bersatu or PN,” he added.
Meanwhile, on the letter of demand issued by Barisan Nasional (BN) against Azmin and Muhyiddin for suggesting that Umno president Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi was the cause behind Wan Saiful’s prosecution, Azmin suggested that BN is using the law to instil fear among the opposition.
Azmin reminded that Zahid himself had said that the new “court cluster” would come from Bersatu and PN during his speech at the Umno general assembly in January.
Azmin added that Umno information chief Isham Jalil had issued a warning about the impending prosecutions before they took place.
“If Jana Wibawa becomes the focus of MACC’s (Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission) investigation, I know this programme was continued when BN was leading the federal government after Muhyiddin resigned as prime minister.
“There were many approvals for projects during BN’s reign, so why are Bersatu members the target of investigations?
“This shows that there are attempts by Pakatan Harapan (PH)-BN’s leadership to use government institutions for selective prosecution.”
He added that the prosecutions would not have taken place if there were no upcoming polls in six states.
He said that the series of prosecutions were a form of character assassination against PN’s leadership to prevent the coalition from winning the state polls.
“Following the study by O2 Malaysia in cooperation with five other media companies, empirical data reveals that not one minister from the PH-BN government, including Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, received more than a 50% approval rating from the public.
“The people also gave extremely low scores for the government’s ability to administer the economy (27%), ensure food sustainability (26%), maintain welfare (25%), and manage poverty (21%).
“This is the empirical data showing that the PH-BN government received failed scores from the rakyat after only 100 days of ruling.” – The Vibes, March 1, 2023
