Media statement by Lim Guan Eng in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday, 7^th April 2011: 

Datuk Seri Abu Kassim Mohamed should step aside as MACC Commissioner until investigations into the death of Customs Officer Ahmad Sarbani Mohamed is complete following Abu Kassim's provocative, malicious and ill-intentioned remarks that the death should not be exploited or manipulated by certain quarters for their personal interests 

DAP suggests that Datuk Seri Abu Kassim Mohamed should step aside as Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) Commissioner until investigations into the death of Customs Officer Ahmad Sarbani Mohamed is complete. DAP had had some respect for Datuk Seri Abu Kassim for his efforts to try to clean up and restore some professionalism into MACC, which lost public confidence following the debacle of the death of DAP political secretary Teoh Beng Hock under Abu Kassim’s predecessor.

Datuk Seri Abu Kassim did not entirely succeed because of the secretive and mysterious nature of its methods and operations control of MACC, its lack of independence from the Attorney-General and the Federal government, as well as double-standards in failing to take action against blatant corrupt practices by BN leaders including Sarawak Chief Minister Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud. However the latest death of Ahmad Sarbani on the first floor open-air badminton court of the MACC KL Building yesterday undid and undermined all Datuk Seri Abu Kassim’s efforts to make a difference. Datuk Seri Abu’s accompanying provocative remarks can not be ignored.

Datuk Seri Abu Kassim was malicious and full of ill-intentions with the malicious remarks that “he hoped that the death would not be “exploited or manipulated by certain quarters for their personal interests”. Such provocative remarks display not only a guilty conscience but an attempt to gag and stop others from pursuing the truth and justice into the latest tragic death in the MACC.

MACC must realise that no one other than the MACC is to blame and be held responsible for this latest tragic death in the MACC. To describe as “exploiters and manipulators”, those pursuing the truth and justice into this latest tragic death, is just irresponsible. The public would not have faith in the promise by MACC to launch a comprehensive internal probe into this latest death when MACC could not fully explain or take responsibility for the death of Teoh Beng Hock.

For this reason there must be a 3-stage approach of ensuring there is no more tragic case of a corruption suspect walking in alive into MACC offices alive but coming out dead. One, setting up a new Royal Commission of Inquiry that complies and fulfils international norms of natural justice into this latest tragic death. Secondly there must be full revamp of MACC, conducted by Transparency International and armed with full powers to effect any changes necessary whether the Federal government likes it or not, to become an effective and professional anti-corruption agency. Third, Datuk Abu Kassim must temporarily step aside until the investigations into this latest tragic death is completed.

*Lim Guan Eng, DAP Secretary General & MP for Bagan