KUALA LUMPUR, July 6 — Former finance minister Datuk Seri Tengku Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz today said he bears no malice when testifying as a prosecution witness against former prime minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin in court.
Testifying as the 11th prosecution witness in Muhyiddin’s Jana Wibawa trial, Tengku Zafrul said he had a good working relationship with then-PM Muhyiddin throughout his own tenure as finance minister from March 2020 to August 2021.
“I also have no direct family ties with him and I also do not have any malicious motives towards him or anyone when giving my testimony in court today.
“My relationship with him remains good to this day,” he told the High Court.
Tengku Zafrul also said he himself had never obtained any personal financial benefits related to the Jana Wibawa programme throughout his tenure as finance minister in Muhyiddin’s administration.
Tengku Zafrul said the Finance Ministry had in 2020 proposed the Jana Wibawa programme to help Bumiputera contractors amid the Covid-19 pandemic, following Muhyiddin's request for the ministry to think of measures to help the contractors.
Tengku Zafrul said the Jana Wibawa programme was similar to a now-discontinued government programme that began in 1993 to help Bumiputera construction contractors, and that the Finance Ministry had proposed tighter procedures and more comprehensive qualifying conditions for the Jana Wibawa programme.
He said the main conditions under Jana Wibawa are that it is only for Bumiputera contractors who have a three- to five-star rating under the Construction Industry Development Board's (CIDB) SCORE evaluation, with companies to be evaluated in terms of technical capability, financial capability (including sufficient working capital that matches the project cost), and no record of sick projects.
Tengku Zafrul testified today that all Jana Wibawa programmes were awarded to companies that were proposed by the Prime Minister's Office, with the Finance Ministry that he was heading having the role of evaluating if the companies met the conditions and also finalising their appointments if the requirements were met.
Tengku Zafrul, 53, is currently Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim's senior political adviser and also the chairman of the Malaysian Investment Development Authority (Mida).
He told the court that he was an Umno member from 1998 to 2023, and has been a PKR member since August 2025.
Tengku Zafrul is currently still testifying before High Court judge Noor Ruwena Md Nurdin, with the trial scheduled to continue tomorrow.
In this trial, Muhyiddin is facing seven charges, namely four counts of alleged power abuse to obtain RM225.3 million bribes for his party Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (from Nepturis Sdn Bhd, Azman Yusoff, Bukhary Equity Sdn Bhd, and Mamfor Sdn Bhd) and three counts of alleged money laundering through money that Bersatu received from Bukhary Equity.
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