(Petaling Jaya, Monday) : Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Datuk Seri Mohd Nazri Aziz and the BN government only heightens concerns of a cover-up by trivializing the VK Lingam video clip scandal with meaningless assurances that both the ACA and police will protect the source and also be given a new identity and new face through cosmetic surgery. The public much less the source has no confidence in the ability and sincerity  that the government will guarantee the safety of the source of the video recording purportedly showing a lawyer talking to a senior judge fixing up senior judicial appointments should the source becomes a witness to the Special Independent Panel (SIP) determining the authenticity of the tape.

Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Datuk Seri Mohd Nazri Aziz had said the witness should not fear for his safety as he will not only be protected by the police and ACA under the Witness Protection Act but will also be given a new identity and a new face through cosmetic surgery. It is such protection under the ACA and the police that will frighten the source as both the police and ACA have shown a disturbing inability to perform their duties.

For instance, ACA Director-General a few days ago even claimed that ACA is even more effective and efficient than Hong Kong’s Independent Committee Against Corruption (ICAC). How can ACA claim to perform better than ICAC when Hong Kong has a higher position under the 2007 Transparency International Corruption Perception Index of No. 14 has compared to Malaysia’s No. 43? Further ICAC has the confidence of 90% of Hong Kong residents. As for ACA, it is doubtful whether ACA has the confidence of even 50% of Malaysians when it can make such ridiculous claims that No. 43 is better performance better than Hong Kong’s No. 14.

As for the police, the source of the video clip has not forgotten police inability to curb rising crime in Malaysia as well as the involvement in crimes of murder by some members of the police force such as the murder of the Mongolian model who was blown up alive with C4 explosives. These are the reasons why DAP insists that only a Royal Commission with all the attendant legal powers of protection and legal immunity can ensure the protection of the source.

Any refusal to do so will only confirm suspicions that the government is not interested in discovering the truth but intent on covering up and whitewashing the whole scandal as a non-event. What is the use of setting up the SIP when panel member Datuk Mahadev Shankar is appealing for people’s good conscience to enable them to do their job effectively and properly?

According to Mahadev: "We have no legal power. We have no power to administer an oath. No power to compel witnesses to come to us. We have no power to commit anybody for contempt. We have no immunity under the law either. If we are a public authority or a commission of inquiry, we will have statutory immunity for what we are doing. For what we are doing now, the only immunity we have is our conscience, our good faith and our honesty of purpose to do this as quick as possible."

If there is conscience, good faith and honesty, there would be no need to set up a SIP, for the key personalities involved would be called up for questioning and even detained. And how can the SIP complete its work professionally and impartially within 30 working days in good faith if they do not even enjoy legal statutory immunity for what they are doing.

The refusal to set up a Royal Commission of Enquiry, which would arm the Commission with powers of enquiry and protection of witnesses that the SIP does not have, is the clearest indictment of the BN government’s refusal to restore judicial independence and clean up the judiciary of “fixed appointments” not commensurate with performance and seniority. DAP reiterates our demands that the ACA withdraws its legal notice threatening punishment against Sim and Sivarasa if they refuse to comply with its directive to reveal their sources as well as Prime Minister establish a Royal Commission of Enquiry to stop this “political game” to show that the government is clean and just when it is not.