Speaking to FMT, Zaid Ibrahim, the former de facto law minister said there had only been a “subdued” reaction from government officials to the revelations.
Recently, MalaysiaToday, a portal run by blogger Raja Petra Kamarudin published a statutory declaration that Zeti’s husband and sons received funds from fugitive financier Low Taek Jho, or Jho Low, the mastermind behind the 1MDB scandal.
Zaid said that if the statutory declarations were fake, both Zeti and the law firm involved should lodge police reports against those involved.
The statutory declarations, sighted by FMT, have been certified to be authentic by the company of the attesting lawyers, Shaharudin, Sham Sunder & Partners. The law firm, however, could not confirm the contents of the statutory declarations.
Zeti, however, has denied the allegations.
“It is a very serious matter that requires investigation. The public needs to know what the payment was about,” said Zaid.
“It is not inconceivable that Jho Low could have also paid millions to other senior government officers for reasons only he knows,” he said, adding this raised concerns of foreign influence.
He said this was why he found the speeches of some leaders, who preached about Malay-Muslim unity, to be “nauseating”.
“What can the Malay parties ganging up together do that a progressive Malay-led government cannot?
“Can the Malay parties in the government order a full investigation into Zeti’s case? Will they be able to reform the GLCs and the civil service? Can they make more Malaysians pay tax? Or bring back the goods and services tax (GST) and more revenue to the government?”
The country, Zaid said, needed a set of political leaders who could turn things around, citing the examples of former prime minister Abdul Razak Hussein, former Singapore prime minister Lee Kuan Yew, and former Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping.
“At the moment, we have leaders who talk a lot but hardly the sort that can provide the solutions we desperately need. All they talk about is ethnic unity, but for what useful purpose?”
He added that the country’s institutions can only be trusted to operate with integrity and in accordance with laws if the heads of such institutions are beyond reproach.