KUALA LUMPUR: Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has refused to comment on calls for the Pardons Board to release its meeting minutes on whether an additional royal decree exists for Datuk Seri Najib Razak to serve out his sentence at home.
“Did you listen to my speech?” was all that the Prime Minister said when reporters asked him about the matter as he was leaving an event yesterday evening.
Anwar was attending the 73rd annual assembly of the Malaysian Youth Council (MBM).
Calls to release the minutes of the Pardons Board meeting have intensified following a court decision on Jan 6 to allow Najib to challenge the government to state whether a decree or addendum exists which would allow him to serve out his six-year prison sentence under house arrest.
Najib’s defence team claimed the addendum was part of the Pardons Board meeting in January last year, during which his 12-year jail sentence was slashed to six and his RM210mil fine was reduced to RM50mil.
The former prime minister is currently in prison after being found guilty of stealing funds from SRC International Sdn Bhd, a subsidiary of 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MBD).
In his speech at the event earlier, the Prime Minister exhorted delegates to the nation’s largest youth federation to defend democracy, justice and multiculturalism.
Anwar, who was the council’s sixth president, said youth leaders must stand against corruption and strive to uplift the poor.
“To survive as a great nation, the youth must have the understanding, affection and spirit to fight for change based on the shared principles of democracy, justice and a plural multiracial society.
“If you accept that, we will survive as a nation.
“This is the contestation of ideas, of democratic accountability. MBM cannot be divorced from this,” he said.
