KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 26 — Health Minister Dzulkefly Ahmad said today he is consulting with the Ministry of Health’s (MOH) legal advisor over an alleged RM50 million attempted bribery of his predecessor, Dr Zaliha Mustafa.
Last week, Dr Zaliha’s former political secretary G. Sivamalar wrote in an op-ed that she personally witnessed Dr Zaliha turning down an RM50 million bribe to drop the generational end game (GEG) policy from the tobacco bill when the latter was health minister from December 2022 to December 2023.
“I’m consulting internally with the legal advisor to look at the issue,” Dzulkefly told CodeBlue today, when contacted for comment.
He added that he may issue a fuller press statement in a couple of days, after the MOH briefing.
Sivamalar told CodeBlue initially that neither she nor Dr Zaliha had lodged a report on the attempted RM50 million bribe that occurred approximately two years ago because they were focused on their work and “didn’t want to waste time”.
After the story blew up, Sivamalar filed a report with the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) last Tuesday. In a press statement, Sivamalar claimed that “implied offers” were suggested at a lobby when she (Sivamalar) was attending to visitors and that she didn’t find a “serious or explicit” bribery offer that merited immediate reporting to the authorities.
Section 25 of the MACC Act 2009 legally requires people to report bribe offers made to them. Failure to report bribery transactions, including offers, is a serious criminal offence, subject to a fine not exceeding RM100,000, jail for up to 10 years, or both upon conviction.
The Malaysian Council for Tobacco Control (MCTC) and MyWatch have demanded a public inquiry into overall tobacco industry interference, beyond a corruption investigation into the attempted RM50 million bribe itself. Anti-tobacco advocates described the Control of Smoking Products for Public Health Act 2024 (Act 852) as a “tainted” law now, in light of the corruption allegation.
The Control of Smoking Products for Public Health Bill was tabled and passed in the Dewan Rakyat in November 2023 when Dr Zaliha was health minister, despite widespread condemnation from MPs during their debate towards the decoupling of the proposed generational ban on tobacco and vape from the bill.
The bill was passed by the Dewan Negara two weeks later in December 2023 when Dzulkefly assumed office as health minister.
