KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 22 – Azrul Azwar Ahmad Tajuddin has defended himself against his employer Bank Islam Malaysia, saying today the bank’s police report against him is an intimidation tactic and their allegations are a civil matter and not criminal in nature.
The bank announced today it has filed two police reports against their suspended chief economist, accusing him of possessing and leaking confidential documents to a third party.
“In response to the police report lodged against me, I wish to reiterate that the allegations contained in the police report made by my employer do not constitute any criminal offences.
“At most, it is only a civil matter which is now the subject of an internal inquiry between my employer and myself. I cannot see why this matter is now being turned into a police case,” Azrul (picture) said in a four-paragraph statement today.
He appeared to accuse Bank Islam of using the police reports to intimidate and harass him.
“This heavy-handedness is nothing but an intimidation and harassment tactic against me,” he said, adding that he is currently seeking legal advice and will instruct his lawyers to take further action if necessary.
Azrul told The Malaysian Insider today that he was not aware of the second police report.
Bank Islam today wrote in a brief three-paragraph media statement: “The suspension is due to Azrul’s violation of the Bank’s internal policies, the details of which have been conveyed to Azrul in the show cause letter, handed to him on 17 January 2013.”
“In the course of our investigation into these breaches, the Bank discovered evidence of other violations which warranted us to make a police report on 18 January 2013.
“Upon further investigations, the Bank lodged a second police report today,” the bank added.
It reiterated that Azrul’s suspension had nothing to do with his presentation at a regional economic conference in Singapore early this month, where he predicted that the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) could lose this year’s general election to Pakatan Rakyat (PR).
Bank Islam Malaysia’s main shareholder is the Lembaga Tabung Haji, which is a government-linked fund in charge of Muslims performing the Haj.
The bank lodged a police complaint against the economist last Friday, accusing him of violating its internal policies and code of ethics which it said amounted to criminal offences.
A copy of the police report was scanned and put online.
In the police report, the bank’s head of human resources Jamilah Abdul Sallam, said Azrul had been found to be in possession of the minutes of the bank’s board of directors’ meeting deemed to be confidential and sensitive as it involved a corporate exercise proposal involving Bank Islam.
“Mr Azrul who had no access and authority to the documents had handed those documents to an unrelated third party without approval.
“The documents were scanned and sent by email to a third party on 21 June 2012 at 12.36pm. The email was titled TOP SECRET,” Jamilah said in her police report, which has been posted on several blogs .
Dang Wangi district police chief, ACP Zainuddin Ahmad, confirmed Bank Islam had lodged the second police report earlier today, but declined to disclose further information.
“Ya, we received a police report from Bank Islam on Azrul Azwar. It was made this morning.
“I cannot disclose any further information on the case, but we will investigate with the evidence and testimony given,” he told The Malaysian Insider when contacted over the phone.
Azrul was suspended from his duties by the bank on January 14 after he was reported by Singapore’s The Straits Times to have predicted a narrow win in Election 2013 by Pakatan Rakyat (PR) as the most likely out of three possible scenarios.
In a report by The Straits Times, Azrul Azwar’s calculations found that one of the most likely scenarios was that the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition would likely win only between 97 and 107 of the 222 parliamentary seats, which are insufficient to form the next administration.
But the result would also mean that PR will only gain a shaky hold over Parliament, far from the supermajority once enjoyed by its rival.
The two other likely scenarios reportedly presented by Azrul Azwar was that there would be a narrow win for BN and a bigger win for PR.
Azrul Azwar had taken into account factors such as race and demographics.
He had also forecasted that under the most likely scenario of a narrow win by PR, a fallout would result, with the stock market set to respond in a “knee-jerk” fashion as well as an extended period of perceived instability.
He also did not rule out the possibility of “economic sabotage” by businesses and the civil service that are aligned with BN.
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