MACC statement implied 12-year-old son had to show up, says Saravanan

 The MIC deputy president says he was only told the boy could go home after they arrived at the commission's headquarters.

MACC said notices would be delivered to former human resources minister M Saravanan, his wife and their children to declare their assets.

PETALING JAYA:

MIC deputy president M Saravanan this evening doubled down on his criticisms of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission over the decision to summon his 12-year-old son to its headquarters to be served with an asset declaration notice.

Saravanan, the former human resources minister, said his son accompanied him to the anti-graft agency’s headquarters as he was made to understand, following MACC chief commissioner Abd Halim Aman’s Sept 25 remarks, that the 12-year-old was required to present himself to receive an asset declaration notice.

Last month, Halim said notices would be delivered to Saravanan, his wife and two of their children, while another daughter who was abroad would receive hers in November.

“With one child abroad, it was reasonable to understand that the other was my 12-year-old son,” Saravanan said in a Facebook post today.

However, Halim was reported as saying yesterday that MACC exercised its discretion and “considered what was reasonable” in deciding not to serve an asset declaration notice on Saravanan’s son.

He said the 12-year-old’s presence at the MACC headquarters did not mean he was there to receive a notice related to the investigation.

He was also reported to have said that Saravanan’s children were likely present because there was no one at home to care for them.

Today, Saravanan claimed that he was only told his 12-year-old son did not need to sign anything and could return home only after entering the MACC headquarters.

He said he had already informed MACC officers that his son was a minor and had no property in his name.

“If he did not need to be there, why was this not clarified before a 12-year-old was brought to an anti-corruption headquarters? That is the absurdity at the heart of this episode,” he said.

Yesterday, Saravanan criticised MACC’s justification for the presence of his 12-year-old son at the agency’s headquarters on Monday as “entirely illogical”, saying there was no need to involve a minor in the matter.

He also accused MACC of failing to exercise basic discretion and common sense regarding a 12-year-old child, adding it was deeply regrettable.

He said Halim’s claim that the children ‘had no one left at home’ and therefore “came along as usual”, was both irrelevant and dismissive.

He had similarly criticised MACC before going to the headquarters with his family on Monday, saying the asset declaration notice purportedly meant to be served on his son could have been served through him as the parent. - FMT