Aussie cops put Malaysian police to shame with speed of Mara property probe, says DAP

DAP's national publicity chief Tony laments the inaction of Malaysian police when their Australian counterparts have taken immediate action on the issue of the Mara property purchase in Melbourne. – The Malaysian Insider pic, June 27, 2015.

The speed with which the Australian police reacted to the Mara property purchase scandal in Melbourne puts Malaysian police "to shame", the DAP said today.

Its national publicity chief Tony Pua said the Malaysian police had always been slow to react to scandals involving state-owned companies, as also demonstrated in the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) issue.

Earlier this week, an expose by Australian paper The Age revealed that a top Mara official and a local ex-politician were allegedly involved in a corruption scandal after over-paying for a Melbourne property by RM13.7 million in order to allow for kickbacks.

Two days ago, the Australian police launched raids on several Melbourne properties and even seized some equipment from a house in South Vermont, while Malaysian police did not react to probe the local culprits allegedly involved in the scandal.

“Malaysians cannot be blamed for feeling completely helpless that the police are doing nothing to uncover the crimes against institutions they are entrusted to judiciously protect.  Why is Bukit Aman waiting for a 'request from Australia' before conducting its investigations?

“While the crime transaction may have taken place in Melbourne, the money is from the Malaysian government and the alleged criminals are all Malaysians residing in the country.

"Does that not give sufficient basis for the police to urgently start its own investigations by conducting the necessary raids?” he asked in a statement today.

"There was no visible urgency among our law enforcement authorities to uncover the scandal and investigate those who were named and involved in the dodgy transactions at the expense of Mara," he added.

Pua said the only comment heard was from the Federal Commercial Crime Investigation Department director Datuk Seri Mortadza Nazarene, who said Bukit Aman was aware of the issue based on media reports, but had yet to receive any request from Australia.

Pua also said that the police were similarly slow in probing the series of allegations made against 1MDB's dealings as the company sits on a RM42 billion debt.

“Police has failed to demonstrate any sense of exigency despite the scandal boiling over for the past six months,” he said.

The police completed investigations on a 1MDB police report without hauling up any of the individuals alleged to be responsible.

"As far as we are aware, no raids have been conducted either on the relevant companies," he said.

"All we have is a prime minister who appeared more interested in emphasising yesterday that all these culpable GLC bigwigs are innocent until proven guilty," he added.