Country deserves immediate reaction from Apandi on rumours, says Tunku Abdul Aziz
(MO) – Attorney-General Tan Sri Apandi Ali has been urged to respond to the rumour that he along with Datuk Seri Abdul Azeez Abdul Rahim are involved in a plot to discredit Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) chief commissioner Tan Sri Dzulkifli Ahmad.
In making this call, social activist Tunku Abdul Aziz Tunku Ibrahim said while rumours, in general, may have no basis in fact, Apandi owed it to his position, to the people of this country and to the government that appointed him, to deal with this matter in a proper way.
While applauding Apandi for saying he would take legal action against blogger Raja Petra Kamaruddin (RPK) on accusations made by the latter, Tunku Abdul Aziz pointed out that the legal proceeding would have to be done in a British Court.
“Given the nature of his position as an establishment figure, he has done the right thing. Take RPK to court but also given the nature of the legal proceedings, and the length of time it takes to commence proceedings and the legal processes involved, I think the people of this country deserve to know what his immediate reaction is to this.
“He has said these are lies, but specific accusations have been made and I think it is in his interest and in all fairness to the people of this country that he should deal with this specific rumours, one by one.
“His rebuttal in our country could be used by him to reinforce his position when the matter goes to the English court in London,” Tunku Abdul Aziz said.
The Anti-Corruption Advisory Board (ACAB) chairman said this at a press conference earlier today, referring to an article written by RPK, in which the latter had accused Apandi and Abdul Azeez of working together to bring down Dzulkifli with regard to an earlier accusation that implicated the MACC chief commissioner in an affair with a married woman.
Tunku Abdul Aziz also took the A-G to task on reports that the latter had set up a taskforce to monitor investigations on the allegation of the extra-marital affair.
It was reported earlier this month that there have been allegations, which surfaced online recently, accusing Dzulkifli of having an extramarital affair.
Dzulkifli had denied the allegations, saying they were made to tarnish his reputation and to discredit MACC’s efforts in combating corruption.
Questioning the need for the A-G to get involved in such investigations, Tunku Abdul Aziz said the matter is rather unusual.
“My understanding is that it is only when the agencies enshrined with the task of investigation have done their work, when the papers are complete, they go to the A-G’s chambers. And there, the A-G, having studied the paper, will say yes we will proceed, or sometimes the investigation suggests that there is really no case or insufficient evidence to take the matter to court and to gain a conviction, so he will say there isn’t sufficient evidence to proceed, but he does not investigate.
“Why is he investigating this? Surely depending on the nature of the crime, if it has any elements of corruption, it is the MACC (tasked to investigate). If it is other types of crimes, we have the Police. I think they have enough experience.”
Tunku Abdul Aziz said the A-G’s intentions of ‘helping to guide the police in their investigation’ simply translates to interfering and influencing.
