Media statement by Lim Kit Siang in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday, 4^th August 2011: 

AG – why the alacrity to prosecute the PSM EO6 while total immobility to charge MACC officers for a pile of crimes and unlawful actions exposed by Royal Commission Inquiry into TBH’s death?

The Attorney-General Tan Sri Gani Patail should explain why the alacrity with which he wants to prosecute the PSM EO6 in contrast with his total immobility to charge Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) officers for a pile of crimes and unlawful actions as exposed by the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) into Teoh Beng Hock’s (TBH) death?

Yesterday, The PSP EO6 including the Sungai Siput Member of Parliament Dr. Michael Jeyakumar who were released last Friday from detention-without-trial Emergency Ordinance were charged in the Butterworth Sessions Court under the Internal Security Act and the Societies Act with possessing subversive documents and assisting an illegal organization.

However, there are no signs whatsoever that the Attorney-General is taking any action or shown any interest in the report of the James Foong Royal Commission of Inquiry into Teoh Beng Hock’s death, in particular in the shocking RCI revelations of the pile of crimes and unlawful actions committed by MACC officers in the MACC massive operation resulting in Beng Hock’s death.

The RCI’s conclusion that Beng Hock was “driven to suicide” is not acceptable as it is not based on any evidence but a mere leap in imagination.

However, the RCI has discovered a mountain of crimes and unlawful acts committed by MACC officers in the massive July 2009 MACC operation resulting in Beng Hock’s death.

In the first place, the massive 33-men MACC operation resulting in Beng Hock’s death at MACC headquarters in Shah Alam on 16th July 2009 was mala fide, a gross abuse of power and acts of corruption.

The RCI found that Hishammuddin Hashim (who had “absolute authority” to investigate anyone whom he suspected of corruption in the state “without informing or obtaining the consent of his superiors” in MACC or Selangor although he was only Deputy Director MACC Selangor) was the “mastermind” who launched the massive MACC operation resulting in Beng Hock’s death without supporting facts but merely on “a mere belief” from a telephone call.

The crimes and violations of the law committed by the MACC officers in the massive MACC operation resulting in Beng Hock’s death include the following:

1. Responsible for Beng Hock’s death.

2. MACC officers committing perjury and telling lies about what happened to Beng Hock when at the MACC headquarters in police investigations into Beng Hock’s death, the TBH Inquest and the TBH RCI proceedings, which warrants the establishment of a Special Investigations Squad to identify Beng Hock’s killers.

3. Violating Section 31 of the MACC Act in illegally and without lawful authorisation exercising the powers of “search and seizure” when MACC officers carried out their raids on various places during the massive MACC operation resulting in Beng Hock’s death.

In Para 245, the RCI castigated the MACC officers over their “cavalier attitude” in “arrogating to themselves a power that the law did not, and does not, confer”.

The RCI also castigated the MACC for its common “unlawful” practice of conducting “search without warrant or authorization”.

In their report, the RCI commissioners referred to “a number of instances of blatant abuse of powers by the Selangor MACC officers and the other officers involved in the operation”. It said: “The investigation into the allegations of corruption by the MACC showed scant regard for the law in the pursuit of the MACC to produce results.” (Para 295)

The TBH RCI had expressed the view that “the death of TBH should not be in vain” and in this spirit, the Attorney-General Tan Sri Gani Patail should explain why the AG Chambers is totally indifferent and unconcerned about the exposes of the pile of crimes and unlawful actions committed by MACC officers as exposed by the TBH RCI report, submitted more than six weeks ago.

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