MACC advisor wants action on website report

Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) advisor Robert Phang wants a report on a Sabah website probed “for passing off rumours of a court case in Hong Kong as the Gospel truth”.The subject of the said probe should be made public, he added. “The public have a right to know since a case still under MACC investigation is now generating heat anew in public because of muck-raking”.

He described as “inaccurate” the news report last Wednesday on the “errant” website that three Malaysians - a senior lawyer and two timbermen including a Chinese Muslim - will be in court in the former British crown colony on Oct 27 for mention of a case involving money-laundering and financing of terrorism. All three are from Sabah, including one who is reportedly a transmigrant from Negeri Sembilan.

“If the news is true, then it's news to me,” said Phang (right), who spent over 30 years in Sabah including during the Berjaya administration (1976-1985) period. “But I can tell you that such a case could not be brought to court in Hong Kong without the MACC being informed first.”Phang, who felt called upon to respond, was commenting in a telephone call last night to Malaysiakini on an Oct 13 report on the Sabahkini website. The reason why the MACC would have been informed first, continued Phang, was because the commission itself was conducting investigations on the same case. “The probe has yet to reach a conclusion either way”.

'Baffled by report and its timing'

The MACC advisor confessed that he was baffled by not only the report on the Hong Kong case but its “timing”, if any. He reckons that the surfacing of the report on Sabahkini may have something to do with the forthcoming parliamentary by-election in Batu Sapi, Sabah. Alternatively, he sees it as a deliberate attempt to either influence or jeopardise the on-going MACC investigations on the same case.

On what the Hong Kong case had to do with the Batu Sapi by-election, Phang said he “did not want to go there”. He advised against mentioning any political parties (vying for Batu Sapi) in connection with the Hong Kong case because he wasn't implying anything.

“If you ask me, this (the website report) is nothing more than deliberate rumour-mongering,” said Phang. “Something should be done about it. It must be put to a full stop. We can't have such reports circulating now and then and raising questions in public over the competency of the authorities (MACC).”

Asked whether the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) of Hong Kong may have decided to go ahead in court without it first informing the MACC, he replied that it may be probable on paper but not in reality “considering the need for agency-to-agency and government-to-government cooperation in investigations of this kind”.

However, he hastened to add that it was not within MACC's purview or jurisdiction to influence ICAC either way on the said case i.e. whether to bring to court or otherwise and when. “I have said my piece. Beyond that I want to hold my peace,” said Phang, who has a reputation for being outspoken in the media or otherwise not mincing his words.

S$16 million allegedly confiscated at HK airport

The gist of the Sabahkini report involves S$16 million confiscated allegedly from one of the three at Hong Kong airport and the subsequent freezing of US$430 million in assets at a Hong Kong bank. The thrust of the purported court case in Hong Kong, as reported by Sabahkini, is whether both sums belong to Umno and or the federal government of Malaysia.

It appears, according to Sabahkini, citing sources, that the ICAC received a faxed letter from the office of the Malaysian Prime Minister, during the time of Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, “explaining” the two sums. The ICAC apparently has not bought the contents of the letter and further believes that it (the letter) may have been falsified, according to Sabahkini.

The website report, citing insiders, goes on to raise several queries including why an individual, in his private capacity, was carrying S$16 million in a briefcase at Hong Kong airport purportedly for a parliamentary by-election in Permatang Pauh. The website also claims to have received banking documents from Singapore, connected to one of the three, by mail but does not indicate the date of receipt.

Questions were also raised in the Sabahkini report on the failure of the MACC and the Inland Revenue Department (IRD) to detect RM150 million kept at a house, several million in Singapore under the name of the wife of one of the three, US$38 million at a bank in Hong Kong, the acquisition and possession of a luxury house and car, presumably in Sandakan, by the husband and he deliberately “taunting the MACC” at one time by assembling all his luxury cars in Kuala Lumpur at the car park of the Shangri-La in the federal capital.

Sabahkini could not be immediately contacted by mobile phone. Text messages failed and calls went to voice mail. An email query drew this response this morning: “I (the editor) am outside the country. Just email. That's why I update my web at 3 to 4am in Malaysia. When did MACC deny Sabahkini report? What did he say? Just publish.”In another email, the website editor (Mutalib MD) disclosed: “He (Robert Phang) above the law? It has nothing to do with MACC. It is ICAC case. Almost 20 people booked their flight to Hong Kong (for the case). Witnesses subpoenaed. Robert Phang still dreaming. MACC cannot be trusted.”

Source : http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/145632