RM10 salary cut motion against the ACA Director-General during the parliamentary budget meeting in October  if ACA fails to launch full-scale  investigation as to how a former two-year  Sabah Chief Minister could amass  such astronomical wealth as to gamble hundreds of millions of ringgit in various London and Australian casinos  a year after political retirement

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Media Statement
by Lim Kit Siang  
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(Parliament, Thursday): DAP will move a RM10 salary cut  motion against the ACA Director-General in the 2006 Budget meeting of Parliament in October  if the Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) fails to launch a full-scale  investigation as to how a former two-year  Sabah Chief Minister could amass  such astronomical wealth as to gamble hundreds of millions of ringgit in various London and Australian casinos  a year after political retirement, as it would be proof that the ACA is among the weakest links of the national integrity system to eradicate corruption in the country.

The ACA Sabah director Shukri Abdull has said that the Sabah ACA has sent press cuttings about the massive gambling debts of former Sabah Chief Minister, Datuk Seri Osu Sukam to the ACA headquarters in Putrajaya and it is now left to the ACA headquarters to take any follow-up action. (Berita Harian today)

It is pathetic that the ACA Sabah has been reduced to a PCA – “press cutting agency”.  This is a classic case of passing-the-buck, especially when the ACA headquarters cannot  be so backward as to have to depend on the Sabah ACA for media reports and information about Osu’s gambling debts, which has been raised in Parliament and  is national and international news.

The ACA Director-General, Datuk Seri Zulkipli Mat Noor, who has been keeping very silent for more than a week  since the massive Osu gambling sprees and  debts made national and international headlines, should explain what is holding up the ACA from  immediately launching a full-scale investigation as to whether Osu had corruptly and illegally amassed  such astronomical wealth as to enable him to gamble hundreds of millions of ringgit in various casinos in London and Australia a year after his political retirement.

Is Zulkipli waiting for “green light” from the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, before the ACA dares to move in to launch a full-scale investigation into the massive Osu gambling  sprees and debts?

Only last month, Zulkipli said ACA  will investigate any Umno leader found to be involved in money politics even if it does not get any report from the party provided there was “sufficient basis”. 

Is the ACA director-general seriously suggesting that the massive gambling sprees of Osu  in London and Australian casinos a year after political retirement involving not millions, tens of millions but hundreds of millions of ringgit,  is not “sufficient basis” for ACA to launch full-scale investigations?

What is it that is lacking before Zulkipli would direct the launch of a full-scale investigation into Osu massive gambling sprees and debts to ascertain whether the astronomical fortunes Osu gambled in various London and Australian casinos a year after stepping down as Sabah Chief Minister had been derived from illegal and corrupt means?

Has’nt ACA got “sufficient basis” to act,  based on Osu’s  four declarations of assets in his 15-year public service, first as  Deputy Works Minister in 1986, Federal Minister for Land and Co-operatives in 1994, Sabah Deputy Chief Minister and Finance Minister in 1998 and Sabah Chief Minister March 1999 – 2001?

A full-scale ACA investigation into the gambling spree of Osu Sukam running into hundreds of  millions of ringgit a year after political retirement is indispensable as at issue is not just the human  failure of a person, but even more serious, the institutional failure of a system of integrity involving anti-corruption laws, agencies and codes of conduct, to find out what are  the  lessons to  be learnt and the remedies to be put in place to avoid the recurrence of future Osu Sukams whether in Sabah or at the federal level.

The unbelievable gambling sprees and debts of Osu Sukam also raise many pertinent questions:

• Are there any other senior politicians or civil servants who are members of any casino overseas, especially in London and Australia?

• Are there any other senior politicians or civil servants who regularly visit casinos?

• Who was the casino member who proposed Osu's casino membership of The Ritz Hotel Casino  on 8^th July 2000 (when he was still Sabah Chief Minister)?

• Did Osu use his chief minister title to help secure the casino membership?

• What are all the other casinos in London, Australia and any other foreign country where Osu had gambled, owed debts and was a  “high-roller” member?

(14/07/2005)