The Chief Commissioner of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) has invited political parties to submit the names of their prospective candidates for the coming 14th general election (GE14) to it for vetting.
He said that although there was no law or compulsion for the political parties to do so, vetting could be done to ensure the candidates were clean and not tainted by corruption and abuse of power.
According to Dzulkifli, only the Barisan Nasional sent in the names of their leaders and would-be candidates for vetting by the MACC while the opposition parties had never done that.
Dzulkifli is not so naïve as not to know the real reason why the Opposition parties had never sent their prospective election candidates to MACC for vetting.
In fact, if there is an opinion poll as to who believes that the MACC is independent, impartial and professional and not a tool of the powers-that-be, in particular the Prime Minister himself, I have no doubt that the overwhelming majority, may be even exceeding 90 per cent of those polled, would hold the view that the MACC is not independent, impartial or professional and a mere tool of the Prime Minister’s Office.
But I am prepared to be convinced otherwise.
If the MACC can recommend that Barisan Nasional (BN) candidates involved in the 1MDB scandal, which turned Malaysia into a global kleptocracy, should not be fielded in the next general election, I will recommend to the DAP Central Executive Committee that DAP candidates in 14GE be vetted by MACC.
The ball is in MACC’s court. Can the MACC deliver?
The MACC is presently on a national road show with the slogan “Say No to Corruption”.
MACC dare not even change its national roadshow slogan from “Say No to Corruption” to “Say No to 1MDB scandal”, although I have given five reasons when this should be done, viz:
Firstly, the 1MDB scandal is the country’s largest financial scandal in history, in fact, it is the subject of United States Department of Justice (DOJ) largest kleptocratic litigation to forfeit US$1.7 billion 1MDB-linked assets in US, UK and Switzerland;
Secondly, it is the international multi-billion dollar 1MDB money-laundering scandal which has turned Malaysia overnight into a “global kleptocracy”;
Thirdly, “Say No to 1MDB scandal” embraces “Say No to Corruption” while “Say No to Corruption” does not include “Say No to 1MDB scandal”;
Fourthly, there is no single issue which will as forcefully and powerfully send out the message to Malaysians and the world that the MACC is serious about fighting corruption than to launch an all-out battle against the 1MBD scandal; and
Fifthly, so long as MACC does not directly address the 1MDB scandal, it will never get the trust and confidence of Malaysians and the world that it has finally come of age and become a truly professional world-class anti-corruption agency dedicated to the war against corruption “without fear or favour” of the powers-that-be.
The 1MDB scandal will be MACC and Dzulkifli’s acid test as to whether they are serious, independent, impartial and professional in fighting corruption, without fear or favour, of whether they are merely creatures of the powers-that-be to use the language of anti-corruption to cover up the corruption and kleptocracy of the powers-that-be.
The world today is replete with examples of some of the most corrupt nations in the world with Anti-Corruption Commissions, just as there are so many nations with Human Rights Commissions which are among the worst violaters of human rights of their citizens.
There is a new book on corruption and kleptocracy in the world which details how nations had set up Anti-Corruption Commissions as part of their lip-service commitment to fight corruption.
This new book, The Corruption Cure by Robert Rotberg, pointed out that Anti-Corruption Commissions are no panaceas to end the problem of corruption. In fact, in many countries, Anti-Corruption Commissions have been worse than ineffective as they have been “weaponized to punish opponents of corrupt regimes”.
Has the MACC been “weaponized” by the BN Government to fight opponents of Malaysia becoming a global kleptocracy?
On August 3, scores of Members of Parliament marched from Parliament to Bank Negara to pressure the central bank to re-open investigations into the 1MDB scandal, following additional filings by the US Department of Justice (DOJ) on its kleptocratic litigation to forfeit US$1.7 billion 1MDB-linked assets in the United States, United Kingdom and Switzerland.
In its reply to the MPs’ memorandumn to Bank Negara, revealed by the Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Dr. Wan Azizah Wan Ismail at a news conference this morning, Bank Negara has given a very vague disclosure, saying that from 2015 to June 2017, a total of RM115.8 million in compound fines and penalties were imposed for breaches of financial laws and regulations.
The media had reported that Ambank was fined RM53.7 million by Bank Negara for breaches of financial laws and regulations. Does this mean that 1MDB had been fined RM63.1 million for breaches of financial laws and regulations?
What type of transparency and accountability is Bank Negara talking about when it is not prepared to answer this question?
But even more important and relevant for the credibility of the MACC, is it prepared to re-open investigations into the 1MDB scandal with regard to the corruption dimensions when such a massive scale of financial scandal is involved?