PETALING JAYA - Opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said he should "not have antagonise too many people" in the past.
But it would have been damaging if he did not speak against the system, corruption or the weaknesses in the government just to please certain parties.
"I spoke on Pandora Papers," he told Sinar Daily Politically Frank segment, referring to 11.9 million leaked documents.
"There were too many people that were threatened by that.
"But that is the price you will have to pay," he said.
The PKR president said: "you raise that, and it would cause problems because they will gang up, and they have means and the wealth to make sure you are denied".
He said he would have been the prime minister if he had given in to corrupted leaders to clear their cases or give in to them.
However, Anwar said he will stick by his principles even though it is not easy to "challenge the system."
If he becomes the prime minister after the coming general elections, he will serve the rakyat.
"Times are difficult with high unemployment and poor facing hardships. Furthermore, there is racial and religious division in the country. These issues need to be addressed too," he said.
However, he will start with the economy as it involves people's livelihood and "this is a bread and butter" issue that the current government has failed to address.
Some of the individuals named in the Pandora paper include Finance Minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz, Deputy Finance Minister II Yamani Hafez Musa, Umno president Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, former finance minister Tun Daim Zainuddin, among others.
Anwar had failed to initiate a parliamentary debate over the revelations of several current government officials from both political sides.
The Pandora Papers is the 2021 large-scale investigative journalists’ project by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) located in Washington DC.
It is based on more than 11.9 million documents and other records leaked from 12 offshore service providers that help to set up and manage shell firms and trusts in tax havens worldwide, including the British Virgin Islands, or BVI, which appears to be a popular choice for wealthy Malaysians.