Anwar offered to fund me to criticise Mahathir, says Umno rep

KUALA LUMPUR: A politician told the High Court that Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim offered to give him “bullets” to encourage him to criticise Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

Datuk Ishak Ismail, 65, who is Lenggeng assemblyman and Seremban Umno division chief, said the term “bullet” meant “funding”.

“Towards 1998, each time I appeared to be criticising Dr Mahathir, he ( Anwar) would support and encourage my criticism, and he also offered to give me ‘bullets’ to be used against Dr Mahathir,” said Ishak, who was testifying for Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin in his defence against a defamation suit filed by Anwar.

Questioned by Khairy’s lead counsel Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah yesterday, Ishak said he had never used those “bullets” as he simply wanted to express his frustrations, but was still loyal to the party.

“But Anwar was ready to fund me to criticise Dr Mahathir,” said Ishak.

Questioned further by Anwar’s lawyer Latheefa Koya, he said “bullets” could mean points or ideas, or to assistance in dealing with a bank to get funding.

To a question by Latheefa if it implied that Anwar tried to bribe him, he denied it.

“It was a contribution for political work. To bantai (criticise) that person is also political work,” he said, to laughter in the courtroom.

Ishak said Anwar dealt with a bank to help the assemblyman get funding for an application for a piece of land to be used in a million ringgit development project in Malacca.

“He did not get anything. He helped me and I used the money for my political work,” he said.

Asked by Muhammad Shafee, he said Anwar would speak before the crowd about “promises” to Dr Mahathir, while in private the PKR leader attacked the former prime minister.

“He (Anwar) always referred Dr Mahathir as ‘mamak tak boleh percaya’ or ‘an untrustworthy mamak’, a word that is offensive and insulting,” he said, adding that Anwar used the term as a nickname for Dr Mahathir and that those close to Anwar knew about it.

Khairy testified on Monday that his speech on Feb 19, 2008, only implied that Anwar could not be trusted in political relationships.