Commission (MACC) Corruption Consultation and Prevention Panel member Tan Sri Simon Sipaun said MACC should investigate allegations against Attorney-General Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail’s conduct despite his recent dialogue with panel members. Simon said yesterday not all panel members were satisfied with Abdul Gani’s explanation on the allegations against him. Sipaun, who is also a Suhakam commissioner, told theSun he was only satisfied with Abdul Gani’s explanation with regard to his travel expenses during his recent visit to Mecca to perform the haj.
Another panel member Tan Sri Robert Phang had on Nov 30 urged Abdul Gani to clear the air over an online portal report that he had made the pilgrimage with Shahidan Shafie, alleged to be a proxy of former Malaysia Airlines (MAS) chairman Tan Sri Tajudin Ramli, who is being probed for graft in connection with MasKargo operations in Europe. “That part I did not have any suspicion that he was telling something that is not factual. So, as far as I am concerned, I did not have reasons to doubt his sincerity about that,” Sipaun said.
However, he said he could not “be objective” about some of the explanations Abdul Gani gave on the allegations about his consorting with Shahidan during the pilgrimage. “He mentioned a few other things, which are very hard for me to be bjective, so I think it is better that the authority investigate the issue,” he said without elaborating which parts of Abdul Gani’s explanation he could not accept. Explaining that Abdul Gani spoke at length and had gone into a lot of details, Sipaun said he only recalls some of the things said and he could not judge him based on that. “A man is innocent until he is proven guilty. I do not want to pass judgment just based on this. So MACC should continue the investigations,” he said.
Pointing out that MACC is only empowered to investigate and not prosecute, Sipaun said he was not sure how the case would be dealt with once the investigations are completed. “We all know that prosecutions are up to the AG’s discretion. However in this case where the he is the one being investigated, I don’t know who will decide (whether or not to prosecute). Surely he cannot be deciding whether to prosecute himself,” said Sipaun. On the reactions of other members present at the dialogue, Sipaun said apart from Phang, it seemed to him that no one else had reacted strongly to what Abdul Gani said.
On whether the meeting was supposed to be “confidential” as claimed by Phang in his statement on Wednesday, Sipaun said he understood it to be a “closed-door meeting, but whether confidential or not I cannot say”.
Phang, who is the Social Care Foundation chairman, had on Wednesday rebutted panel chairman Tan Sri Ramon Navaratnam for saying that Abdul Gani was cleared of all allegations and that the panel members were satisfied that it was not necessary for MACC to probe Abdul Gani.“We were satisfied there is no case against him.But there have been lots of irresponsible bloggers,making irrational accusations. It is unfair for the man (Abdul Gani),” Ramon told theSun. But Phang denied the panel was satisfied with Abdul Gani’s clarification of his alleged links to Tajudin, saying he had failed to dispel suspicions that he was “consorting” with Shahidan.
Source : TheSun Daily - 07th Jan 2011 ( Page 6)
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