MACC you owe rakyat an answer.......memang memalukan
MACC — old whine in new bottle — The Malaysian Insider
JULY 16 — The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) was supposed to be better than the disgraced Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) when it took over at the start of the year.
After all, months before that former prime minister Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said, “It is my fervent hope that by restructuring the ACA, its effectiveness, transparency and accountability will be considerably raised while public trust in its integrity and independence be quickly renewed.”
Today, we can call that statement and the MACC, "old whine in new bottle" as we did seven weeks after it was created when The Malaysian Insider declared MACC dead on arrival.
Because today, we can't find a reason to change our view. And we doubt many Malaysians can too.
For the biggest corruption allegation in the last few weeks is the palatial mansion of former Selangor Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Khir Toyo. Some call it Kraton Toyo, in reference to his Javanese roots, but the Balinese design bungalow would be termed a pura in the Isle of Gods — and in Bahasa Malaysia, double the pura would mean to pretend (pura-pura).
And that would be true of the MACC. They are pretending they haven't heard about it.
Their absolute silence on the matter is deafening. And the silence from Khir's party leaders such as prime minister and Umno president Datuk Seri Najib Razak is equally deafening.
Only the man who promoted Khir to lead a state, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, has raised issues with the bungalow, saying it does appear to cost more than Khir's modest RM3.5 million claim.
Of course, the MACC has also been silent on other allegations.
For example, its investigations into corruption, or money politics in Umno parlance, within Umno Youth. Victorious Khairy Jamaluddin's supporters were called in after the party elections but precious little has been heard since then.
Khir too has been smeared with such talk but he remains free to enjoy his mansion.
Yet, the MACC has been quick to investigate Umno's rivals.
It had earlier swooped on current Selangor Mentri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim over claims of impropriety in using his private car and donating cows — earning the agency early in its life the moniker Malaysian Agency for Cars and Cows.
Truly, not much respect has been given to one of the most important agencies in the country.
But it has yet to earn it. This week, it went for several Pakatan Rakyat (PR) state lawmakers in Selangor ostensibly on a complaint of misappropriation of allocations for their constituents.
Yet, as the PR politicians themselves claim, MACC has not gone to probe lawmakers from Barisan Nasional who hastily spent all their allocations in a two-week period before the historic Election 2008 that toppled Barisan from Selangor.
So it still comes back to perception that there is one rule for the untouchables of Umno and another for the rest of the country.
That too is old whine in new bottle.
The latest....
Ean Yong’s political secretary dead at MACC HQ
UPDATED
Teoh (right) with Ean Yong and an MACC officer at the executive councillor's office yesterday.
SHAH ALAM, July 16 — Teoh Beng Hock, the political secretary of Seri Kembangan assemblyman Ean Yong Hian Wah, who was taken in for questioning by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) yesterday, was found dead at the MACC headquarters today.
It is unclear if Teoh, a 30-year-old former journalist with Chinese daily Sin Chew Jit Poh, fell or jumped from Plaza Masalam, where the MACC has offices on the 14th floor. His body was found on the roof of the five-storey building next door.
Ean Yong and several other DAP lawmakers are at the scene now, including M. Manoharan, Gan Pei Nee and Teresa Kok.
DAP's Ronnie Liu said the police has confirmed that the body is that of Teoh. He added that he does not understand how this could have happened.
At a press conference, the MACC director of investigations Datuk Mohd Shukri Abdul said Teoh was questioned from 5pm yesterday to 3.45am and was released soon after.
However, Teoh said he was tired and so he rested on a settee in the lobby. He was seen sleeping on the settee at 6am.
At about 1.30pm, Shukri said, they heard that a body had been found on the 5th floor of the adjacent building and when one of the MACC officers went to investigate, he realised it was one of their witnesses.
Shukri said Teoh was not a suspect but was questioned as part of their investigations into the misuse of state allocations.
Forensic investigators examine the body of Teoh Boon Hock for clues. Teoh was found dead next to the MACC’s office today, after being taken in for questioning yesterday.
In an immediate reaction, DAP supremo Lim Kit Siang expressed shock and asked in his twitter account, “Is there now the first case of death in custody, not police but MACC? If so, heads must roll!”
The DAP leader is in Penang and said he was waiting for a full report about the tragedy.
“What has this country come to?” he asked.
Teoh was taken in for questioning yesterday after MACC officers raided Ean Yong’s office in the State Secretariat as they were investigating complaints about the failure of state allocations to reach the people.
Selangor State Assembly Speaker Teng Chang Khim weighed in by saying the MACC is responsible for the incident.
No comments:
Post a Comment