An Umno veteran today claimed Anwar Ibrahim had helped him secure millions from a bank loan, back when the latter was deputy prime minister and finance minister.

Lenggeng assemblyperson Ishak Ismail told the High Court in Kuala Lumpur this was part of 'pembiayaan' (funding) Anwar had allegedly offered to him in his fight against then premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

"Anwar told the financing bank that 'this is my friend'.

"It was a project in Malacca. With Anwar's help the loan approval was fast. So I used the money for political purposes," Ishak said, when asked by Anwar's lawyer Latheefa Koya what he meant by 'pembiayaan'.

Asked how much he had gotten, the Umno man replied: "Hoi, a lot! Several million."

However, he denied it was a bribe, saying it was political assistance.

"This is assistance to do political work. Whacking people is also political work."

Ishak is a defence witness in Anwar's defamation suit against Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin.

Anwar offered 'bullets'

In his witness statement, the Umno leader said Anwar had encouraged him to criticise Mahathir, and offered him ammunition against Mahathir.

"He meant 'pembiayaan' as the 'peluru' (bullets). Often he will raise topics to those who are close to him to criticise Dr Mahathir, to add 'salt and pepper' to the criticisms," he said in his statement.

However Ishak in the statement he had never used the "bullets", as he only wanted to air his frustrations but was still loyal to the party and its leadership.

"But Anwar was ready to 'membiayai' (fund) me to criticise Mahathir."

He also said Anwar had promised him that his business would improve once the latter became prime minister.

"In an incident around 1997, 1998, Anwar told me that my business would do very well if he became prime minister, because Mahathir was all about himself, his family, and his cronies," he said.

Ishak is the defence's seventh witness in Anwar’s RM100 million defamation suit against Umno youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin Abu Bakar.

Khairy had claimed that his impugned words did not have sexual connotations as Anwar had alleged, but instead meant that Anwar had a tendency of "playing out" his political allies to his own advantage, to betray them.