“This is what the public wants. We want the same, too…What we want is to be independent in carrying out investigations with no interference.” – Director-General Ahmad Said Hamdan, ACA director-general.

Is this response by the ACA director-general to the proposed revamp of the Anti-Corruption Agency into the Malaysian Commission on Anti-Corruption, announced by the Prime Minister yesterday, an admission that there had been interference all this while into the ACA investigations, resulting in its inability to nab the 18 “big fishes” targeted at the beginning of the Abdullah premiership four years ago and the country’s plunge in the Transparency International Corruption Perception Index rankings from No. 37 in 2003 to No. 43 last year?

If so, the time has come for the ACA to open its books to fully account for all cases of interferences into all past corruption investigations into high-profile personalities, political or otherwise.