MACC is in the hot spot over the death of Teo Beng Hock.
Read the article below by Terence Fernandez of The Sun.

Doubts over MACC’s partiality

By: (Fri, 17 Jul 2009)


ON June 10, Citizen Nades and I were seated in the office of Daniel Li, the deputy commissioner of Hongkong’s Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC). What was to be a courtesy call on the island’s No1 graft fighter turned into a counselling session where we poured out our frustrations over the implementation of the Malaysia Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) Act which Li had helped to draft.

"Surely it can’t be that bad," Li said, pointing out the various provisions that have been included in the Act including the five committees to oversee the activities of the commission.

He raised his eyebrows when we told him that certain provisions, such as having assets disproportionate to one’s income, were omitted.

It would not be fair to Li for us to disclose the rest of our conversation but we told him that our initial reservations over the MACC have been confirmed – call it anything you want but as long as the people running the agency have the same attitude and are seen to be subservient to politicians than the fight against corruption the institution in charge of it will not be taken seriously.

Fast forward to the morning of July 15. I answer the phone at my friend Lawrence Nicholson’s apartment in London. It’s Tan Sri Ramon Navaratnam returning a call to Nades.

Navaratnam is chairman of the Corruption Consultation and Prevention Panel – one of the five watchdog bodies that is supposed to help bring credibility and improve the people’s trust in the MACC.

I told him the reason we called was to get his feedback on the MACC’s raid of the offices of Pakatan Rakyat assemblymen in Selangor over reports of mismanagement of state allocations.

"(MACC deputy commissioner) Datuk Abu Kassim said if there is a complaint they should investigate," Navaratnam said.

"Very good Tan Sri. Please ask Abu Kassim what happened to the complaints against Barisan Nasional assemblymen for the same offences lodged by Pakatan Rakyat representatives last year," I replied.

"Well, why don’t you write a letter of complaint to Abu Kassim or the MACC?" he suggested.

While I have a lot of respect for Navaratnam and some of the members in the advisory panels, I must say that to date their performance has been below par when it comes to addressing public perception. It seems that their role is merely cosmetic and if people have to continue writing "complaint letters", one begs the question what are they there for when in fact the panel members are supposed to be the eyes and ears of the people to ensure that the MACC performs its duties judiciously and without fear or favour.

I am not on the panel. Citizen Nades is not on the panel (though I understand that his name was proposed but rejected by the powers that be). What can we do?

Thus if those entrusted to advise the MACC resort to shrugging their shoulders and asking the public to forward their complaints to the commission, of what use are these advisory panels?

Tan Sri Robert Phang was very vocal with the fight against corruption, even to the extent of slipping into an ACA press conference, to be seated between the agency’s two top officers, but has clammed up since being appointed to the panel.

The silence of two senior editors (journalistic etiquette prevents me from naming them) on the advisory panel was deafening when Malay Mail reporter Nevash Nair was hauled up for questioning, his phone and laptop seized and made to drive two MACC officers from Petaling Jaya to Shah Alam for six hours of questioning over his report on land grab involving a politician.

So now that the MACC is seen to be only going after reports against selected political parties, can we assume that the report lodged against a former assemblyman for for using almost RM500,000 in state allocations in 44 days is gathering dust somewhere in the filing cabinets of the MACC Selangor branch in Shah Alam? – as was the case with state allocations involving former assemblymen in Kampung Tunku, Kajang and Taman Medan.

What of the many complaints lodged against the previous Selangor administration? Since according to Navaratnam, the MACC’s No 2 said that all complaints must be investigated, can we assume that the former mentri besar will also be subject to the same kind of treatment Ronnie Liu, Ean Yong Hian Wah and Lau Weng San have been subjected to?

After all, the MACC claims it is independent and doesn’t play favourites right? It has the initiative to go after the mentri besar over cows and cars, then it should have no problems focusing its radar on the multi-million ringgit house owned by Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim’s predecessor.

Putting things into perspective, it would be wrong to say that the MACC shuts an eye to alleged misdeeds of members of the ruling coalition. Several junior politicians and at least three senior government officers have also been charged.

But again to the rakyat, these are small fish who have been made sacrificial lambs as part of a public relations exercise to pull wool over the people’s eyes to the fallacy that the MACC is an independent and impartial entity.

With the likes of the MACC throwing a spanner in the works, Terence is having a tough time trying to convince Malaysians in London that things are not as bad as they seem back home. He is deputy editor (special reports and investigations) and can be reached at terence@thesundaily.com.

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