False statement from Malaysian palace shared in posts accusing government officials of graft

This article is more than one year old.
Published on May 12, 2023 at 09:30
3 min read
By AFP Malaysia

A forged statement purportedly from the Malaysian palace has been shared in Facebook groups with tens of thousands of members, alleging that the country's king was upset with Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim for not taking action against corruption cases involving two high-level government officials. The palace has denied issuing the statement and it does not appear on its official website. As of May 9, 2023, there are no credible reports that either official mentioned in the false statement has been implicated or charged in any graft cases.

The claim was shared here on Facebook on April 18, 2023, in a group with more than 57,000 members.

The accompanying image shows a purported Malay-language statement from the king bearing the letterhead of the Malaysian palace (archived link).

The post's Malay-language caption translates in part as: "Public service is dying, corruption is now at a very concerning level. It has become an open secret in this country.

"How can this not be the case when the most senior civil servants like the chief secretary and the public service director-general also practice the culture of corruption."

The statement itself makes several allegations, including that the chief secretary to the government, Mohd Zuki Ali, "abused his power through the Ministry of Human Resources and the Federal Land Development Authority (FELDA) involving millions of ringgit in taxpayers' money" (archived link).

It also accused Zulkapli Mohamed, the public services director-general, of nepotism and "using a watch worth 252,000 ringgit ($56,500)" (archived link).

"His Majesty is angered by the careless attitude taken by the Unity Government in handling issues involving public services as it has destroyed the image and quality of service, as well as impacted His Majesty," the statement reads.

"His Majesty advises the Prime Minister to be more aware and take seriously issues and cases of misappropriation among senior civil servants, and not just focus on politicians alone."

Screenshot of the misleading post, taken on May 9, 2023

Anwar Ibrahim has vowed to fight corruption since being sworn in as prime minister in November 2022. "This is a national unity government," he said at that time. "All are welcome, on condition you accept the fundamental rules of good governance, no corruption and Malaysia for all Malaysians" (archived link).

Malaysia has seen a number of graft cases involving high-ranking government figures in recent years.

Former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak is serving a 12-year jail term for corruption linked to his role in a massive financial scandal at state fund 1MDB and still faces dozens more charges. Meanwhile, one of his successors, Muhyiddin Yassin, was charged in March 2023 with abuse of power to obtain bribes and money laundering linked to alleged misuse of a Covid economic recovery fund (archived links here and here).

The purported statement was also shared elsewhere here and here in Facebook groups with a total of more than 79,000 members .

However, the palace said it never issued such a statement.

As of May 12, 2023, there have been no credible media reports about the allegations implicating Zuki and Zulkapli, the two officials in the fabricated statement.

Palace statement

The National Palace posted a statement rejecting the forged document on its verified Facebook page on April 18.

"It is to be informed that the Istana Negara did not issue a media statement as displayed, which has gone viral on social media, today," the palace wrote.

The false statement also cannot be found on the palace's official site.

The false statement also includes language and grammatical errors, an unlikely occurrence as it is the king's responsibility to safeguard the special position of the Malays, who are the majority speakers of the Malay-language (archived link).

It repeatedly miswrote the Malay phrase for "abuse of power" as "salahguna kuasa", instead of as three separate words "salah guna kuasa" -- as shown in the official Malay-language dictionary (archived link).

The false statement appeared to circulate following the spread of another forged document on April 6, 2023, purportedly by the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) that said the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) would conduct immediate investigations into the abuse of power allegations involving Zuki and Zulkapli.

The Prime Minister's Department swiftly denied the claim on the same day, describing it as "malicious" and intended to confuse the public (archived link).

AFP has previously debunked a different claim about corruption in Malaysia here.

Is there content that you would like AFP to fact-check? Get in touch.

E-mail