Former Prime Minister Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad has dismissed the allegation that he had paid me RM1 billion bribe, stating only the insane would believe he had such a fortune at his disposal.

I do not think the people behind the allegation that Mahathir had paid me RM1 billion bribe, with RM750,000 already given to me overseas, with the four-fold objective to let Parti Pribumi Bersatu join Pakatan Harapan, make Mahathir the Pakatan Harapan Chairman, ensure my silence  on the Bank Negara foreign exchange (forex)  scandal of the 90s and give Datuk Seri Mukhriz Mahathir a safe Parliament seat to contest in the forthcoming general election, are “insane” people.

They are very sober and intelligent though very calculative and depraved, with a very clear objective in mind – making use of all channels, including propaganda digits outside the country and inside Malaysia, as well as mainstream media under their thumbs, to spread such lies and falsehoods.

Mahathir said only the insane would believe that he had such a fortune at his disposal as to pay me RM1 billion bribe.

I would go one step further and state that if there is any truth in the lies about Mahathir’s RM1 billion bribe to me, with RM750,000 already paid into my accounts, and MACC knows nothing about it, then MACC Chief Commissioner Tan Sri Dzulkifli Ahmad should resign in disgrace because of utter incompetence.

How could the MACC know nothing of such a huge billion-ringgit bribe to me, with RM750,000 already paid to me overseas?

Only last Sunday, the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak declared open the world’s biggest anti-corruption complex, which is the new MACC headquarters.

I stumbled on the new MACC headquarters in Putrajaya two months ago when some 30 Members of Parliament from Pakatan Harapan marched to the nearly-completed MACC headquarters to present a memorandum calling on the MACC to re-open investigations into the international multi-billion dollar 1MDB money-laundering scandal which had turned Malaysia overnight into a “global kleptocracy”.

I confess I was totally bowled over and overawed by the immensity and cost of the new MACC building in Putrajaya making it the largest anti-corruption complex in the world!

Unfortunately, the MACC has nothing much to show in fighting corruption, as in the past two decades, corruption in Malaysia has got worse while in other countries notorious for corruption two decades ago have been making tremendous progress in fighting corruption.

Good examples are China and Indonesia.

In the first annual Corruption Perception Index (CPI) of Transparency International (TI) in 1995, Malaysia was ranked No. 23 out of 41 countries, with a CPI score above the half-way point of 5.2 out of 10 (which is best score for the least corrupt nation).
 
In the past 22 years, Malaysia’s record in fighting corruption got worse over the years despite trebling of the anti-corruption agency’s annual budget allocation from some RM95 million in 1995 to some RM260 million in 2016, a phenomenal increase in MACC personnel and now the world’s largest anti-corruption complex!

In 2016, Malaysia’s ranking fell to No 55 while CPI score was below the half-way mark of 49 out of 100.
 
Why is this the case?

There have been tremendous progress in the war against corruption in China and Indonesia in the past two decades.

In China, the “tigers” of corruption are being arrested, convicted, jailed and even executed. In Indonesia, they are catching the “crocodiles” and bringing them to justice. But in Malaysia, the “sharks” of corruption of swimming freely and merrily in the South China Sea!

 
China and Indonesia, which were ranked as the last two countries in the list of 41 countries in the 1995 TI CPI, had improved by leaps and bounds for China to be ranked No. 79 out of 176 countries with a CPI score of 40 out of 100, while Indonesia climbed from the bottom of the list to a respectable No. 90 out of 176 countries with a score of 37 out of 100.

Within a decade, China may overtake Malaysia in the TI CPI, although Indonesia will take longer time to beat Malaysia as a country with regard to integrity, good governance and the battle against corruption.

In such circumstances, with corruption getting worse instead of getting better, having the biggest anti-corruption agency complex in the world is a national shame and not a national pride or glory.

I will meet my lawyers next week on my instruction to them to take out a test case to sue the media which printed lies and defamatory material about me receiving RM1 billion bribe from Mahathir.

We are seeing a new modus operandi in character-assassination and spreading of lies and falsehoods against DAP and Pakatan Harapan leaders.

When we ignore the lies and falsehoods being spread at first outside the country and later taken up in the country by irrelevant and inconsequential propaganda digits who have no credibility whatsoever, UMNO/BN-owned media would be used to spread these lies and falsehoods.

Are these media protected from defamatory proceedings for re-cyling such lies and falsehoods? This is the test case which I have instructed my lawyers to initiate and institute.

(Speech at the DAP Bakri “Sayangi Malaysia, Hapuskan Kleptocrasi” Dinner held in Muar on Friday, October 6, 2017 at 10 pm)