Sarawak DAP leaders meet Latheefa to submit new evidence

Several Sarawak DAP leaders met MACC chief commissioner Latheefa Koya today and submitted new evidence on graft cases in the state.

This comes after Latheefa pledged in July to review 'no further action' (NFA) cases involving VVIPs in Selangor, Penang and Sarawak.

According to Pandungan assemblyperson and Sarawak DAP vice-president Wong King Wei, information and evidence was submitted to the MACC for further action during the meeting today.

Also present at the meeting were Lanang MP Alice Lau, Bandar Kuching MP Kevin Yii and Pending assemblyperson Violet Yong.

"What I can say is that one of the documents submitted (to MACC) is new evidence... I have spent months obtaining this information," Wong told Malaysiakini when contacted.

However, he declined to disclose the cases discussed during the meeting.

"We want Latheefa (photo) to conduct probes into these graft cases in Sarawak without causing her any problems.

"We spoke of the pattern of corruption and how many projects were involved during the meeting.

"She (Latheefa) said the MACC never received any instruction on whom they can or cannot investigate," he said.

Wong noted how the MACC had changed compared to before, when it could only initiate probes after receiving official graft reports.

"Latheefa said MACC can (directly) take action with the information we supplied, or it can also lodge its own report (based on this information)."

Yii, meanwhile, said in a statement that the Sarawak DAP leaders had a "positive and fruitful discussion on the different anti-corruption measures taken by the current government.”

"We also discussed a few pertinent issues in Sarawak and how we can work together to promote different anti-corruption measures in the state," he added.

Yii is optimistic that the different anti-corruption measures currently undertaken by the MACC will also be extended to Sarawak.

Last May, the Sarawak governor's office stated that the MACC had exonerated Abdul Taib Mahmud (photo) from any wrongdoing.

This came in the wake of the governor being linked by an environmental group to an allegedly illegal land-clearing operation just outside the Mulu National Park.

In July, de facto Law Minister Liew Vui Keong said the MACC had no reason to reopen its probe against Taib, as the evidence submitted by Sarawak Report and Bruno Manser Fonds were not new.

Immediately after, Yii said that he would meet Latheefa to discuss the possibility of opening investigations into Taib, who served as the Sarawak chief minister from 1981 to 2014. - Mkini