HE THOUGHT NAJIB COULD SAVE HIM FROM ANYTHING: THE SEX SHAMING OF DZULKIFLI – AN INSIDE JOB BY OUTSIDERS?

MALAYSIAN Anti-Corruption Commission chief commissioner Dzulkifli Ahmad is not one to shy away from controversy.

Since taking over the agency’s top post in August last year, he has defended MACC against allegations of selective prosecution, and dealt with some of the more leading politicians in the government and police.

The high-profile cases include the arrests of top officials from the Sabah Water Department and seizure of RM114 million in cash and luxury goods; Johor executive councillor Abdul Latif Bandi; Land Public Transport Commission acting chairman Isa Samad; and, 13 Malacca police who were allegedly protecting illegal gambling dens and massage parlours.

Yesterday, MACC arrested Parti Warisan Sabah president Mohd Shafie Apdal to facilitate its probe into the alleged embezzlement of RM1.5 billion in federal funds meant for rural development projects in Sabah from 2009 to 2015, when he was a federal minister.

Before videos implicating Dzulkifli surfaced, The Malaysian Insight had reported that the MACC chief was at risk of losing his job as discontent with the graft-busters’ high-handed approach mounted among Umno supporters. More so, after Isa was arrested and detained for five days in August for alleged graft in Felda Global Ventures Bhd.

The disquiet grew further when MACC detained four individuals, including Human Resource Minister Richard Riot’s political secretary and a top Umno Youth official from Bagan Datok, to assist in investigations into the alleged mismanagement of RM40 million from the Skills Development Fund Corp, a statutory body under the Human Resource Ministry.

Dzulkifli was appointed to MACC’s top post following the early retirement of his predecessor, Abu Kassim Mohamed, under whose leadership the agency was investigating allegations of graft involving 1Malaysia Development Bhd and the transfer of RM2.6 billion into Prime Minister Najib Razak’s personal accounts.

Abu Kassim, whose contract was supposed to end in December next year, announced his decision to step down a few months after then newly appointed attorney-general Mohamed Apandi Ali declared Najib innocent and closed the probe into 1MDB in January last year.

Before he was handpicked by the Attorney-General’s Chambers to take over from Abu Kassim, Dzulkifli spent more than two decades at the A-G’s Chambers as a deputy public prosecutor, and also served on the special task force on 1MDB.

He handled several high-profile cases at the A-G’s Chambers, including the prosecution of former Selangor menteri besar Dr Mohamad Khir Toyo, who abused his position to acquire two plots of land and a bungalow in Shah Alam, and the conviction of two former senior general managers at Tabung Haji in 2002, who were subsequently acquitted in 2012.

The law graduate from International Islamic University Malaysia also led the prosecution in the case against National Feedlot Corporation chairman Mohamed Salleh Ismail in 2013. Salleh was acquitted in 2015.

– https://www.themalaysianinsight.com