I welcome the call of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission urging people who know of civil servants living beyond their means to report the matter to it immediately.
“The MACC will determine how they are able to lead a life of luxury beyond their income and find out whether they had acquired their wealth through legal means,” MACC deputy chief commissioner (operations) Mohd Azam Baki said.
As Azam rightly pointed out, civil servants who lived a life of luxury usually held specific posts in the government and would most likely be involved in the abuse of power and corruption.
And that is why in Hong Kong, government officer that maintains a standard of living above that which is commensurate with his present or past official emoluments or is in control of pecuniary resources or property disproportionate to his present or past official emoluments, is guilty of corruption unless he gives a satisfactory explanation to the court as to his source of wealth.
I applaud the effort of MACC to emulate Hong Kong ICAC. But they owe me an answer, ie what happened to my report to them two years ago urging them to probe into the wealth of Najib and his family, who are famous of having a lavish lifestyle that does not commensurate with his official emoluments?
The report was lodged at MACC Johor HQ on April 20 2015, the birthday of my colleague, belated Teoh Beng Hock.
The parliamentary reply I received from YB Senator Datuk Paul Low Seng Kuan, Minister in the PM’s Department on May 28, 2015 stated as follows:
“Memiliki harta mewah bukanlah merupakan satu kesalahan di bawah Akta SPRM 2009 kecuali pemilikan harta-harta ini adalah hasil dari kesalahan rasuah oleh seseorang (yang juga dirujuk sebagai ‘predicate offence’).
SPRM tidak boleh menyiasat seseorang yang dikatakan mempunyai harta mewah yang berlebihan tanpa mempunyai asas siasatan di bawah Akta SPRM 2009.”
It seems that the approach of MACC has now changed. And therefore I hope MACC can reopen my complaint and start the investigation over again.
When DOJ openly said that USD681 million from a 2013 bond sale by sovereign wealth fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) was transferred to the account of “Malaysian Official 1”, how can our MACC not taking any action when they vow to combat graft among the civil servants and to clean up the Malaysian public sector?