MACC to ‘act accordingly’ on new video expose evidence, says director

KUALA LUMPUR, March 20 – Ongoing
KUALA LUMPUR, March 20 – Ongoing investigations against Sarawak Chief Minister Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud will continue following new leads that have emerged, the Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission (MACC) said today.

This follows a 16-minute covert video revealed by Global Witness (GW) implicating Taib (picture) and his family with shady land deals, which surfaced in the media yesterday.

“The investigation has been ongoing. With the new evidence that has emerged the MACC will act accordingly,” its director of investigation Datuk Mustafa Ali told The Malaysian Insider by text message here.

The corruption watchdog had two years ago confirmed that they were investigating Taib over allegation of timber corruption.

“We are investigating Taib Mahmud and whatever our action is, we cannot reveal at this moment,” MACC commissioner Datuk Seri Abu Kassim Mohamed was quoted as saying in June 2011.

Civil society groups had earlier today demanded an immediate response from Putrajaya and MACC, which they claimed had been toothless in probing the Sarawak chief minister over his alleged ill-gotten riches.

The group of civil society organisations had also asked for a Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) on the matter before the 13th general elections which are expected very soon.

“This is very terrible for Malaysia ... (We need) nothing less than RCI. We call the Yang di-Pertuan Agong to call an RCI to investigate this issue,” Sarajun Hoda, a representative of reform movement Aliran.

Meanwhile, the Advocates Association of Sarawak (AAS) has indicated that they will investigate and act against the lawyer featured in the GW clip.

The Sarawak lawyer, identified as Alvin Chong, allegedly represented sisters Fatimah Abdul Rahman and Norlia Abdul Rahman who were recorded in the video describing potentially illegal deals.

Both are daughters of former state chief minister Tun Abdul Rahman Ya’akub and first cousins with the incumbent CM Taib.

“AAS will take appropriate action after due inquiry. One of the possible courses of action is to refer any complaints received on this matter to the Advocates Inquiry Committee,” a spokesman from AAS told The Malaysian Insider.

The Advocates Inquiry Committee is an independent statutory body separate from AAS, consisting senior lawyers from the state appointed by the Chief Judge of Sabah and Sarawak. The lawyers in both Borneo states are not under the jurisdiction of the Malaysian Bar, which only represents lawyers in the Malay peninsula.

In a 16-minute video clip released yesterday, GW investigators posing as foreign investors recorded snippets of their conversation with Taib’s cousins and lawyers, made under the pretext of purchasing Sarawak land for hefty profit and which the environmental campaigner said would displace thousands of the indigenous people living there.

Taib had suggested yesterday that his cousins and others implicated in the video exposé were promoting themselves to be his agents to solicit favours.

“OK I saw the so-called proof. Could it not be someone who tried to promote themselves to be an agent to get favours from me?

“It has nothing to do with me. I think it is a bit naughty of them. They are using their big powers to blacken my name,” the Sarawak chief minister said when approached by reporters in the state capital Kuching.