Tun Daim Zainuddin said he would corporate with the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission on investigating his banking business abroad. – The Malaysian Insider file pic, January 15, 2015.Tun Daim Zainuddin will cooperate with Malaysian anti-graft officials investigating the former Malaysian finance minister's banking business abroad, but said pressure groups should not interfere.In a statement to state news agency Bernama, Daim said he was confident of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) capability to carry out the probe."I stand ready to support and co-operate with MACC in its investigation," he said in the statement.Bernama said it was reported before Daim confirmed owning a bank in Tanzania, but denied any abuse of power.Daim was quoted by the news report as saying that he had been investigated on the matter twice in 1999, and they found nothing.Pro-Umno bloggers reported that Daim had been attacked by cybertroopers aligned to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak for criticising Putrajaya's handling of the economy.Daim, along with former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, have emerged as strong critics of Najib's administration over his handling of the economy and national politics.In what is seen as a psychological war, Najib's supporters in the press and online portals have begun attacking Daim with critical articles.But veteran journalist Datuk A. Kadir Jasin warned a few days ago that the Umno-controlled media group, Media Prima Bhd, should stop sniping at Daim as it could backfire on Najib.Najib was more vulnerable to personal attacks than Daim and other critics, Kadir, the retired editor of the New Straits Times Press group, said in his blog."The cheap shots about Mohd Najib's critics might smear their image but these people are not the PM and they don't have political positions," wrote Kadir, referring to the PM by his full name."But the juicier stories about Mohd Najib, if there is, can topple him," Kadir wrote.Besides opposition lawmakers, Daim and Dr Mahathir, even pro-Umno bloggers who supported Najib to be prime minister were now becoming critical of him.Najib took over from former prime minister Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi in April 2008 after Barisan Nasional's two-thirds majority loss in the March general election that year.Among others, Najib has been criticised for his cash aid programme, the Bantuan Rakyat 1Malaysia or BR1M, which Dr Mahathir said failed to attract voters back to BN, in addition to being unsustainable.Najib's brainchild, the 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) strategic development fund, also came under scrutiny for its massive debts and opaque operations.Malaysia's mainstream media, which must have a government permit, have not highlighted the criticism against Najib but instead have cast aspersions on the complaints about his rule."So they try to weaken Daim's credibility and at the same time, force a clash between Mohd Najib and Daim," Kadir wrote.Calls for the anti-graft authorities to investigate Daim, however, have also been made by the opposition, with PKR's Youth chief Shamsul Iskandar Mohd Akin in November last year highlighting the lack of police action against the former minister despite the lodging of police report in 1999.Opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim lodged that report 15 years ago, accusing Daim of amassing billions of ringgit in African and Eastern Europe banks through proxies. – January 15, 2015.
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