Senior aide to minister nabbed for graft

(The Malaysian Insider) – A senior aide to an Umno minister was nabbed by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission on Wednesday for suspected graft.

The arrest coincides with the final stretch of frantic campaigning for this month’s party election and comes at a time when the MACC is facing some serious questions on its effectiveness and impartiality in tackling corruption.

The Malaysian Insider has learnt from informed sources that the political secretary to the minister was stopped with more than RM50,000 in his car.

He has been released on bail but the party grapevine was abuzz with news of the arrest which could have significant impact on the minister’s fortunes in Umno and continued employment in the incoming Najib administration.

The minister is competing for a position on the party’s supreme council. This is the second time that an aide or agents of a supreme council candidate has been arrested by the MACC.

In January, anti-corruption officers picked up 12 party divisional officers. They were allegedly working to help Datuk Norza Zakaria defend his supreme council seat. The men are being investigated for distributing between RM300 and RM500 to some of the 2,000 delegates who will be attending the general assembly-cum-elections.

Norza has also been questioned by the MACC but has denied any involvement in money politics, saying that he was a victim of a scheme to discredit him.

So far, no senior Umno politician has been charged by the MACC with corrupt acts related to the party election, though there has been a trail of claims saying that money has been exchanging like never before for Election 2009.

The MACC’s chief Datuk Seri Ahmad Said Hamdan said recently that the agency had completed investigations into complaints of money politics but had uncovered no evidence, a statement which invited derision from the Opposition.

DAP’s Lim Kit Siang labelled the MACC nothing but a catspaw of Umno. “Congratulations to the MACC chief commissioner for clearing Umno of all allegations of the corruption of money politics — which must have even caught Umno leaders, delegates and members by surprise that Umno is so clean, pristine and pure!

“Except that this is the biggest indictment on the MACC as a meaningful, effective and an intrepid anti-corruption body!,” he posted on his blog.