Abu Kassim's stature grows after latest revelation

Memories – good and bad – will continue to remind one of past experiences, encounters and happenstances.

As events occur and new discoveries are revealed, they allow an individual to look back and trace the course of events.

It gives one the opportunity to ask: Did I make the right decisions?

It also enables members of the public to make an educated judgment on that individual.

For former Malaysian Anti-Corruption (MACC) chief Abu Kassim Mohamed (photo, above), it has become a full circle.

Treated like an outcast and accused of being disloyal and passing information on a series of misdeeds, he saw himself unceremoniously removed from office and booted “upstairs” to open a non-existent Faculty of Integrity at the Universiti ITM, with no budget and no staff.

Yesterday’s revelations of recordings (they have been authenticated by the MACC) throws light on how one man’s integrity and perseverance was shredded to smithereens by those involved in the shenanigans which have cost the country billions.

It started on July 11, 2013, at an anti-corruption seminar where Abu Kassim, former Hong Kong ICAC deputy director Daniel Li and this writer shared the stage.

During the question and answer session, I asked Abu Kassim if the MACC is closing an eye to all the supposed wrongdoings of VIPs and their families.

I can vividly remember him saying something on these lines: “You know the diamond ring that everyone is talking about? We opened an investigation paper in 2011 on learning about it,” he said.

(The diamond ring worth RM33 million was allegedly bought and imported by Najib Abdul Razak’s wife Rosmah Mansor (above) without paying duties.)

Abu Kassim added: “I contacted Najib and requested for his wife to bring me the much-talked-about ring. The following day, my officers contacted the Customs Department to obtain verification that the ring had been shipped back into New York.”

It was the first time this matter was revealed. Previously, there were rumours and social media posts on the ring, but nothing was official.

“If we can investigate the prime minister’s wife, are there any issues we are afraid to probe?” he asked and received thunderous applause from the audience.

Was that what incurred the wrath of the country’s then “most powerful woman”? Was it because he had the courage to summon her for an explanation or that Abu Kassim decided to open up?

Fast forward to 2015 - the government’s propaganda unit was in its full pace. The political force was setting the stage and the assault on Abu Kassim and others involved in high-level investigations started.

Bloggers aligned to the government had a field day. Even private investigators were deployed and then chief secretary to the government, Ali Hamsa, got into the act by transferring MACC officers involved in the SRC International probe.

“We will amend the Official Secrets Act to increase the penalties. Leaking secrets to foreign governments is not acceptable,” trumpeted de facto law minister Azalina Othman.

Selected leaders of NGOs, self-proclaimed social activists and analysts got their five minutes of fame – thanks to the mainstream media that appeared to be part of the government apparatus.

But like all enforcement agencies, the MACC exchanges intelligence and information with their foreign counterparts and Abu Kassim reiterated that it was being done on a government-to-government basis.

There was no basis to claim that information was leaked.

But he did not escape unscathed. Then came what DAP stalwart Lim Kit Siang described as the “Night of the long knives”.

It may have been a misnomer because it lasted a good two weeks.

Several heads rolled; some were arrested, some transferred and others silenced. Abu Kassim and his two lieutenants were gone; a new MACC chief came on board; a new attorney-general was appointed and juggernaut rolled on.

In a previous column, I wrote in length and paid tribute to those who paid for standing up to the truth.

Rosmah’s disdain for Abu Kassim and her order to Najib to leash the latter was a microcosm of how the system worked in the bad old days. If anything emerges, push it below eye level and events will pass.

For Abu Kassim, the disparagement by Rosmah must be a badge of honour which he should proudly wear.

Perhaps, he’s the only one who was chided for appearing in a photograph with yet another former prime minister.

He refused to buckle, stood up for the truth and his rating as a man of high moral values remains in good stead.

Thanks to people with such integrity, we are now able to see justice being done. In many ways, Abu Kassim has lived up to what was expected of an anti-graft agency.

And if not for the people of Malaysia who changed the government two years ago, we, the people, will still be a cog in a wheel that would have been rolling aimlessly, heading for disaster and mayhem.

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R NADESWARAN says that several people, including senior officials, were hooved out of the way so that a few could milk the system. Comments: citizen.nades22@gmail.com - Mkini