Pua slams Paul Low over ‘shameless’ answer on 1MDB probe

PJ Utara MP Tony Pua says government's reply on why MACC isn't investigating is irresponsible as agency is meant to address cases such as that of 1MDB.

PETALING JAYA: Tony Pua has called the government’s answer on the reasons why the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) would not be investigating the alleged misappropriation of funds and abuse of power in the 1MDB scandal, as “shameless and irresponsible”.

The Petaling Jaya Utara MP was referring to the written reply given in the Dewan Rakyat by Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Paul Low, to his question on why MACC chief commissioner Dzulkifli Ahmad had announced in June that the anti-graft body would not be probing the case of alleged misappropriation and power abuse in the 1MDB controversy.

“Low’s reply that ‘investigations weren’t carried out because of existing investigations being done by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) and the police’ could not be a more shameless and irresponsible reply from the minister and the government.

“The PAC, which barely scratched the surface of the 1MDB scandal, has no prosecutorial powers. BNM was investigating 1MDB purely from the Financial Services Act and certainly did not deal with the parties who had profited from the scandal.

“The Police may have been investigating the criminal elements in 1MDB, but the MACC has powers, laws and jurisdictions which are completely different from the police to tackle corruption cases,” Pua said, adding that the MACC Act was exactly intended to probe into cases such as that of 1MDB.

“The MACC was intended to be the dedicated and independent commission to tackle the scourge of corruption and not let the burden be shouldered by the police.”

Pua, who is DAP national publicity secretary, then took MACC chief commissioner Dzulkifly Ahmad to task for “showboating” with his warnings at the start of the year.

“In January this year, Dzulkifly warned corrupt politicians to be careful. He said he wasn’t afraid of protected individuals and would launch investigations without fear or favour.

“So why is he now so afraid of investigating the country’s biggest and most blatant corruption scandal,” Pua said.

“What type ‘independent commission’ is the MACC, if it leaves investigations, especially a scandal of such scale to other agencies?”

He also noted how multiple reports have been filed with the MACC regarding 1MDB, and that the people were looking to the agency to take action similar to investigations that had taken place in the United States, Switzerland and Singapore.

“These included reports filed in December 2014 by then Batu Kawan Umno division deputy chief Khairuddin Abu Hassan and more recently, a Pakatan Harapan Youth-linked NGO in July this year.

“Hence, it is a serious breach of MACC’s duty for failing to look into complaints of corruption,” Pua said, adding that such reports must be evaluated before the Commission’s Information Evaluation Committee to determine whether there were elements of corruption or not.

“It is entirely cowardly for MACC to turn a blind eye and let other agencies look into it,” he said before calling for the anti-graft agency to “grow a spine” else the commissioner’s boastful warnings will remain in Malaysians’ eyes as baseless rhetoric. -FMT