Posted on by Kit

Why is MACC wasting time trying to find out whether all 42 advisory panel members share adverse opinions about MACC when it should be giving top priority to end gross abuses and malpractices to restore public confidence?

Why is the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) wasting time trying to find out whether all the 42 MACC advisory panel members share adverse opinions about the MACC following the mysterious death of DAP political aide Teoh Beng Hock when it should be giving top priority to end gross abuses and malpractices to restore public confidence in it as Malaysia’s version of Hong Kong-style Independent Commission against Corruption (ICAC)?

It is reported by Malaysiakini today that emails had been sent out recently by the secretariat to 33 members of the MACC Advisory Panel following six “offending” media statements made by panel members Ramon Navaratnam and Robert Phang.

The MACC wanted the views of the other panel members as it felt that the views of the two “were not supportive of the establishment of the anti-corruption body and wanted to know the views of other panel members on the issue”.

MACC is now run by narrow-minded and bigoted people who equate criticisms of MACC failings as being anti-MACC.

Malaysiakini reported that not everyone has responded so far, and of the handful who did, not even one panel member has been critical of Navaratnam or Phang.

Panel members Simon Sipaun and Yong Poh Kon were mentioned in the Malaysiakini report as members who were “equally critical” in their response to the MACC.

I support Yong’s view that the Advisory Panel has “a role to offer views to ensure that most MACC priorities are correct, the methods fair and that overall it gains the confidence of the public”; and that “to achieve this would need work by all members and an attitudinal and culture change in the MACC itself”.

Stressing the need to get the support and confidence of the public to fight corruption,Yong said he believed that in Hong Kong, 97 percent of the population has confidence in the IACC and that the same cannot be said of the MACC.

Two weeks ago, in a Home Ministry website opinion poll on the police, 97% of those polled felt unsafe because of the high crime rate with only 1% feeling safe.

A Prime Minister’s Office website opinion poll for the MACC could be worse, with an even higher percentage than 97% expressing lack of confidence in MACC to wage an independent and professional war against corruption!

The top priority of MACC is to restore public confidence in its efficacy, independence and professionalism in the battle against corruption instead of trying to find out whether all the MACC Advisory Panels share the same criticisms as Navaratnam and Phang.

What will MACC do after the email views? Launch a witch-hunt to persecute and drum Navaratnam and Phang out of the Advisory Panels? Is MACC next going to sack Sipaun and Yong from the Advisory Panels as well?

The MACC should realise, swiftly and immediately, that in a matter of seven months of its operation from 1st January 2009, it had plunged the anti-corruption agency into a crisis of confidence which is unprecedented in the 41-year history of its predecessor, the Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) from 1967 to 2008 because of four primary reasons:

  • The mysterious death of Teoh Beng Hock at the MACC headquarters on July 16, 2009 with overwhelming public opinion rejecting the theory that Teoh had committed suicide by plunging from the 14th MACC Headquarters at Plaza Masalam;

  • The failure of MACC in the past seven months to go after the “ikan yus” but only going after the “ikan bilis”;

  • Playing the catspaw of Umno and Barisan Nasional to declare war on Pakatan Rakyat instead of declaring war on corruption; and

  • The statement by the MACC Chief Commissioner, Datuk Seri Ahmad Said that as far as the MACC is concerned, there is no difference between corruption involving a few ringgit and corruption involving a few hundred millions of ringgit! (China Press 27th July 2009).

Instead of MACC quizzing the members of the Advisory Panel, it should be the various Advisory Panels which should be quizzing the MACC Chief Commissioner and officers to explain why MACC has plunged into its worse nadir of public confidence when even compared with ACA and in particular, the above-mentioned four factors resulting in the loss of public confidence in the MACC.

In fact the Advisory Panels should hold emergency meetings to demand that the MACC should halt its deviation and betrayal of its statutory objectives in the MACC Act by demanding an immediate halt of its war against Pakatan Rakyat – and to return to its original objective to declare war on corruption.

All members of the Advisory Panels must not only answer to their conscience but also to the Malaysian public why they have allowed the MACC to get out of control of all statutory and legal checks-and-balance as to become a catspaw of Umno and BN to go on a rampage against the Pakatan Rakyat.

I will demand in Parliament an accounting by all the MACC Advisory Panels as to what they have done to arrest and check the MACC from betraying its statutory objectives.

The various MACC Advisory Panel composition are as follows:

Anti-Corruption Advisory Board members

  • Abdul Hamid Mohamad
  • Amar Hamid Bugo
  • Dr Mohd Kamal Hassan
  • Mohamed Jawhar Hassan
  • Simon Sipaun
  • Zaiton Zawiyah Puteh
  • Rashpal Singh Jeswant Singh
  • Yong Poh Kon
  • Anwar Fazal
  • Dr Khoo Kay Kim
  • Chelvarajah Ramasamy Reddiar

Special committee on corruption

  • Mohd Radzi Sheikh Ahmad
  • Razali Ibrahim
  • Abdul Rahman Dahlan
  • Dr Tan Seng Giaw
  • Salahuddin Ayub
  • Zamri Yusuf
  • Armani Mahirudin

Complaints committee

  • Mohd Nor Abdullah
  • Muhammad Mohd Noor
  • Wan Abdul Wahab Abdullah
  • Chooi Mun Sau
  • Ravindran V Muthu

Operations review panel

  • Dr Hadenan Abdul Jalil
  • Cecil Abraham
  • Nik Mohd Hasyudeen Yusoff
  • Walter Sandosam
  • Aminah Pit Abd Raman
  • Md Hamzah Md Kassim
  • Dr Syed Noh Syed Ahmad

Corruption consultation and prevention panel

  • Ramon Navaratnam
  • Dr Abdul Rahman Embong
  • Dr Zainal Abidin Abdul Majid
  • David Chua
  • Wong Chun Wai
  • Kamaruddin Zakaria
  • Nordin Kardi
  • Prof Dr Ishak Tambi Kechik
  • Azman Ujang
  • Anis Yusal Yusoff
  • Robert Phang Miow Sin

19 Replies to “Why is MACC wasting time trying to find out whether all 42 advisory panel members share adverse opinions about MACC when it should be giving top priority to end gross abuses and malpractices to restore public confidence?”

  3. So WHAT do these ladies and gentlemen ACTUALLY DO?

    Are they merely rubber stampers or do they actually get involved and ask the tough questions? Are they “decorations”? How many meetings have they had so far?

  4. One sees the “usual” names but are they performing? Big names don’t mean anything if they don’t really do any serious checks and balances. One even wonder whether these people have the time to do any serious work noting that they are involved in so many other things.

    Let us have the individual responses of all 42 members and see what their comments are. They should have nothing to hide as they will be accounting to the public.

  6. “Instead of MACC quizzing the members of the Advisory Panel, it should be the various Advisory Panels which should be quizzing the MACC Chief Commissioner and officers to explain why MACC has plunged into its worse nadir of public confidence when even compared with ACA and in particular, the above-mentioned four factors resulting in the loss of public confidence in the MACC.”

    The MACC has started its witchhunt. The MACC should be answerable to the Advisory Board and not the other way around.

    The very fact the MACC wants to know where the Advisory Board stands shows its bigger than thou attitude.

    The MACC has failed miserably to deliver its mandate by being a partisan tool of the UMNO/BN government. There are bigger corruption scandals involving millions and billions such as the pendatang botox Toyo’s multi-million ringgit balinese palace and the PKFZ multi-billion ringgit fraud. Yet the MACC has no time or the will to scrutinize and bring the miscreants involved to face the music in a court of law.

    It only practises selective investigation on cows and cars or about assumed malpractices worth a few hundreds or a few thousand ringgit by the Pakatan Rakyat.

    Why didn’t the “impartial” MACC investigate the hundreds of thousands ringgit spent by the outgoing BN Aduns within a few weeks of getting kicked out during the last GE?

    Why didn’t the MACC investigate the destruction of important files and documents by the outgoing Selangor BN government immediately after their defeat?

    The ACA was an abject failure. It could not wipe out corruption let alone diminish it or control it in any meaningful way.

    The MACC has shown withing a spate of a few months that it is worse than the devil that it replaced. It is only good as a running dog of the government of the day. It has no intergrity, spunk or the will to do its mandated duty.

    The members of the Advisory Boards are as guilty as the MACC of gross dereliction of duty. They should have seen to it that their ward does not become a frankenstein.

    MACC is one without checks and balances now and has become a law unto itself because the Advisory Board failed the people and the country.

  7. The Port Klang Authority (PKA) is lodging police report tomorrow against the Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) turnkey developer Kuala Dimensi Sdn Bhd (KDSB) over alleged irregularities of up to RM1 billion.

    So the thieves are turning on each other, fighting over the loot.

  8. Why is MACC wasting time trying to find out whether all 42 advisory panel members share adverse opinions about MACC when the irregularities in claims in the RM12.5 billion PKFZ “mother of all scandals” could be between RM500 million to RM1 billion? What is the actual progress of MACC’s investigation into the PKFZ scandal when the PKFZ Task Force can reveal the claims could be as high as RM1 billion? Is the MACC up to a standard to investigate? If they in MACC cannot do the work, it is better from them to resign honourably. Or are they trying to cover up the PKFZ scandal? Or are they going to “tutup mata”?

    Ong Ta Kut had seek approval from the sleeping PM to release RM1.2 billion as a variation order. Why did Ong Ta Kut act so promptly for the release of payment without any further checking and verifying? Ong Ta Kut, bear in mind that it is RM1.2 billion and not kacang putih. Who will have to answer for this RM1.2 billion as a variation order?

  9. YB Kit, how come your MPs have not brought up the issue in Parliament up to today about the case where the MACC Chief’s son, Captain Ahmad Shauky, who was convicted of child pornography / paedophile charges in an Adelaide court, is allegedly still employed as a pilot in MAS?

  10. Looks like MACC does not respect the members of the advisory panel. It also looks like they do not want those members of the advisory panel who are not ‘supportive’ of them and who might voice their weaknesses or criticise them in the media.

    If such the case, then why bother to have advisory panel when members are expected to be ‘yes-men’?

  12. Is this not a case of the tail trying to wag the rest of the animal?
    Those advisory panels should have proper authority and the means to haul up the MACC officials who operate outside their boundaries and not act as mere rubber stamps.
    If those boards had been formed under the aegis of the IPCMC, we will not be having this type of goings-on.
    Now it is left to the PM to play GOD and that is not a good solution.

  13. “The statement by the MACC Chief Commissioner, Datuk Seri Ahmad Said that as far as the MACC is concerned, there is no difference between corruption involving a few ringgit and corruption involving a few hundred millions of ringgit! (China Press 27th July 2009).”

    I agree with the above statement. However, you don’t waste your time on a few ringgit if you are unable to settle the few hundred millions. Just goes to show that Ahmad Said is unfit to hold that position. He doesn’t know how to prioritize and his salary is just a mere waste of public money. I think we can get an orang utan to replace him and it would not make a single difference.

  14. “Why is MACC wasting time trying to find out whether all 42 advisory panel members share adverse opinions about MACC when it should be giving top priority to end gross abuses and malpractices to restore public confidence?”

    Hey Kid, because macc was already pronounced a success before it started any work months ago.

  16. 1Malaysia? He is concern with 1UMNO/1BN.. He could give a hoot about 1Malaysia at this point.

    Right now they are telling MCA/MIC/Gerakan to hold on while they go extreme right. But MCA/MIC/Gerakan is highly weaken and worst, they don’t have a plan to recover unlike back in 1969. The guessing game is at what point will MCA/MIC/Gerakan be unsalveagable. Gerakan is unsalvageable already.. Najib is attempting to get rid of Samy Vellu because if he can get enough Indian votes to swing, he knows PR can be shaken badly, maybe not toppled but shaken.. MCA faith depends on their own internal problem which is not likely to solved anytime soon.

    If MCA/MIC/Gerakan is devastated, then it will mean the East Malaysian parties will hold UMNO/BN faith and demands will start to crack up BN.. Play up UMNO/BN dependency on East Malaysia AND even UMNO cannot be held together and end everything..

    There is an opportunity here but it depend on
    1) Holding the Indian vote
    2) PAS have to hold the line – PR must offer PAS expansion in East Malaysia to entice the top leadership to hold the line.

  18. Just a reminder to Mr Gobind Singh Deo:

    One unofficial interrogation technique which has been secretly used by some interrogators of the Security Forces is to use a hammer to hammer on the foot bottom of a witness or a suspect. It is one of the crueliest ways to force a witness or a suspect to agree to disclose critical information or to sign a cautioned statement.

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