Kit Siang: AG should resign
(Malaysian Mirror) – Lim Kit Siang has called for the resignation of Attorney-General Gani Patail for failing to charge former Transport Minister Chan Kong Choy for criminal breach of trust.
The DAP stalwart said the findings of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on the Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) scandal was sufficient to warrant his resignation.
“The PAC report has confirmed and vindicated my statements and allegations about the PKFZ not only as a can of worms but a swamp of crocodiles that I have made in Parliament since the last session.
“[It] raises the question why no action had been taken very much earlier to avoid the rotten state of the PKFZ scandal today,” said Lim in his blog.
According to the PAC’s findings, as much as RM645 million could have been saved had PKFZ land been acquired under the Land Acquisition Act 1960. PAC recommended that former Transport Minister Chan Kong Choy be investigated by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) and the police for unlawfully issuing three Letters of Support.
Lim said Chan should be charged for criminal breach of trust under Section 14(1) of the Financial Procedure Act 1957 read together with Section 409B Penal Code.
“I commend PAC for taking such a clear stand but I cannot wonder what is the use of such a reference to the MACC, when the MACC and previously the Anti-Corruption Agency had been aware of these facts as I had spoken about them many times in Parliament in the past three years.
Committed breach of trust
Lim said during a meeting with the PAC committee, MACC Director of Investigations Mohd Shukri bin Abdull had confirmed that the attorney-general’s office has investigated the issuing of the Letters of Support and found that no offence had been committed
“It is crystal clear that the fact of Chan Kong Choy having abused his powers as transport minister and committed breach of trust in unlawfully issuing the three letters of support were not new information to the MACC. What purpose can be served by PAC recommending that SPRM should further investigate into Chan Kong Choy for the offence of criminal breach of trust when it had already investigated and cleared him of having committed any such offence?”
“Attorney-General Gani Patail had appeared before the PAC to reiterate that Chan had unlawfully given an implicit government guarantee in the three Letters of Support which he had no power to give as transport minister. The question is why the Attorney-General had failed to take action against Chan for abuse of power or criminal breach of trust in illegally. Gani Patail should resign as Attorney-General if he cannot give a satisfactory explanation.”
Lim also called for a Royal Commission of Inquiry to build on the PAC findings as well as to investigate why the MACC, the Attorney-General and other key institutions and important officials had failed to discharge their duties in allowing the PKFZ scandal to reach the present astronomical scale.
