– The Malaysian Insider April 04, 2013
APRIL 4 – Naughty seems to be the byword in Sarawak.
The long-serving state chief minister Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud used that word today to describe the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission’s (MACC) for its investigations into alleged graft in timber land awards.
“They don’t deserve my cooperation because they have been naughty… and they have not been honest,” he told reporters in Kuala Lumpur.
The MACC probe was launched after an environmental activist group released a video documentary alleging the state Barisan Nasional chief to have received millions of ringgit in kickbacks over land deals that have denuded the Borneo state.
In the video, the Sarawak people were also called naughty for occupying state land. But for Taib, the MACC is the naughty one now.
“Let them victimise me… I am not scared,” said Taib, expressing no fear over the investigations.
What is the MACC to do now?
All eyes are on the MACC, again. After all, two people have died in the course of their investigations since they were set up in 2009.
WIll it back down and keep quiet after this brazen response from Taib? Won’t this kind of snub embolden others to thumb their nose at the MACC and refuse to cooperate too?
If the MACC doesn’t do anything about this response from Taib, it might as well close shop. It is already working on a trust deficit basis and this snub from Taib has just shown how powerless the commission can be when it comes head-to-head with the powerful.