Another victim of MACC’s ‘racism’?

By Asrul Hadi Abdullah Sani - The Malaysian Insider

PETALING JAYA, July 18 — Is the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) racist?

DAP member Dariff Din is buttressing that claim, saying today he was a victim of racial remarks by the body’s interrogators looking into alleged misappropriation of state allocations by DAP state lawmakers.

Dariff, who is assistant to Kampung Tunku assemblyman Lau Weng San, is the second person to make the claim after Kajang municipal councillor Tan Boon Wah who made the same allegation yesterday.

“They asked me if I was Chinese or Malay and I told them that I was Malaysian but they kept insisting on my race,” Dariff told reporters at the DAP Paramount service centre when relating details of his interrogation on July 15 by MACC officials.

He said they were mainly interested in his ethnicity rather than the case itself, adding the officer was curious because he looked Chinese but had a Malay name. He told them his father was Malay and mother was Chinese.

“Everything went smoothly after they learned that I was a Malay Muslim,” Dariff said, adding he was questioned about his background for another hour before they asked him how Lau’s office spent the state allocations.

The investigator went through all the files they seized from Lau’s office, Dariff said, adding he was surprised the officer even asked if anybody had attended the programme even though there were photos to prove the event was not a hoax.

“They told me that now there are computers, so the photos can be made,” he added

After the interrogation was complete, Dariff asked for the written statement but the officer refused and claimed it was against procedure and it was a secret.

“How can it be secret when I made the statement?” Dariff asked, adding he was questioned from 4.30pm until 9pm that day.

Dariff also asked the interrogator why he was being investigated when there are bigger cases like the PKFZ.

“It is not our jurisdiction, it up to the head office. We are only Selangor,” he quoted the officer as saying.

Dariff added that he was allowed to roam freely in the office and claimed he saw Teoh Beng Hock being escorted to the back of the MACC office at 6pm. Teoh was found dead a day later outside the building.

Lau has now instructed his assistant not to attend any interrogation in the MACC office until the investigation is complete and there is royal commission inquiry into Teoh’s death as their personal safety is at risk.

He said he believes the MACC has no proof but is fishing for evidence against opposition assemblymen and is using scare tactics to get them.

Apart from Lau’s office, the MACC officers also raided the service centres of Teoh’s superior, Selangor state executive councillor Ean Yong Hian Wah. They only introduced themselves as MACC officers and demanded Dariff go to the MACC office for questioning.