By P Prem Kumar
KUALA LUMPUR
Several key non-governmental organisations have called for a Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) to be set up to probe debt-ridden 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) in the wake of an alleged police clampdown.
The RCI would be the final avenue for all Malaysians to discover the truth on various financial misconducts in 1MDB and associates, said a Governance, Integrity, Accountability and Transparency (GIAT) coalition Monday.
It added that it would also look into an alleged RM2.6 billion ($700 million) "donation" into the private accounts of Prime Minister Najib Razak.
Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (IDEAS) chief executive Wan Saiful Wan Jan told a media conference that the inquiry is necessary following the alleged crackdown on Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) officers investigating the troubled state-owned firm.
“The sentiment is that MACC is being investigated and questions are being asked as to whether we can trust the police or not," he said.
“The fact that we have to suggest an RCI is really a sad situation as it proves a lack of trust even from our part, when the reality is that it should be a last resort."
Wan Saiful stressed that the MACC should be a constitutional commission, where the body will be instilled with powers to appoint or suspend any officers.
"MACC should never be at its current state, where the police are allowed to probe their headquarters for being detrimental for parliamentary democracy," he pointed out.
Centre to Combat Corruption and Cronyism Director Cynthia Gabriel agreed to the formation of a royal panel and added that it was necessary to stop the action taken against those tasked to weed out corruption.
“We need to insist such action can no longer take place in such a high profile investigation into 1MBD and if it was an issue of discipline, then the right thing to do is let them be heard,” she said, referring to the government's decision last week to transfer two vocal MACC directors to the prime minister’s department.
MACC special operations division director Bahri Mohamad Zin and strategic communications director Rohaizad Yaakob were moved from the agency over “disciplinary issues”.
They were to report to the prime minister’s department this morning but after explaining themselves to Chief Secretary to the Government Ali Hamsa, their transfer orders were cancelled and they were reinstated to their posts in the MACC.
On Monday, former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad also laid into the investigation, claiming that recent actions by Razak in defending himself from the corruption charge suggested that "democracy is dead" in the country.
He said he was left stumped by the current issues facing Malaysia, and had frequently been left unable to respond to questions from people overseas on what is happening to the country or deflect claims that Malaysia is "totally corrupt."
"I cannot answer truthfully. I cannot lie either. It is embarrassing. And all this is because of the 1MDB and Najib," Mohamad said in the latest post on his blog.
Early last month, the Wall Street Journal and Sarawak Report released reports quoting documents from an ongoing probe into the debt-ridden company claiming that money moved among government agencies, banks and entities linked to 1MDB, before finally ending up in the prime minister's personal accounts in five separate deposits.
Razak immediately said that he had not taken funds for personal gain as alleged by political opponents, whether it is from 1MDB, Finance Ministry-owned SRC International or other entities.
Days after, Razak's legal team underlined that the WSJ article had not clarified whether the money was from 1MDB.
When the lawyers sent a legal notice to WSJ's publisher Dow Jones to clarify the article, Dow Jones responded that it stood by the facts and details of the article as it was based on concrete evidence obtained by the international financial paper.
On Aug. 3, the MACC ruled that the RM2.6 billion was from personal donations, and not from 1MDB.
The finance ministry-owned investment vehicle established in 2009 has run up debts of RM42 billion in just six years of business.
