Report: Dr Mahathir apparent real target of MACC probe, in which we are witnesses, claim sons

KUALA LUMPUR, March 26 — Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s two sons said they had been ordered to assist the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) in an anti-graft investigation purportedly targeting the former prime minister.

Tan Sri Mokhzani Mahathir and Mirzan Mahathir claimed that the commission’s investigations pointed to their 98-year-old father as the main suspect in the probe.

Speaking to Bloomberg, Mokhzani confirmed that his father is the primary suspect in the MACC investigation.

“We (with Mirzan) are witnesses to whatever it is that they’re investigating,” he told the business and financial markets media outlet in a report published today.

Both Mokhzani and Mirzan were interviewed via video call here last Saturday.

The report quoted an unnamed MACC spokesman as saying they could not comment or confirm if Dr Mahathir was a target in the probe.

Dr Mahathir’s office has yet to respond to a request for comment.

According to Mokhzani, the MACC has not provided him or Mirzan with any details regarding the investigation into Dr Mahathir.

He said they did enquire as to the reason behind the investigation, but the MACC could not furnish the brothers with the information.

“Can you imagine you’re being asked to provide information to be used to prosecute your parent?” Mokhzani was quoted as saying in the Bloomberg report.

On February 8, it was reported that both Mokhzani and Mirzan were told to compile and collate 43 years’ worth of information to declare their assets to the MACC.

In a joint statement, the brothers said the MACC had requested a list of assets going back to 1981, the year that Dr Mahathir became prime minister for the first time.

Both have received two extensions of the original February deadlines for compliance.

The list of assets is part of investigations into offshore business records revealed by a journalism consortium, the MACC said at the time, without mentioning that the main target was Dt Mahathir.

The report added that the two brothers are willingly assisting in the investigation, despite it being cumbersome and time consuming.

Mokhzani said they are also working with the company secretary and accountant to file their asset declarations.

“This is an almost impossible task, to recall how things were in the past,” he said, adding that he was still a student in the United Kingdom in 1981.

Mokhzani said both he and Mirzan can’t exactly recall what it was like then as everything was in the form of physical records and not digitised.

In January, MACC had summoned Mirzan, the eldest of Dr Mahathir’s children to facilitate an ongoing investigation into his wealth.

The commission said it had served Mirzan a notice under Section 36(1)(b) of the MACC Act 2009 to declare his assets, all movable and immovable assets, whether inside or outside the country, within 30 days.

Meanwhile, Mokhzaini is being investigated under the MACC Act 2009 and the Anti-Money Laundering, Anti-Terrorism Financing and Proceeds of Unlawful Activities Act 2001.

Following that, Dr Mahathir reportedly said he was disappointed at the government after the MACC started to investigate his sons over his wealth.

He expressed frustration with the justice system and criticised what he perceived as selective investigation.

On the same month, the MACC investigated former finance minister Tun Daim Zainuddin’s wife Toh Puan Naimah Khalid and their two sons on assets belonging to the family as part of an anti-graft probe.

Daim and his family have filed an application in court for a judicial review to challenge the investigation which they have claimed as unconstitutional.

Early this month, it was reported that the MACC has shifted focus of its widening anti-graft probe against high-profile individuals to several controversial bailouts of businessmen connected to two leaders around the 1997 financial crisis.

The MACC is revisiting several of the country’s more spectacular corporate bailouts during the late 1990s and early 2000.

Dr Mahathir, who led Malaysia twice as prime minister, held office from 1981 to 2003 and later from 2018 to 2020 for a cumulative total of 24 years. To date, he is Malaysia’s longest-serving prime minister.