Anwar questions Ezam’s intentions

Anwar questions Ezam’s intentions

19-08-2008
by Pauline Puah

SEBERANG PRAI: Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim questioned his former aide Ezam Mohd Noor’s intention in claiming that Anwar had been keeping the six boxes of government documents allegedly related to corrupt practices of high-ranking government officers and ministers.

"After saying 10 years ago that he was in possession (of the documents), now during the Permatang Pauh by-election he said he has surrendered them to me. Do you take him seriously?" Anwar said during a visit to Seberang Jaya market yesterday.

Ezam, the former PKR Youth chief who has rejoined Umno, said at a ceramah on Saturday night that he had passed the documents to Anwar and challenged his former boss to make public the documents.

On another claim by Ezam that Anwar had handed out projects worth RM1 billion each to 15 bumiputera companies when he was deputy premier and finance minister, Anwar said Ezam should identify the beneficiaries of the projects and report the matter to relevant authorities.

"He is desperate to get the attention of Umno leaders, so I am not going to entertain him," Anwar said.

On Gerakan leader and former Penang assemblyman Datuk Dr Toh Kin Woon’s support for him in the upcoming by-election, Anwar said Toh was one of a few principled leaders in Barisan Nasional (BN).

He said Toh’s statement was a good sign that BN leaders were also giving their support to PKR.

Toh, a Gerakan central committee member, reportedly said on his visit to PKR’s election operation room on Sunday that he was not supporting PKR the party but the cause.

PKR information chief Tian Chua said the party practised an open-door policy and would welcome all parties onto its platform. Chua said Gerakan’s causes were similar to PKR’s but the party could not perform well under the BN framework. With a racist election campaign being waged by Umno now, it would be surprising if other BN component parties would campaign vigorously for the coalition, he told a press conference. "In this by-election, Umno still uses the polarisation tactic of different rhetorics for different communities," he said.

Chua reiterated the party’s stance that it would not condone any form of violence in the election campaign.

PKR strategy director Saifuddin Nasution said at the press conference that it was BN which resorted to violence in past election campaigns.

He said despite several isolated incidents, the PKR was satisfied with the discipline of its party workers thus far.