Cough up the truth, Haris tells Azmin

The lawyer-activist also wants Anwar Ibrahim to answer allegations that he had interfered in the corruption investigations when he was deputy premier.

PETALING JAYA: Pressure piled up against PKR deputy president Azmin Ali to explain the corruption allegation made against the him.

In a blog posting today, lawyer-activist Haris Ibrahim demanded that Azmin come clean and explain the allegation to the public as his voters deserved the truth.

“Azmin told an online news portal that his constituents need no explanation because they knew him well.

“I am not one of his constituents. I belong to that category that he and Anwar often refer to as the “BOSS”. Yes, the people. The rakyat.

“We, the rakyat, are interested in the truth, Azmin,” said Haris.

On Tuesday, blogger Raja Petra Kamarudin published classified investigation papers that Azmin was investigated by the Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) for graft in 1995.

Azmin was at that time a private secretary to then deputy premier Anwar Ibrahim and he was probed on claims that he was receiving RM15,000 monthly from tycoon Vincent Tan.

He also accused of living beyond his means, owning houses and cars worth about RM1.5 million and almost RM10 million in cash, while drawing a salary of RM2,400 monthly.

Raja Petra alleged that while the ACA had enough evidence to prosecute Azmin for corruption, the-then ACA director-general Shafee Yahaya decided not to act on it, at the behest of Anwar.

Haris said that the allegations were also damaging Anwar, as the latter was accused of interfering in the investigation in his capacity as the then-deputy prime minister.

“To date, as far as I know, Anwar had remained silent (on the allegations),” he said.

He added that he had sent SMSes to both Anwar and Azmin three days ago, asking them to clarify Raja Petra’s claims, but received no response from them.

Haris also said that while he supported the calls for Anyhing but Umno (ABU), it was also equally important for the people to reject corrupt leaders.

“As we work to get rid of the ‘garbage’ presently littering Putrajaya, we are not prepared to blindly replace them with ‘rubbish’,” said Haris.