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KUALA LUMPUR – For Malaysia to be embroiled in a scandal involving Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) chief, while it faces a plethora of other issues, is unfortunate for the country, said Dewan Negara president Tan Sri Rais Yatim.
Speaking to The Vibes, the veteran politician lamented how such matters have added to the litany of challenges in the country, judicially and legislatively, and environmentally, brought on by the recent floods.
“At a time when we have other colossal cases being attended to by the system, specially by the judiciary, and at a time when there are other investigations going on, this thing has to come up.
“That is unfortunate for our country and system.”
Rais, who heads the Parliamentary Special Committee on Corruption (JKMR), and the Dewan Negara Special Committee Governance, Integrity and Anti-Corruption, expressed his hopes of seeing civil servants who fear the repercussions of corrupt activities, and not otherwise.
“It is my personal hope that office holders fear the repercussions or results of a corrupt act; we have been suffering too much and too long on this issue.”
Parliamentary committee to meet next week
Rais said JKMR is scheduled to meet on January 13 to discuss the scandal involving MACC chief Tan Sri Azam Baki, of which establishing the facts will be the committee’s first agenda.
He said this is a vital step of the investigative process, with precise information surrounding the case required to make informed decisions and subsequent recommendations to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob.
“A lot of it has been skewed over local media but we need to record the actual facts, and for that we are prepared to put it on paper and look at it from a few angles.
“We need to get the facts correct, whether the shares are being held by him or somebody else, or is it a matter of direct ownership or something that is besides direct ownership, and then we have to activate the disciplinary process that is provided under the civil service hierarchy.
“He is a civil servant. We cannot simply jump into things, the principles of rule of law and natural justice must prevail.”
Rais said the premise of their scrutiny will be to establish if any provisions within the Civil Servants (Seniority) Rules 1993 are breached.
“We must get the figures itself right, then we must find out what is the name of the real company.
“Then I must also know whether the assets are being held by somebody else or by Tan Sri Azam himself… now this is not established. We cannot rely on the media to have our facts established. We have to get it through real access to the source of the facts.”
Following this, Rais said JKMR’s findings will also be presented to the Dewan Negara’s Special Committee Governance, Integrity and Anti-Corruption for another round of scrutiny.
He said the Dewan Negara’s committee is expected to meet one week after JKMR has met.
“With the findings of that (JKMR) committee, I will advise the Dewan Negara committee on what to do and what should be done in respect of the various suggestions given by many quarters.”
Possible suggestions by the Dewan Negara committee, said Rais, could include recommending setting up of a proper investigation, whether it should be in-house, by MACC or a separate body committee.
On when Azam and Anti-Corruption Advisory Board (LPPR) chairman Tan Sri Abu Zahar Ujang could be called in by the two committees, he said this remains unclear as it must first establish the nature of information required from the duo.
“It will be a process involving others first because we are not a body of judicial competence, we are a legislative body, so there are certain things that we can and cannot do.
“I cannot simply say, A, or B and C come… we cannot do that. I have to bring this to the committee first and then if the committee agrees, we shall call a few individuals.”
Rais then assured the public that a fair process will be conducted by all the committees he heads, and that any decision made would be based on accurate facts and information.
“We cannot postulate, it all depends on the facts. First, we must get the facts correct, what we do not have is correct facts, whether the facts are watertight or it postulates, we have to get that right first.”
Calls for Azam to be investigated have grown louder over the past days following his and Abu Zahar’s anti-climactic press conference on Wednesday, which was initially touted to be a tell-all.
This comes after Azam had claimed innocence during a press conference held on Wednesday, saying the allegations against him were lies and done to tarnish his reputation.
However, legal counsels who spoke to The Vibes called his reasoning as “lame” and “untenable”, and were overall unconvinced with Azam’s declaration during Wednesday’s press conference.
Pakatan Harapan have called for an independent probe to be initiated against Abu Zahar and Azam to find out the truth, while urging for both to be put on leave pending completion of the investigations.
In Parliament, a special motion looking to debate Azam’s issue and allegations was filed by Amanah’s Datuk Seri Salahuddin Ayub, with several other lawmakers also expressing their doubts towards the chief commissioner.
Additionally, the Securities Commission has said it would call in all parties involved in the episode to seek an explanation into what transpired.
Azam also served a Letter of Demand to investigative journalist Lalitha Kunaratnam, whose reports alleging his abuses were first published by the Independent News Service. – The Vibes, January 8, 2022
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