KUALA LUMPUR: Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim revealed that his deputy, Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi had never asked for his on-going court cases linked to corruption to be withdrawn.
Speaking to Thai PBS in an exclusive interview, Anwar gave credit to Zahid, who is Umno president, for not interfering in the judicial process.
"So far, he has never intervened. We have to go through the process.. He had never asked me to drop the cases he is facing now," said Anwar.
Anwar said this when asked how he, as the Pakatan Harapan coalition chairman, while championing graft free causes, worked with Zahid who is facing corruption charges.
The premier stressed that good governance remained the unity government's agenda to which Zahid would have to adhere to.
Zahid, who is Rural and Regional Development Minister, is accused of 47 charges of corruption, criminal breach of trust (CBT) and money laundering linked to funds of charitable foundation Yayasan Akalbudi.
Anwar added that it was not right for certain quarters to discredit a person when the system was already corrupted.
"When they become the opposition they raise corruption issues daily but they still award RM100 million worth of contracts to their sons-in-law and cronies.
"If you want to deal with it, do it transparently," he said.
Apart from good governance, Anwar said steering the country out of corruption was among the agreements made between PH and Barisan Nasional (BN) when it formed the unity government.
Both coalitions, he added, with their unity government alliance, agreed that the nation needed political stability to chart a new future.
"Political instability will kill the country politically and economically. For the last few years, nothing was moving.
"There was no policy, direction and because of that, leaders took the chance to squander as much as possible," said Anwar.