Will the Police investigate criminal offences of embezzlement, money-laundering and corruption revealed in the Auditor-General’s Report on 1MDB although the AG’s Report is classified under the OSA?

I have been intrigued by the Inspector-General of Police, Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar’s statement last Saturday that he had to verify from the Auditor-General Tan Sri Ambrin Buang whether the revelations and exposes by the whistleblowing website Sarawak Report were genuine version of the AG’s Report.

This is because the Police should have a copy of the AG’s Report on the 1MDB.

It is over three months ago that the Police had announced a high-level team to probe the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) Report which is headed by none other than the IGP himself.

As the PAC report on the 1MDB is based on the AG’s Report on 1MDB, which in a most unprecedented parliamentary manoeuvre had been omitted as an appendix to the PAC Report when laid in Parliament on April 7, is the IGP implying that the Police did not have a copy of the AG’s Report on 1MDB despite over three months of investigation into the PAC Report because it is classified under the OSA?

What then is this high-level investigation which is being conducted by the police since the tabling of the PAC Report in Parliament in early April?

There seems to be only one farce after another from one national institution to another in the sorry saga of the RM55 billion 1MDB scandal!

If the Police had a copy of the AG’s Report on the 1MDB, there would be no need for the police to verify with the Auditor-General as to whether the leaked version of the Sarawak Report was the genuine document, as the police should be able to ascertain this matter on its own based on its copy of the AG’s Report on the 1MDB.

If the Police does not have a copy of the Auditor-General’s Report on the 1MDB because it is classified under the OSA, does this mean that the Police can only investigate into the various wrongdoings highlighted by the PAC Report but not the AG’s Report.

This brings me to the most important question: Will the Police investigate criminal offences of embezzlement, money-laundering and corruption revealed in the Auditor-General’s Report on 1MDB although the AG’s Report is classified under the OSA – or will the Police decline to even begin investigations solely on the ground that the Auditor-General’s Report on 1MDB is a classified document which the police has no access and should have no access?

The Malaysian Police, just like the Malaysian Prime Minister and Government will be the laughing-stock of their counterparts all over the world if this is the case, as seven other countries have instituted investigations on their own into 1MDB multi-billion ringgit global embezzlement, money-laundering and corruption charges.

Let IGP Khalid clarify this before the government and the country goes round in circles about the AG’s Report on 1MDB and the Sarawak Report’s purported leak of the entire AG Report on its website.

It is almost a week since the Sarawak Report started its latest series of articles on the AG’s Report on 1MDB, followed by the announcement of the full release of the AG’s Report.

The country and people have a right to hear from the Prime Minister and Finance Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak, the Auditor-General Tan Sri Ambrin Buang, the Chairman of the PAC Datuk Seri Hasan Arifin and the Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Khalid whether the Sarawak Report had published a genuine version from the AG’s Report on 1MDB; if not, why they are not prepared to say so in a straight-forward manner; and if yes, what they proposed to do to show the world the Malaysian Government is serious about the integrity and the fight against corruption, as well as about good governance and the principles of accountability, transparency and meaningful parliamentary democracy.

(Speech at the opening of the Parliamentary Democracy Workshop organised by NGO ENGAGED at M Suites Hotel, Johor Baru on Saturday, 16th July 2016 at 9.30 am)