“Nepotism is where (a family member) is given a position to abuse power, enrich themselves, obtain contracts and get paid a huge sum.
“This is not the case,” he told reporters after attending the National Sports Awards at the National Sports Council here.
Anwar also hit out at his critics, adding that past prime ministers and ministers who awarded their family members “hundreds of millions of ringgit” worth of contracts were in no position to talk about transparency.
He said Nurul Izzah’s role as his adviser was to help ensure government projects and tenders were done in an orderly manner.
“I guarantee that (my) administration, even though some are unhappy with my decision, will fight corruption, abuse of power and the enrichment of any leader or officer,” he said.
Earlier, the head of Transparency International Malaysia (TI-M) questioned Anwar’s decision to appoint Nurul Izzah as his senior economics and finance adviser despite his stand against nepotism.
TI-M president Muhammad Mohan said the prime minister had always spoken up against nepotism and cronyism, so this did not look good on him.
Although he regarded Nurul Izzah as a person of integrity, Muhammad said the perception arising from her appointment showed that nepotism was “back”.
Muhammad added that it would not have been an issue if the PKR vice-president was appointed to another ministry.
He hoped that Anwar would respond to the brickbats and urged him to rescind Nurul Izzah’s appointment as soon as possible.
Nurul Izzah previously served as Lembah Pantai MP for two terms (2008-2018) and one term as Permatang Pauh MP. She failed to defend her Permatang Pauh seat in the 15th general election (GE15), after losing to a Perikatan Nasional candidate.
When asked about Malaysia dropping points again in Transparency International’s annual Corruption Perception Index 2022 (CPI 2022) score, Anwar said he was confident of a “major change” in the future if strict measures were taken by the government.
In the anti-graft group’s latest report, Malaysia had a CPI score of 47 for 2022. Malaysia’s CPI score was 53 in 2019, 51 in 2020 and 48 in 2021.
However, Malaysia had improved in terms of ranking out of 180 countries. It was ranked 61 in 2022, an improvement from the 62nd position it held in 2021.
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