MACC an international fool, says Kit Siang

The Musa Aman case exposes the agency as 'among the most incompetent in the world'.

KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) has exposed itself as an international fool over its handling of the case involving Sabah Chief Minister Musa Aman, according to DAP leader Lim Kit Siang.

In an article posted in his blog yesterday, Lim chided MACC for taking four years to conclude that Musa was innocent of corruption.

He questioned the rationale behind the agency’s action of submitting its investigation papers to the Attorney-General Abdul Gani Patail for his decision when, according to Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Nazri Aziz, “no element of corruption” had been proven.

Referring to the coincidence of the news about Musa being exonerated and MACC’s hosting of an international anti-corruption conference, Lim said it was “most pathetic” that the agency had shown itself to be an “international fool”.

He questioned if MACC could ever recover from the “disastrous setback of being exposed as among the most inept and incompetent anti-corruption agencies in the world”.

In any other country, he added, the head of the anti-corruption agency would have resigned over the indignity.

MACC apparently began investigating Musa following reports that he was to be the beneficiary of the RM40 million that Sabah businessman Michael Chia was carrying when Hong Kong authorities arrested him in 2008.

Nazri said last week that the sum was a political contribution to Sabah Umno and not meant for Musa’s personal coffers.

Musa previously claimed that he had “no business associations whatsoever with an individual named Michael Chia”.

Meanwhile, whistleblower group Sarawak Report has posted on its website a list of donors to Sabah Umno, featuring a number of timber tycoons.

“If there is nothing wrong with millions of dollars being donated to Sabah Umno [chaired by CM Musa Aman] from timber barons who have received valuable concessions granted by the board of Yayasan Sabah (chaired by CM Musa Aman), why does the Prime Minister leave it to Sarawak Report to make all this public?” the article said.