Malaysia’s anti-corruption net tightens around Anwar’s rivals after decades of bad blood: ‘it’s a smart move’

Now he has to stay the course, analysts and political insiders say, and hope a public frazzled by years of destabilising back-room political manoeuvres – and enraged by corruption – rallies behind his 14-month-old administration.

Anwar, who has been jailed twice himself, has already received a stark warning on the consequences of failure.

While the 72-year-old prime minister’s timing may be right, he has taken on formidable – if aged – rivals with the money and motive to come back at him.

The MACC has also hauled in two of Mahathir’s sons, ordering them to reveal their wealth or also face legal action. Speculation is now mounting that their 98-year-old father could be next.

“It’s a smart move to go after Mahathir and Daim,” analyst James Chin told This Week in Asia. “Put yourself in Anwar’s shoes: the people that give you the most trouble are obviously Mahathir and Daim, people with money, so you go after them.”

Anwar came to power at the head of a unity government after an election in November 2022 that revealed more about Malaysia’s political fault lines than the public’s appetite for him to fulfil his lifelong ambition of becoming prime minister.

Anwar denies interfering in Ahmad Zahid’s case, as well as the MACC’s investigations into Daim and Mahathir.

After his sons’ brush with the authorities, Mahathir is on the defensive and could himself be caught in the dragnet, analyst Azmi Hassan argued, if authorities caught a whiff of any wrongdoing on his end.

“It would be bad for the government if it did not implicate Mahathir if there is proof that he also accumulated wealth illegally,” Azmi said.

While such proof – if it exists – has yet to be unearthed, Anwar went on the offensive as early as last year accusing his two-time