“I see the charges against me today as an attempt to shift the people’s attention from the government’s numerous failures.

“It failed to curb the rising prices of goods and cost of living, and failed to effectively help the people and conduct the reforms they fought for all this while,” he told reporters at the lobby of the court complex here.

Earlier, the former Bersatu information chief was slapped with 18 new charges pertaining to money laundering totalling RM5.6 million, which he allegedly committed between Aug 12 and Nov 13 last year.

These come on top of the two charges against him that were linked to the Jana Wibawa initiative.

Wan Saiful also reiterated calls for reforms, notably on the separation of power between the attorney-general and the public prosecutor, as well as on the appointment of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission’s (MACC) chief commissioner.

“I would like to reiterate the calls from my comrades in the political arena and NGOs to improve the mechanism for the MACC chief commissioner’s appointment so it can be transparent and free from external influence,” he said.

He added that he was concerned that the government would use studying the reform as an excuse to delay the actual process, which should have been started immediately.