Musa Aman precarious, ICAC threat to confiscate Sabah money

ARCHIVES 2010

By admin-s On Jul 1, 2010

Wong Choon Mei, Malaysia Chronicle

It looks like there is no escape for Sabah Chief Minister Musa Aman. Up to his neck in corruption complaints and allegations, the noose tightened yet another notch when tax officers raided the offices of some of his closest associates, including Michael Chia and the Gang of 14.

Sources familiar with investigations being conducted at both federal and state levels told Malaysia Chronicle that officers from the Lembaga Hasil Sabah last week visited the work places of Chia and some of his friends, who are collectively known as the Gang of 14 because of their common loyalty to the Chief Minister. The investigators carted away certain documents and files to help in their probe.

The sources said the order for the latest raids came from above following a stern warning from the Hong Kong anti-corruption commission, ICAC, that if Malaysian authorities continued to delay, it would confiscate money uncovered during investigations at its end.

“We are talking hundreds of millions not just RM16 million or so. The last figure that was reported in the medias was RM500 million,” one of the highly-placed sources told Malaysia Chronicle.

“The Hong Kong probe began two years ago and since then the ICAC has exposed a very large and entrenched money laundering racket involving a lot of nationalities. Malaysian authorities can pretend not to be aware, but then, the ICAC will confiscate the money on behalf of the Hong Kong government. Sabahans will end up losing everything.”

Musa’s supporters warned about seat allocations

For these reasons, pundits believe the writing is on the wall for the flamboyant Musa Aman, who has been accused of trying to shield his friends. He is also personally implicated in some of the allegations but has denied all knowledge or involvement.

Sabah watchers point to a speech made by Prime Minister Najib Razak earlier this week at Penampang, where he refused to agree to maintain the allocation of seats for the next general elections. “Leave it to me to decide what is best for Sabah. At the moment, we don’t get too excited about anything,” the PM was reported as saying by national news agency Bernama.

Najib’s remarks were seen as a major snub for Musa Aman, the Sabah Umno chief, and many party insiders believe that politically, he is as good as finished. Nation-wide elections are expected to be held in early 2011, although the federal government can wait until March 2013 at the latest.