Tan Sri Dzulkifli Ahmad should decide whether he wants to be Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission Chief Commissioner or Barisan Nasional politician, and if the latter, he should ask for a candidature from the Prime Minister and Barisan Nasional Chairman Datuk Seri Najib Razak and contest in the forthcoming 14th General Election.

After his first anniversary celebration as MACC Chief Commissioner, Dzulkifli is acting something none of the dozen heads of the anti-corruption agency since its establishment in the past 50 years since 1967 had ever done – conducting himself more as a politician than as MACC Chief Commissioner.

A most recent instance was his open attack on the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Paul Low, for the latter’s proposal for a new Department of National Integrity and Good Governance (JITN) to monitor MACC and ensure that it properly investigate corruption cases and charges perpetrators effectively.

Leaving aside for the moment the merits or demerits of the proposed JITN, what is most unprecedented is the open attack on a Minister by a head of a government agency, which had never happened before in the 60-year history of the public service and raising the question whether Dzulkifli thinks he has the patronage or protection of the Prime Minister to lash out publicly against Ministers – and why Dzulkifli thinks so!

In fact, Dzulkifli should have been put on the carpet for his outburst against Paul Low, but who dares to discipline Dzulfifli when even the Prime Minister is wary of him?

This is where Dzulkifli’s comment that he was open to criticism but it should be conveyed in a civilized manner reeks of so much arrogance and humbug.

Did Dzulkifli think that I was scolding him as a “monkey” when I used the saying of the three traditional three monkeys, “with eyes that see not, ears that hear not, and mouth that speaks not” about the 1MDB scandal?

Dzulkifli is very wrong and shallow-minded to think so.

Is Dzulkifli aware that the saying of the three monkeys have both positive and negative connotations.

Positive in the context of “Three Wise Monkeys” – a pictorial maxim originating from Japan which embodies the proverbial principle of “see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil”.

The three monkeys are Mizaru, covering his eyes, who sees no evil; Kikazaru, covering his ears, who hears no evil; and Iwazaru, covering his mouth, who speaks no evil. Sometimes there is a fourth monkey depicted with the three others; the last one, Shizaru, symbolizes the principle of “do no evil”. He may be shown crossing his arms.

The traditional three monkeys are each offering a piece of advice, and jointly their advice is to behave generously, the Japanese version of the Golden Rule – not to spread evil.

But the traditional three monkeys can also be understood as recommending disregard for the immorality and evil around us – turning a blind eye to it.

It is for Dzulkifli to choose the positive or negative interpretation of the “three monkeys” saying, and not to go off the tangent to feign umbrage and outrage at being called a monkey, when nobody is calling him a monkey!

Dzulkifli should not run away from the issues which I had raised, and the best venue for him to vindicate himself as MACC Chief Commissioner is to accept my challenge to explain to Malaysians what he and the MACC had done on the 1MDB scandal and clear Malaysia’s name of the infamy and ignominy of a “global kleptocracy” at the Pakatan Harapan “Sayangi Malaysia, Hapuskan Kleptocrasi” rally in Petaling Jaya on Oct. 14.