Outspoken
former Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) panel member Robert Phang has
been cleared of the corruption allegations made against him.
MACC
director of investigations Mustafar Ali today confirmed this in an SMS in
response to a query from
Malaysiakini.
Phang has also been issued with a letter from Mustafar,
dated November last year, clearing him of the allegation made by an anonymous
blogger.
However, the letter from the MACC that clears Phang also states
that it cannot be used for the purpose of publication by the media.
"The
prosecutors have made the decision and cleared Phang from the corruption
allegation. It was also announced by the Operations Review panel," Mustafar said
in an SMS earlier this week.
Phang resigned from the MACC panel early
last year, declaring he needed to preserve his and the MACC's integrity, and
allow the graft commission to investigate the claims against him without any
fear of conflict of interest.
His decision
to
resign stemmed from damning allegations that he had bribed a senior
officer of the Home Ministry.
Commenting on the MACC's confirmation that
he has been cleared of the allegations of corruption, Phang, 72, said he was
thankful that the anti-graft body had cleared him.
"The allegation (made
in the blog) was baseless as it only surfaced early last year, following my
criticism of attorney-general Abdul Gani Patail over his
haj
trip in 2010.
"I had said that Gani went on the trip with a
shady character, Shahidan Shafie, who is a close acquaintance of former Malaysia
Airlines chairperson Tajudin Ramli.
"The said transaction that I was implicated in but was not
involved in any way occurred in 2008," Phang told
Malaysiakini.
Gani had appeared before an MACC joint panel to
explain his haj trip and one of the panel members, Ramon Navaratnam, said MACC
was satisfied with the Gani's explanation.
However, Ramon's position was
blasted by Phang, who maintained that some
members were not truly satisfied.
The AG was last year
cleared of the haj trip allegation, and the
MACC also declared that no criminal offence took place.
'AG has to come clean'Phang said following the
allegations against the AG in connection with the
Ho Hup
affair, Gani should temporarily remove himself from his post to
provide for the integrity of the investigations into that matter.
The
Social Just Care foundation chairperson said he has also lodged
a police
report against Gani in connections with the damning allegations
made against Gani in a recently published book.
"The police have recorded
my statement for the report that I lodged. They asked for my purpose of lodging
the report and my response was that it is for the authorities to investigate the
truth of the allegations.
"Gani should remove himself from the post of AG until he is
fully cleared. Follow my example and resign until you are cleared. Or, if the
allegations made in the book are untrue, then Gani should file a defamation
suit," Phang added.
The 14-chapter book published by the author himself,
lawyer Zainal Abidin Ahmad, is titled ‘Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail: Pemalsu,
Penipu, Penjenayah?' and it includes various open letters from former Kuala
Lumpur CID chief Mat Zain Ibrahim.
Being the top prosecutor in the
country, Phang said, Gani who is a fellow Sabahan like him must come clean as
there are many allegations made against him, in the past and at present as
well.
"Otherwise, Gani will be seen as a big liability for the BN in
winning the 13th general election," he declared.
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