Archive for March 1st, 2007

Sack Zulkipli as ACA DG for telling lie that he had been cleared of serious corruption allegations

Posted by Kit in Corruption on Thursday, 1 March 2007

ACA Head - Zulkipli Mat Noor

The case of the Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) Director-General, Datuk Seri Zulkipli Mat Noor is getting curiouser and curiouser – panning out even to raise serious questions about the efficiency, competence and credibility of the Police, the Attorney-General’s Chambers, the Cabinet and the Prime Minister.

Firstly, the Sun today in its front-page headline story, “Papers with AG — Police resubmit investigation file on ACA chief to Attorney-General” reported the disclosure by the Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Musa Hassan that Kuala Lumpur police investigated the complaints on sexual crimes and assault allegedly committed by Zulkipli against a housewife in 1997 and later submitted investigation papers to the AG’s Chambers.

However, as the AG had not reverted to the police on the next course of action, a fresh submission was made yesterday.

The New Straits Times in its front-page report “GRAFT AND SEXUAL ABUSE ALLEGATIONS – SPEED UP PROBE ON ACA CHIEF — Attorney-general tells IGP” tells quite a different story.

NST quoted the Attorney-General Tan Sri Gani Patail that Zulkipli was cleared years ago of a claim of sexually abusing a woman after a thorough investigation into the sexual assault allegation in July 1997. The police investigation papers (IP) were submitted to the AG’s chambers on Oct. 24, 1997, and the AG’s Chambers found there were no grounds to prosecute Zulkipli, and the case was filed as “No Further Action” (NFA) needed.

Secondly, on the serious corruption charges against Zulkipli, the IGP was conspicuously silent but the NST reported Gani as saying that he had told Musa “to speed up the investigations into these allegations”.

Gani said the investigations would include checks against the asset declaration made by Zulkipli — “We compare these asset declarations to how one pays or finances one’s properties”, which would include “checks on the financial position of one’s family members to ascertain their contribution to the household income”.

Here Zulkipli is caught “red-handed” telling a lie that he had been cleared of serious corruption charges made against him, as he told the NST in its report yesterday: “Zulkipli called the charges ‘baseless’ and said prior to his appointment as director-general, he had been vetted and cleared by both the ACA and police.” Read the rest of this entry »

50 Comments

PM’s CNY present – RM70 billion Bursa Saham losses by small investors

Posted by Kit in Economics, Good Governance on Thursday, 1 March 2007

KLSE

The Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi had a special Chinese New Year message for Malaysians in the first two days on the Chinese New Year on February 18 and 19, 2006 — to enter the stock market to “ride on the momentum” of the good economic times.

This was his common theme at the Gerakan Chinese New Year open house in Kuala Lumpur on the first day of the Chinese New Year and at the open house of the Penang Chinese Chamber in Penang on the second day of the Chinese New Year.

Abdullah pointedly said that the Bursa Saham composite index, which was at the time at a high of more than 1,258 points, could surpass the 1,350-point level following positive indicators of the country’s economic growth — namely the trillion ringgit total trade last year, the increasing foreign and domestic investments and and the rising ringgit. (New Straits Times 21.2.07)

There had been widespread skepticism about the slew of “good economic news” which had been trotted out by the government in the previous two weeks, particularly about foreign direct investments which clearly conflicted with statistics released by the United Nations Conference Trade and Development (Unctad) — raising the question as to why there is a difference of between RM6.4 billion to RM9.8 billion in the statistics released by the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) and Unctad on 2006 FDIs into Malaysia.

However, when the Prime Minister openly urged Malaysians to enter the stock market “to ride on the momentum” in expectation of the KLSE rising above 1,350 points, small investors cast aside their doubts, reservations and skepticism and entered the stock market in a big way after the Chinese New Year holidays, lifting the KLCI to close at 1,283 points last Friday — with the Star yesterday carrying the screaming headline “KLCI poised to break record” for this week. Read the rest of this entry »

39 Comments