The Malaysian Insight

INDONESIAN-based anti-corruption group Hisbah Centre for Reform (Hisbah) will be nominating its chairman Ezam Mohd Nor to contest in a parliamentary constituency in the coming 14th general election.

Hisbah deputy chairman Syed Nazarudin Syed Aziz said Ezam will be raising issues of corruption and “al ghulul” (abuse of power) during the campaign period, and do so from an Islamic standpoint in Parliament.

“The board has requested Ezam to wrap up his services in Hisbah’s Jakarta branch and his research duties in several universities in Yogyakarta and Surakarta immediately to concentrate on Malaysia, starting from January 2018,” Nazarudin said in a statement today.

Ezam was a former strategic communications director in the Finance Ministry and is also a former senator in the Dewan Negara.

He was also a former PKR Youth leader and was political secretary to jailed opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim when he was still in government.

After Anwar was fired from the Cabinet in 1998, Ezam said he had six boxes of evidence implicating national leaders in corruption, which he would expose.

However, Ezam only revealed two documents from the supposed six boxes proof.

He received brickbats for this at a forum in May, but Ezam defended the decision to not reveal more.

He said he was jailed under the Official Secrets Act after revealing the two documents, which implicated former Malacca chief minister Rahim Thamny Chik and former minister Rafidah Aziz in graft.

Nazarudin said Prime Minister Najib Razak’s Pekan constituency would be Hisbah’s first choice for Ezam to contest in.

“It’s represented by an MP who leads a government which allows and practices ‘al ghulul’ in Malaysia, on a scale that is considered to be the world’s biggest theft.

“However, the Hisbah board notes the possible element of fraud in Pekan, where the number of voters increased by more than 100%, from less than 40,000 voters to more than 80,000 voters,” he said.

Nazarudin said that is why Hisbah is looking for another parliamentary constituency to contest in besides Pekan.

“It (constituency) must have Malay voters forming the majority and it must be urban seat.

“These two factors are the most important criteria for Hisbah’s objective to place a candidate who can raise issues of corruption to Malay-Muslims in Malaysia. Any strategy to to do so must begin in a strategic location, such as in urban areas,” he said.

Ezam currently has a case in court after he filed a suit against Najib, 13 members of the 1Malaysia Development Bhd board of directors, 1MDB and the Malaysian government to bear and pay a loss of US$3.6 billion (RM14.7 billion) to 1MDB. – December 24, 2017.