Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim denied that he had a hand in the Malaysian High Court's decision to grant Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi a discharge not amounting to acquittal (DNAA).

On Sep. 4, the High Court granted the Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister a DNAA of all 47 corruption charges he was facing for misappropriating funds belonging to Yayasan Akal Budi (YAB).

The DNAA means that while Zahid is currently free of the charges, the prosecution is able to file the charges or reinstate the case at a later time, should new evidence or circumstances warrant it.

When addressing complaints over the DNAA in Parliament on Sep. 19, Anwar said, "The decision was made by the AG. Why make baseless allegations saying that I interfered (in the decision)?"

"You did that"

Discussing the topic with the House, Anwar acknowledged that many people are unsatisfied with the High Court's decision.

Anwar explained that the decision to grant Zahid DNAA was made by a former AG Tan Sri Idrus Harun, who had given strong reasons behind the verdict.

Anwar also noted that DNAAs are not a new thing, referring to previous cases where a DNAA was granted after the prosecution had established a prima facie case, including one involving an opposition politician.

Anwar also directed a sharp comment to Putrajaya Member of Parliament (MP) Radzi Jidin:

"You can laugh, Putrajaya, because you did that (decisions involving DNAA). During your (Perikatan Nasional) administration, you did that."

Walk-out

Anwar's comment caused an uproar in Parliament which resulted in a shouting match lasting more than 20 minutes, with Radzi repeatedly demanding a retraction from Anwar.

"Retract! Retract! This is a malicious accusation, Speaker. He is saying I committed a wrongdoing," said Radzi.

Dewan Rakyat Speaker Johari Abdul then gave Radzi a marching order when the latter continued insisting that Anwar retract his statement.

This led to opposition leader Hamzah Zainudin questioning the Speaker's decision, saying that all Perikatan Nasional (PN) lawmakers would also leave the Parliament if the speaker insisted on ejecting Radzi from the parliament.

The shouting match ended with Radzi being ejected from Parliament, followed by opposition lawmakers joining him in a walk-out.

"Why is it that they are only targeting the Deputy Prime Minister?"

After opposition MPs left the chamber, Anwar continued to suggest that Radzi was aware of what happened during PN's administration.

“That is why he (Radzi) cannot bear to hear my explanation. This is because they are familiar with the system and they think I am doing the same,” Anwar said.

He added that there were many cases that had been dropped after prima facie was established during previous administrations yet PN did not voice out anything then.

“So why is it that they are only targeting the Deputy Prime Minister (Zahid)?”

Top image via Astro AWANI/YouTube