Media Statement by Lim Kit Siang in Penang on Tuesday, 25^th August 2009: 

Don’t twist and turn – MACC Chief Commissioner Ahmad Said should state whether MACC has interrogated Muhyiddin for his corrupt practice of using RMAF Nuri helicopter to officiate Umno division meetings in Sabah totally unrelated to his official duties as DPM

The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission Chief Commissioner, Datuk Seri Ahmad Said Hamdan should stop twisting and turning and give a straight and simple answer whether the MACC has interrogated Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin for his corrupt practice of using RMAF Nuri helicopter to officiate Umno division meetings in Sabah totally unrelated to his official duties as Deputy Prime Minister.

Both Sin Chew and Nanyang Siang today reported the MACC’s response to my earlier query whether it had started investigations into the allegation of Muhyiddin abusing his powers as DPM in using RMAF Nuri helicopter to officiate Umno division meetings in Sabah two weekends ago.

However, I was surprised to be contact by a reporter of another newspaper who asked for my reaction to Ahmad Said’s statement today that I should lodge a report on the Muhyiddin case if I have any evidence for the MACC on this case.

This is a most ridiculous statement from Ahmad Said. Hasn’t Ahmad Said read the reports in all the mainstream media about Muhyiddin abusing his powers in flying the RMAF Nuri helicopter to officiate Sabah Umno divisions two Sundays ago which were totally unrelated to his official duties?

If Ahmad Said does not have these media reports, I am prepared to send them to him!

All these media reports are sufficient evidence for the MACC to open investigations and to interrogate Muhyiddin for his abuse of power, if the MACC is an efficient, independent and professional commission committed to eradicating corruption and all forms of abuses of power without fear or favour, even as in this case where it involved the No. 2 in the country.

Malaysians will not easily forget Muhyiddin’s immediate reaction of utter contempt when informed that an official report had been lodged against him for abuse of powers in flying the RMAF Nuri helicopter for Umno rather than official purposes – where Muhyiddin declared that he was just not “scared” at all of the report or the MACC.

This is all the more reason why Malaysians want to know from Ahmad Said whether the MACC has started investigation into Muhyiddin and whether the Deputy Prime Minister had been interrogated by the MACC.

Or do we have a situation where it is not DPM Muhyiddin who is “scared” but MACC Chief Commissioner Ahmad Said who is “scared” to say anything about the issue, let alone even to breathe any word as to whether the MACC had interrogated Muhyiddin?

Ahmad Said could give no credible excuse for not daring to answer as to whether MACC had interrogated Muhyiddin over the RMAF Nuri helicopter abuse of power while MACC officers had never been reticent about actions against Pakatan Rakyat leaders and elected representatives.

In February, even before the official launching of the MACC by the then Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, Ahmad Said made the totally uncalled for announcement that the MACC had “good and strong evidence” that Selangor Mentri Besar Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim had misused his powers over the now infamous “Car and Cows” allegation!

The MACC’s “Car and Cows” escapade, causing the MACC to acquire the derogatory and derisory term of “Malaysian Agency for Car and Cows”, was in fact Ahmad Said’s first show of hand that the MACC had deviated from its statutory objective to declare an all-out war against corruption and its being hijacked to become the catspaw of Umno/Barisan Nasional to declare an all-out war against the Pakatan Rakyat.

The MACC has repeatedly proven that it could see corruption involving Pakatan Rakyat where none exists, as in the case of Khalid over the MACC’s “Car and Cows” caper while failing to see corruption which is evident to all Malaysians, as in the case of Muhyiddin’s abuse of power in flying the RMAF Nuri helicopter for Umno division meetings which were completely unrelated to his official functions as DPM.

Let me ask Ahmad Said whether he would concede publicly that it is a clear case of abuse of power by a Deputy Prime Minister to fly RMAF Nuri helicopter to officiate Umno divisional meetings completely unrelated to his duties as DPM?

If this is not an abuse of power by Muhyiddin, can Ahmad Said explain why the MACC prosecuted former third-highest ranking policeman in the nation, former Commercial Crime Investigation Department Director Datuk Ramli Yussoff on a charge of corruptly misusing his position in having used a police Cessna Caravan aircraft in June 2007 to survey two plots of land in Lahad Datuk unrelated to his official duties?

Furthermore, why is the MACC appealing to the High Court against the decision of the Kota Kinabalu Sessions Court which acquitted Ramli of the charge?

Isn’t this case the best proof of the double standards of MACC and that it has failed the test of efficiency, independence, integrity and professionalism of an anti-corruption commission acting without fear or favour to eradicate corruption from whatever quarter?

Malaysians would want to know whether the 42 MACC Panel members of the five oversight committees are demanding accountability and integrity from Ahmad Said for the MACC’s double standards in the handling of the Muhyiddin and Ramli cases or whether the five oversight committees are just “paper tigers” which should just be dissolved for being utterly ineffective and impotent to exercise the necessary checks-and-balance to prevent abuses of power by MACC?

If Ahmad Said cannot answer why he is applying double standards in the two cases involving Muhyiddin and Ramli, this will be the first question to be posed in Parliament when it convenes for the budget session after the Hari Raya Puasa holidays.

*Lim Kit Siang, DAP Parliamentary leader & MP for Ipoh Timor