The present attorney-general (AG), Mohamed Apandi Ali, certainly does not inspire confidence with his recent disclosure of the Malaysia Anti-Corruption Commission’s (MACC) investigation against Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak.
Within just a span of 48 hours, Apandi has been receiving (and rightly so) the brickbats from people of all walks of life, and even the professionals within his own legal fraternity. Locally as well as in the international community, Malaysia is getting a bad name.
Within the past 48 hours after Apandi’s ‘historic’ press conference was held on Tuesday, news has flashed across the world on Al Jazeera, CNBC, Bloomberg, BBC, ABC, CCTV News, Channel News Asia, Wall Street Journal and many others, putting the country’s reputation on the line.
One word probably describes everyone’s response towards Apandi’s decision not to prosecute Najib - everyone was precisely s-h-o-c-k-e-d! Former New Straits Times editor-in-chief Kadir Jasin could only look up for divine intervention, after he heard the AG’s decision not to prosecute Najib.
Being the man who is supposed to uphold the law, Apandi should have at least been more prudent and objective in his views, knowing that he is being watched by the world. It is not only his reputation but the reputation of the country that is at stake.
By instructing the MACC to close the investigation file on Najib, he, too, could someday face charges for obstructing an ongoing investigation. Veteran lawyer Param Cumaraswamy and several others had said that Apandi has no power to direct an investigating agency, such as the MACC, to close its files.
In fact, the AG should at least be seen lending his support to the MACC officers with their investigation through the Mutual Legal Assistance agreement.
King Abdullah dragged into the controversy
In my article yesterday, I asked how an Arab monarch would be interested in the political tsunami in the country. In fact, Nasdaq.com quoted a senior political analyst at consultancy firm JTG, Fahad Nazer as saying that he did not believe the money had come from the late King Abdullah.
“The notion that the Saudi ‘royals’ would ‘donate’ hundreds of millions of dollars to a foreign leader, as opposed to a government institution, struck me as suspect, to say the least,” Fahad said.
If what Najib said is true, by donating such a huge sum of money, a significant part of which was purportedly used for the last general election, the late King Abdullah was, in fact, ‘interfering’ in the democratic process of this nation.
The Saudi government has the obligation now to clear the name of King Abdullah, since his good name was identified as the donor. It is not difficult for the Saudi government to clear the former Saudi monarch, if the donation had, in fact, never been given, or the money returned to him. It would be registered in his bank accounts.
My question is: Is such funding even ‘acceptable’, not to mention whether it is appropriate? What if the money had gone into former opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim’s account?
As someone rightly pointed out, if the money was meant to fight extremism and the rise of the Islamist terrorists, why should the money be returned back to the late King Abdullah? Do we not need the money now to beef up the police force to counter terrorist attacks?
Malaysian politicians can continue to tell lies one after another but soon, the lies will be exposed. It should not hold any surprise now that Malaysians no longer have much confidence in the government of the day.
With Apandi’s latest disclosure, Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi has a lot of explanation to make since he claimed that he had met the royal donor on Aug 23 last year, but as far as we know the late King Abdullah had, in fact, passed away on Jan 23, 2015.
Things getting worse and out of control
Apandi’s disclosure has in fact dug up bigger holes for Najib, as the truth can no longer be hidden any more.
According to DAP publicist Tony Pua who has been following up closely on the scandal, Apandi had inadvertently revealed that “there was an additional RM27 million from SRC International that went to Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak's personal accounts”.
We are also concerned that “16 (or 17) recipients” have received payments from Najib totalling over RM10 million from a separate transfer of RM42 million from SRC in December 2014/February 2015.
Is this political patronage? And, if this money was used during the last general election, there are reasons to believe that there could be possible breach of election laws, as pointed out by Bersih 2.0’s chairperson Maria Chin Abdullah.
If the current chief of the Election Commission is serious, he should immediately set up an investigation team to look into the matter seriously.
MACC chief Abu Kassim Mohamed should live up to his reputation and reveal the findings of the investigations as this is of public interest. It is also time for deceased deputy public prosecutor Kevin Morais’ brother Charles to shed some light into the case and provide the information to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) which is still investigating the scandal.
Madness reigns when a cabinet minister Azalina Othman, quoting Article 145(3) of the federal constitution, said that the AG has the absolute power to absolve the prime minister and that his decision cannot be challenged.
As pointed out by Lawyers for Liberty’s Eric Paulsen, this is a serious issue that needs to be addressed. We all know that too much power vested in one person can be problematic. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. As such, even the AG’s decision should be put on check-and-balance, especially since the AG is appointed by Najib himself.
In an earlier report, Ahmad Zahid had also said that the AG’s decision cannot be challenged. This is not helping the ordinary Malaysians who simply want a better answer than what was given by Apandi during his press conference.
Even former international trade and industry minister Rafidah Aziz said that Najib has set a precedent for other leaders in the future on how to avoid criminal prosecution.
Meanwhile, we can imagine why the MACC officers who were investigating the case for seven long months have expressed their sense of dejection, after the AG rubbished their report.
Time for the Conference of Rulers and Agong to step in
Under present circumstances, the only hope is for the Conference of Rulers and the Agong to step in, and to restore public confidence.
Where necessary, a new attorney-general of good reputation would have to be appointed, so that he could carefully study the case and give his expert advice on the next cause of action.
As ordinary rakyat of this nation, we are waiting to see what the Conference of Rulers and the Agong would do to resolve the impasse, since they have already raised the people’s hope with their decree last year.
STEPHEN NG is an ordinary citizen with an avid interest in following political developments in the country since 2008. -Mkini
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