Speech by Lim Kit Siang at the DAP Cheras Solidarity Dinner in Kuala Lumpur on Friday, 21^st May 2010: 

Why MACC dare not announce it will probe Najib if corruption is suspected in the Prime Minister’s infamous RM5million “deal” at Rejang Park, Sibu on the eve of Sibu by-election polling?

The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) does not want to be left out in the nation-wide furore over the latest financial scandal in the country the RM964 million Sime Darby losses from cost overruns from four projects in its Energy and Utilities Unit, in particular the Bakun Dam project.

Thursday’s New Straits Times carried this headline: “MACC; Sime probe if graft suspected”.

My instant thought is when there is going to be a newspaper headline: “MACC: PM probe if graft suspected”.

Not that there is not enough cause. The recent Sibu by-election provides the MACC ample evidence for investigation against the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak, whether he had been guilty of corrupt practices particularly in the infamous RM5 million “deal” at Rejang Park, Sibu on the eve of Sibu by-election which is on YouTube for all to see.

Has the MACC the guts, commitment and professionalism to investigate the Prime Minister for corruption?

I am not even talking about arresting and charging the Prime Minister for corruption just to open a probe on the Prime Minister.

The answer to this question explains why the MACC has failed to secure public confidence that it has independence, professionalism and integrity to wage an all-out battle against corruption. It is no use the MACC announcing, like recently, that it had arrested 263 people between January and April this year for corruption when these are “small fishes” and the handful of “middling fishes” also get scotfree when landed up in court trials.

The MACC has now lower public confidence and esteem than the Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) which it replaced in order to become Malaysia’s version of Hong Kong’s Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC).

This is serious food for thought for MACC.

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