MACC slams RPK’s allegations as baseless
By Boo Su-Lyn, The Malaysian Insider
KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 4 — The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) has claimed that Raja Petra Kamarudin’s accusations are baseless — that the agency was not prosecuting prominent personalities.
Raja Petra’s Malaysia Today website has started to put out documents to support the allegations, details of complaints and evidence submitted which the MACC apparently had not followed up with prosecutions.
“The accusations made in a blog that said SPRM did not investigate and did not prosecute the suspects based on the investigation reports of three cases is absolutely baseless,” replied the MACC on its official blog, www.ourdifferentview.com today, while not naming Raja Petra directly.
On his Malaysia Today website, Raja Petra has published what he claims are copies of investigation reports against former Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) chief Datuk Seri Zulkifly Mat Noor, National Civics Bureau (BTN) director-general Datuk Shagul Hamid Abdullah, former Selangor Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Dr Khir Toyo, as well as a preliminary investigation report based on a report where Kulim assemblyman Lim Soo Nee claimed that he was offered a bribe to defect to Barisan Nasional (BN).
The anti-graft body also said that the cases against Zulkifly, Khir, and Lim were old cases, although it did not mention the case against Shagul.
“As a conclusion, all the cases cited are old cases,” said the blog post.
The anti-graft body added that news reports in 2007 had highlighted police investigations against the former ACA chief and pointed out that they could not have taken action against their own head.
“To ensure that investigations were done fairly and transparently, the police were given the responsibility to handle investigations,” said the MACC.
“Besides, the cases mentioned were not graft cases. So, don’t try to connect SPRM with this issue and slam them for purportedly not taking action to investigate and prosecute. It is not fair to hit out at SPRM and connect it to the issue of MACC’s frayed image for silencing action on this case,” it said, referring to the body’s Malay acronym.
The agency also pointed out that the report on the Kulim assemblyman did not contain enough evidence to prosecute the former Kedah mentri besar who allegedly offered Lim a RM5 million bribe to defect to the ruling coalition.
“If the investigation report is properly perused, it is merely a report that was given by the branch office to the headquarters for it to start the investigation process. In this case, the BPR (Badan Pencegah Rasuah) had already started investigations,” said the MACC, referring to the ACA’s Malay acronym.
