Mat Zain: If gov't loses assets, there will be inquiry

A board of inquiry is set up if ever there is a loss of government assets of a certain stipulated value, says former Kuala Lumpur CID chief, Mat Zain Ibrahim.

Referring to de facto Law Minister Nancy Shukri's statement to Parliament yesterday on the Pulau Batu Puteh issue, Mat Zain said in that case, the country lost to Singapore sovereignty over an island that was rightfully Malaysia's.

"Yet the government feels an inquiry is not necessary. Don't the citizens have the right to know what caused our defeat? Don't we have the right to know whether our failure was due to negligence, incompetence or corruption, which we may have been famous for?" he asked.

Describing Nancy's (right) reply yesterday as far from satisfactory, Mat Zain believes it would be a big mistake if the government believed the issue would die off by giving such an answer.

The minister, he felt, may not have sighted his statutory declaration that he sent to Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak, Chief Secretary to the government Ali Hamsa, and Solicitor-General Idrus Harun.

Nancy in reply to a question in Parliament said Attorney-General Abdul Gani Patail had nothing to do with the fake evidence in the form of a photograph tendered to the International Court of Justice in the hearing of the Pulau Batu Puteh dispute with Singapore.

However, Mat Zain noted, Nancy did not deny that the controversial photograph was tendered in as evidence the course of the ICJ proceedings and that it was deliberated on by the panel of judges and entered in the notes of proceedings. .

"One thing is for certain: the concocted photograph did not fly to The Hague or sneak itself into the proceedings four days before the oral presentations without any of the Malaysian delegates knowing."

"There must be someone who introduced the photograph. Senior members of the Malaysian delegation, including Gani (right), must have given the clearance or approval for the controversial photograph to be presented to the panel."

Mat Zain said the team must have known, or have been fully aware, that the photograph would not stand the scrutiny and someone should bear the blame for bringing disrepute to the country in the international arena before the ICJ.

"That is the purpose for calling for a royal commission of inquiry into the Pulau Batu Puteh matter," he said, adding that the rakyat have the right to know what had happened after the ICJ proceedings.