The guarantee by the Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi that there would be no more arrests of MACC officers by the police, only to take their statements, is welcome but this cannot be the end of the sorry story of the “seven-day of madness in Putrajaya” with Police and the MACC on war footing with each other.
There must be a full inquiry of who were responsible and whether there were “hidden hands” behind the “seven-day of madness in Putrajaya”, when there was a complete breakdown of orderly governance and the rule of law in the country.
This inquiry into the “seven-day madness in Putrajaya” of Police-MACC “warring” must be a full, independent and comprehensive one, even in the form of a Royal Commission of Inquiry or by way of a Parliamentary Inquiry, to ensure that there could be recurrence of this “seven-day madness in Putrajaya”.
Clearly, the prompt and strong protests by DAP, PKR and Gerakan Harapan Baru leaders and Members of Parliament, with the visit to the MACC headquarters in Putrajaya yesterday, as well as adverse public reactions against such gross abuses of police powers, interfering with the MACC’s role to fight corruption, had not been completely in vain.
We in the DAP, PKR and Gerakan Harapan Baru cannot stay silent to allow the MACC, which has already disappointed Malaysians in being unable to act with independence, impartiality and professionalism to combat corruption, to be further undermined and subverted by the powers-that-be.
In his statement, Zahid as good as confirmed that the wanton arrests of MACC officers in the past week were related to the leakage of information on social media, most notably the alleged final draft of the charge sheet against the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak for the offence of corruption.
The new Attorney-General Tan Sri Mohamed Apandi Ali had dismissed the draft charge sheet as false, and if so, this should be the end of the story.
When the police arrested and interrogated MACC officers in relation to the draft charge sheet, does it mean that there was in fact such a draft corruption charge sheet against Najib in the premises of MACC, and that this draft charge sheet had leaked out to the social media?
Which is which?
Let the Police, the Attorney-General and even the Home Minister Zahid fully explain to the people whether there was such a draft charge sheet against the Prime Minister for corruption, and that it had been leaked to the social media in violation of the Official Secrets Act? Does this mean that the draft charge sheet against Najib for the offence of corruption is not false or figment of the imagination?
If there was no such draft charge sheet against the Prime Minister, all the police arrests and interrogation of MACC officers in the past week were clear abuses of power and all officers conerned should be punished severely.
When Zahid said that any arrest of MACC officers in the future would be in compliance with police investigation procedures, is this an admission by the Home Minister that the arrest of MACC officers in the “seven-days of madness in Putrajaya” had been against police investigation procedures?
Zahid should also explain why several MACC officers are being investigated under Section 124B of the Penal Code, which concerns ‘activities detrimental to parliamentary democracy’.
Zahid’s dismissal of the statement by the MACC Special Operations Division director Bahari Mohamad Zin of “hidden hands” which had directed the police action against the MACC is neither satisfactory nor acceptable.
Could there be any such “hidden hands”, so powerful that the madness went on for seven days before it could be stopped as a result of the strong protests by DAP, PKR and Gerakan Harapan Baru leaders and Members of Parliament, as well as members of the public?
The Police had acted most high-handedly and arbitrarily in the “seven days of madness in Putrajaya”, sowing bad blood between these the Police and the MACC.
This itself is strong enough reason for an independent inquirty into the “Seven-Day madness in Putrajaya” to avoid a recurrence.
It would appear that the country has been spared the adverse consequences of the most fractured government in the nation’s history, leading even to a “war of prerogatives”.
Deputy Inspector-General of Police Noor Rashid Ibrahim had earlier dismissed claims that there were hidden hands behind the police investigation of the MACC, claiming that it was the “prerogative” of the Police to carry out its investigations.
The Deputy IGP cannot be unaware that it is also the prerogative of the MACC to act under Section 48 of the MACC Act to arrest and investigate police officers for interfering with MACC investigations!
Would there have been a “war of prerogatives” between the Police and the MACC if the “seven-day of madness in Putrajaya” had not been stopped? Malaysians are entitled to know why the Prime Minister and his newly-appointed Deputy Prime Minister had been so remiss in their duties as to allow the “seven-days of madness in Putrajaya” to occur, which had never happened in the nation’s history under country’s previous six Prime Ministers.
(Speech at the DAP-PKR-Gerakan Harapan Baru joint Hari Raya Open House in Kluang on Friday, 7th August 2015 at 4 pm)