Why the silence on major cases?

There must be accountability from the authorities. They have to give us answers and not keep us guessing about the outcome of their investigations.

Sharanjit Singh, NST

THOSE who have been following the search for extraterrestrial intelligence — ET or aliens, as we call them — will know that this Friday marks the 46th anniversary of the “Wow” signal.

The signal from the direction of the Sagittarius constellation remains the strongest candidate for an extraterrestrial radio transmission ever detected by man-kind.

The signal, which bore the expected hallmarks of extraterrestrial origin, was detected by Ohio State University’s Big Ear reflector used to support the search for ETs.

The entire signal sequence lasted for the full 72-second window during which the Big Ear was able to observe it.

However, it has never been detected again.

Forty-six years have passed, and it has been total silence from whoever or whatever waved at us on that remarkable day in 1977.

After that one fling from potential celestial suitors, all we have had since then has been nothing but the silent treatment.

Closer to home, the silent treatment is exactly what some enforcement authorities seem to be dishing out when it comes to informing the public about developments in cases of the utmost interest.

It has been one year since the chief registrar of the Federal Court filed a report against a portal for publishing a leaked document related to the grounds of its decision on Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s final appeal against his conviction in the SRC International corruption case.

In the report, the registrar complained that the leaked document was altered and had affected the integrity of the nation’s judicial system.

Apart from the report, an internal investigation was also promised to determine who was behind the egregious breach.

There was much brouhaha immediately after the publication of the leaked document, but it became all quiet soon after.

It has been a year since the draft judgment was leaked and an investigation was promised… but there has been absolute silence since then — just like the Wow signal.

Nobody would say whether the leaker had been identified or if anyone had been disciplined.

Prior to the leaked draft judgment, another classified document on the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) investigation into the then High Court judge who convicted Najib also found its way to various political portals.

MACC Chief Commissioner Tan Sri Azam Baki has since dismissed any notion that the graftbusters were behind the leak, making it clear that MACC had gone to great lengths to ensure the report was kept under lock and key.

Then, earlier this month, another leaked document — this time from the Attorney-General’s Chambers (A-GC) — ended up being plastered all over.

It involved recommendations from a prosecutor for the then attorney-general Tan Sri Tommy Thomas to drop six of the corruption charges in 2019 against Najib and former Treasury secretary-general Tan Sri Mohd Irwan Serigar Abdullah.

An outraged Tan Sri Idrus Harun, the current attorney-general, when commenting on the leaked 12-page memo, said an internal investigation had commenced.

One can only wonder if those probing the leak will be calling in professional snoops or subjecting A-GC employees to lie detector tests.

Apart from the silence over leaked documents, it is also a mystery as to what happened to an expose earlier this year that five major banks in the country were on the MACC radar for being used by international scammers to dupe victims.

It was reported that at least 20 employees of the banks — including auditors and frontline officers — facilitated the operations of such syndicates.

The crooked bank employees were said to have enabled scammers to reap about RM200 million within just three months.

In yet another case, it has been almost two months since the media reported the seizures of RM38 million in cash, 200kg of gold worth about RM60 million and 17 luxury cars.

The arrests of several suspects — including a flamboyant high-profile businessman — connected to the seizures were plastered all over the news.

However, there have been no developments reported since, leaving so many questions with so few answers.

Then, in June, we were told that an investigation paper on a policeman arrested for alleged drink driving against the flow of traffic had been submitted to Bukit Aman’s legal department for further action.

All we have heard about the case since then is nothing, unlike other cases of drink driving and driving against the flow of traffic, where suspects are almost always charged the very next day or soon after being caught.

We really need to stop emulating our mysterious ET friends who sent us the Wow signal, only to keep silent thereafter.

There must be accountability from the authorities. They have to give us answers and not keep us guessing about the outcome of their investigations.