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ACA Director-General should clarify the two unresolved conflicting versions on the status of ACA investigations into Ling Liong Sik and Hee LeongACA Director-General should clarify the two unresolved conflicting versions on the status of ACA investigations into Ling Liong Sik and Hee Leong


Media Conference Statement
-
after a revisit to Anti-Corruption Agency  
b
y Lim Kit Siang

(PutrajayaMonday): Together with DAP Members of Parliament Fong Kui Lun (Bukit Bintang), Tan Kok Wai (Cheras) and Teresa Kok (Seputeh), we re-visited the Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) this morning with two objectives: 

  • Firstly, to seek clarification on the two conflicting versions on the status of the ACA investigations into Ling Liong Sik and Ling Hee Leong and
  • Secondy, to present a memorandum on the ACA and corruption.

We were informed that the  ACA Director-General,  Dato Zulkipli bin Mat Noor, the Director of Investigations, Datuk Nordin bin Ismail and the Deputy Director of Investigations,  Ahmad bin Mandus, were either out of the country or not in Putrajaya and we met  two ACA officers, M. Kanakaraja, Senior Superintendent of Investigations Division and  Zainuddin bin Ishak, Assistant Superintendent, Economic Investigations (Finance) Branch.

Both ACA officers were unable to give any clarification on the two conflicting versions on the status of the ACA investigations into Liong Sik and Hee Leong: the first version was given  when I was informed last Wednesday by Ahmad Mandus that with regard to  my June 1997 ACA report on Liong Sik and Hee Leong on the RM1.2 billion corporate acquisitions by 27-year-old Hee Leong in a matter of months and whether there had been improper Ministerial and political influence by Liong Sik, that ACA investigations had been completed, that no offence was disclosed and the case was closed although my second report arising from Soh Chee Wen’s Malaysiakini interview was still under investigation; while the second version which was reported in the Berita Harian and Utusan Malaysia on Thursday was given by Nordin who said that investigations into my 1997 report on Liong Sik and Hee Leong had been re-opened after my second report consequent on Soh Chee Wen’s interview. 

As both these versions are conflicting, only one version could be right – which one?

Before leaving DAP PJ Headquarters to Putrajaya this morning, I had read a letter from Ahmad Mandus in reply to my letter to the ACA Director-General on my revisit to ACA today, reiterating what I had been told by Ahmad Mandus on the status of ACA investigations into my first report on Liong Sik and Hee Leong – which had thrown no light or given any clarification on  the two conflicting versions by top ACA officers on the status of ACA investigations on Liong Sik and Hee Leong. 

The ACA Director-General should clarify the two conflicting versions without any further delay, as only one version could be right, and the two unresolved conflicting versions on the status of ACA investigations on Liong Sik and Hee Leong do not reflect well on the competence, efficiency and professionalism of the ACA. 

I had also asked Kanakaraja to arrange for a meeting for the DAP leaders to meet with the ACA director-gneeral and the director of investigations, as we want to have a dialogue and interactive session with the ACA officers and not just  a monologue and one-way traffic, with ACA officers only empowered to take notes but not to make any comments or give any clarifications, whether on the status of ACA investigations on Liong Sik and Hee Leong, or on the ACA’s role and the overall problem of corruption. 

At the close of the meeting, the DAP leaders handed over a memorandum on  a 10-year Anti-Corruption Action Plan to enable Malaysia to  compare with Finland on the anti-corruption front and to  be ranked among the world’s five least corrupt countries in the annual Transparency International Corruption Perception Index in a decade  by 2013.

(4/8/2003)


* Lim Kit Siang, DAP National Chairman