The MACC Way to whitewash the crimes of A-G Gani Patail
by Din Merican
Yesterday, the mainstream media, especially the NST and The Star, gave much publicity to MACC’s press conference at which the MACC stated that they have found new evidence in the case against the former Chairman of Malaysia Airlines (MAS),Tan Sri Tajuddin Ramli. As if in glee, the Chairman of MACC’s Operation Evaluation Panel, Tan Sri Hadenan Abdul Jalil, took the opportunity to silence critics by stressing that “claims by certain quarters that the MACC did not investigate the allegation is, therefore, untrue”.
Really? Is it true that MACC has always been investigating the MAS scandal? What mischief and trickery is this? Could Tan Sri Hadenan be suffering from selective amnesia, or was he fed with wrong or false information by the MACC?
Has Tan Sri Hadenan forgotten that Malaysia Today had posted the MACC’s official reply to Malaysia Airlines (MAS) where the MACC clearly said that they were not investigating the Tajuddin case but had instead referred the matter back to the Police? Wasn’t that’s what the whole uproar was about that led all the alternative media to remind the MACC Chief Commissioner, Dato’ Seri Abu Kassim Mohamed about his public pledge that he will resign if big fishes are not investigated.
As a matter of integrity, I invite Tan Sri Hadenan to correct his statement. Otherwise, I will reproduce that MACC letter just to expose Tan Sri Hadenan as either lying publicly or is being used by the MACC to mislead the public. But let’s not go down that route.
Let me jolt everyone’s memory that it is on record that the MACC had slept on the Tajuddin case. MACC did nothing for more than one year from the time MASKargo’s Managing Director Shahri Sulaiman made his report to the MACC in 2009. The MACC had NFA (No Further Action)’d the case.
MASKargo’s Managing Director Shahri Sulaiman made his report to the MACC in 2009.
MACC did nothing until public pressure mounted after PAS vice-president Salahuddin Ayub, who is part of the Parliamentary Committee on Corruption, had claimed that the MACC was holding back in probing the case. Public pressure mounted after Raja Petra Kamarudin’s (RPK) Malaysia Today exposed that the MAS case was closed because AG Gani is in the pockets of Tajudin. Public pressure mounted because A-G Gani was caught consorting with Tajudin’s proxy, an ex-policeman once charged for bribery called – Shahidan Shafie.
Things got hot for A-G Gani Patail when MACC’s own Panel Adviser, Tan Sri Robert Phang, demanded Gani Patail to explain his relationship with Shahidan Shafie. Tan Sri Phang asked AG Gani Patail to deny that he did not book his haj trip nor shared a room with Sahidan. Tan Sri Phang expected Gani’s conduct as Attorney General to be beyond reproach. Tan Sri Phang was too polite to call Gani Patail a scumbag, but he was blunt enough to say that Gani Patail is the root cause for the negative perceptions against the Government and the MACC. Tan Sri Phang referred to Gani’s conduct as “Seperti ketam megajar anaknya berjalan lurus”.
