PUTRAJAYA (March 9): The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) has arrested Perikatan Nasional (PN) chairman and former prime minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, and will be charging him in connection with the Jana Wibawa programme.
“The MACC confirms that it arrested [Muhyiddin] at 1pm [on Thursday (March 9)] at the MACC headquarters in Putrajaya after he appeared there to record his statement to complete the investigation process regarding the Jana Wibawa programme and related issues.
“Accordingly, the MACC has also received permission from the Attorney General’s Chambers (AGC) to prosecute and charge Muhyiddin in the Kuala Lumpur courts on March 10,” the anti-corruption body said in a statement.
The agency said Muhyiddin, who is also president of Bersatu, a component party of the PN coalition, will face a number of charges under Section 23 of the MACC Act 2009 and Section 4(1) of the Anti-Money Laundering, Anti-Terrorism Financing and Proceeds of Unlawful Activities Act 2001 (AMLA).
This confirms an earlier news report which quoted MACC chief commissioner Tan Sri Azam Baki as saying that Muhyiddin was expected to be charged on Friday.
The former PM arrived at the headquarters of the anti-corruption body at 11.15am on Thursday, surrounded by a swarm of supporters as well as PN lawmakers.
He had announced his visit to the MACC the day before when he took to Facebook to deny a report that he had been arrested, describing it as fake news.
The PN chairman was previously called to the MACC headquarters in February, following which he said that his presence before the anti-graft watchdog was not as a suspect but to provide his statement concerning the award of projects under Jana Wibawa to selected contractors.
The Jana Wibawa programme was introduced during Muhyiddin’s administration to expedite project execution post Covid-19 pandemic. To facilitate the implementation, the government resorted to either pre-qualification tenders or direct awards.
Earlier on Thursday, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim stressed that he had no hand in the MACC’s decision to call Muhyiddin to record his statement, and said that it was solely under the commission’s jurisdiction.
When waiting for Muhyiddin’s arrival at the MACC headquarters, former international trade and industry minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali and former home minister Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainudin described the action against the Bersatu president as political persecution and expressed confidence that he was innocent.
The MACC’s eyes have been keenly fixed on Bersatu over the Jana Wibawa projects. In February, the agency froze the party’s accounts as part of an investigation under the MACC and AMLA Acts.
It was reported that the probe concerns political donations, which amounted to more than RM300 million, from contractors who procured various public projects when the party helmed the government.
Later the same month, former Bersatu information chief Datuk Wan Saiful Wan Jan and the party’s Segambut division deputy chief Adam Radlan Adam Muhammad were charged in court with soliciting and accepting bribes of up to millions in ringgit in relation to the programme. The pair pleaded not guilty.
Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Law and Institutional Reform) Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said told the Dewan Rakyat recently that 56 projects under Jana Wibawa received letters of acceptance with a cumulative contract value totalling RM6.3 billion.
Of those, RM5.7 billion worth of projects have been postponed, subject to a review of the procurement process, according to Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.