That is not my voice, says Anwar

KLANG: PKR de facto leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has called on everyone against being influenced by the spread of several audio recordings which were said to be those of his voice criticising party deputy president, Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali and prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

He pointed out that he had never issued any statement as the ones in the audio recording which had spread on the Whatsapp application on Thursday.

“The way (I replied) is not correct... my voice... I do not use offensive language... ’barua’ is not my language, don’t be influenced by slanders,” he told reporters after a premier ceramah program in conjunction with the By Election for the Sungai Kandis State Constituency on Thursday night.

Anwar said this when asked to comment on the spread of the audio recording which was said to be similar to his voice criticising Mohamed Azmin and Dr Mahathir on the appointment of members of the board of directors for Khazanah Nasional Bhd (Khazanah) recently.

Among the gist of the recording was the voice of an individual allegedly to be that of Anwar who admitted directing Mohd Rafizi Ramli to contest for the post of PKR deputy president in the party election this month, as he claimed that Mohamed Azmin had become Dr Mahathir’s “lackey” (barua).

Anwar pointed out that he had never gave any statement concerning Khazanah, except for the by-election for the Sungai Kandis state constituency.

He said no one was stupid enough to believe the spread of the audio recording which he described as an unhealthy act.

“I did not give any speech after the Khazanah (board of directors) was announced except in Sungai Kandis. There was no speech before that…I was in Turkey.

“I don’t think we are stupid enough to be that gullible, but then we just have to deny because it was not true… there’s no basis in that. I too heard (the audio recording)… in my harshest moment, I have never used the term ‘barua’,” he said. - Bernama