Serving police officers offer to testify at tribunal

Several serving police personnel have approached Malaysiakinivolunteering to appear before a tribunal against attorney-general Abdul Gani Patail and former inspector-general of police Musa Hassan over their alleged misconduct.

Their testimony, they stressed, will go beyond the duo's alleged collusion with an underworld figure.

Malaysiakini has run a series of reports over the past one week, painting a picture of the police force as allegedly being in cahoots with underworld figures.

This has apparently encouraged the police officers, who are still serving in the force, to come forward.

The police officers, who declined to reveal their names unless a tribunal is set up, said that while the force had improved under present IGP Ismail Omar, AG Abdul Gani's influence still casts a shadow of fear over many.

This, they said, is bound to continue unless an independent tribunal is set up.

Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein (left) has on Mondaycalled for evidence of such alleged wrongdoing.

His response was prompted byMalaysiakini highlighting former Commercial Crime Investigation Department director Ramli Yusuff's birthday's speech in which he had alleged that Gani, along with Musa and the then Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA), had fixed him and his men up.

The accusation originated from their investigations into Goh Cheng Poh or Tengku Goh, an underworld kingpin from Johor who allegedly had Musa's backing.

Tengku Goh was arrested by Ramli's men on Aug 1, 2007, but he was released four months later.

As allegations mount, Musa was subsequently investigated and cleared by Abdul Gani and the ACA, and his contract as police chief was renewed until his retirement in 2010.

However, as Malaysiakini had reported, questions over the duo's innocence linger.

Ramli, Mat Zain willing to step forward

Ramli (right) had earlier this week expressed his readiness to testify against Gani and Musa at a tribunal hearing.

When Hishammuddin was told the evidence that he was seeking for, in what has been dubbed the Copgate affair, is within his ministry as Ramli's lawyer had despatched a letter to then Internal Security Deputy Minister Johari Baharum, the minister had dismissed it, saying since he was aware of the matter, there was no need for a new probe.

Yesterday former Kuala Lumpur CID chief Mat Zain Ibrahim had in anopen letter to Ismail and PM Najib Razak said he too was willing to set the record straight on the matter before a tribunal on the allegations of fabricating evidence in Anwar Ibrahim's black-eye incident.

Whether Ramli and Mat Zain's offer to appear before a tribunal, and who are now joined by several serving police officers, would exert enough pressure on Hishammudin and Najib to initiate a probe into the matter remains to be seen.