Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yasin should stop the gimmick of playing “bad cop” to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s “good cop”, making the most outrageous statements which are a total mockery of the “1Malaysia. People First. Performance Now” slogan.

Muhyiddin is already notorious for his comment on the A (N1H1) pandemic, which has rapidly raised the death toll to 17 fatalities after the first death two weeks ago with the total cumulative cases mounting to 1,525.

Malaysians will long remember his “Even if I am health minister, I cannot guarantee your safety” remark just as they will not easily forget Muhyiddin’s open admission after being appointed Education Minister that he did not know that English was not a compulsory pass subject for Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) although he had been Cabinet Minister for 14 years and Johore Mentri Besar for nine years!

Muhyiddin’s latest outrageous statement is the one from Perth that the death threat made against the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) chief is politically-motivated and an attempt to bring down the institution and cause the people to lose confidence in it.

I condemn in no uncertain terms the death threat made to the MACC Chief Commissioner Datuk Seri Ahmad Said over the death of DAP political aide Teoh Beng Hock, just as I condemn in the strongest possible terms those responsible for Teoh’s mysterious death at the MACC headquarters on July 16 and demand that those who cause Teoh’s death be brought to justice.

But Muhyiddin was acting in a most irresponsible manner and completely unworthy of a Deputy Prime Minister in making baseless allegations of a political conspiracy to destroy the MACC by causing the people to lose confidence in it and portraying the death threat to Ahmad Said as the centerpiece of such a political conspiracy.

Does Muhyiddin has any evidence to justify such irresponsible allegations apart from the figments of his fevered imagination?

If Muhyiddin has evidence that the death threat to the MACC Chief Commissioner is politically motivated designed to destroy the MACC, why hasn’t he lodged an official police report and named names?

DAP and Pakatan Rakyat leaders do not want to destroy the MACC as we want it to return to its statutory objective to be an effective and credible commission to declare war on corruption and not deviate from it and instead is declaring war on the Pakatan Rakyat
There can be no doubt that public confidence in the seven-month-old MACC is at a nadir, even lower than the lowest point ever plumbed by its predecessor, the Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) in its 41-year history from 1967-2008.
This public crisis of confidence marking the very birth of the MACC is largely the MACC’s own making and has nothing to do with any politically-motivated conspiracy by the Pakatan Rakyat to cause the people to lose confidence in it.
There are two primary reasons for the crisis of confidence faced by MACC viz:
• MACC’s partiality and bias against the Pakatan Rakyat and its record of being highly protective of top Umno and Barisan Nasional leaders; and
• The mysterious death of Teoh Boon Hock at MACC headquarters for which no single MACC officer from Ahmad Said downwards have shown any remorse or compassion.

DAP and Pakatan Rakyat want a MACC which is independent, efficient and professional in spearheading the war against corruption to place Malaysia among the top-ranking nations internationally recognized and respected for its integrity and anti-corruption prowess and not one which has degenerated into a catspaw of Umno and Barisan Nasional to wage war against the Pakatan Rakyat while “grand corruption” in high political places remain unchecked.