RPK File: ‘Mahathir used ACA to protect himself and cronies’
by uppercaise
Dr Mahathir Mohamad appointed a “millionaire police officer” as head of the Anti-Corruption Agency who would protect him and his cronies from investigation, according to a letter sent to an advisor to Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, then prime minister.
Images of the letter were posted at Malaysia Today by Raja Petra Kamarudin on Tuesday. The letter, written in English by senior ACA officer Mohamed Ramli Manan, was sent to Dato Shagul Hamid, the head of Biro Tata Negara.
Raja Petra said: “Shagul Hamid, the head of BTN, was the adviser to Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. What Shagul Hamid knows, Pak Lah knows. In fact, in most instances, Pak Lah would not act unless on Shagul Hamid’s advice and Shagul Hamid could tell the Prime Minister what he should and should not do. But in this particular case no action was taken — or maybe no advice was given.”
Ramli Manan’s letter said: “We know the reason why Mahathir had appointed him [Dato Zulkifly Mat Noor] as the DG [director-general] then. It is to protect him and his cronies from ACA’s investigation from his corrupt misdeeds like the Petronas bailout, IPP scandal, MAS, Hospital privatization and a lot more that are coming up.”
The letter to Shagul Hamid is a follow-up to an earlier letter to the Inspector-General of Police with copies to the prime minister and legal officers. In that letter Ramli accuses Zulkifly of corruption and mentions a rape report lodged against him and of Zulkifly interfering in the investigation of the report.
Ramli urges Shagul to “brief the PM accordingly and dispense with the services of this ‘very corrupt police officer’ who is already a millionaire with commercial interests. He accuses Zulkifly of being a security risk and a security threat to both the ACA and the country.
Most ACA officers questioned the appointment of Zulkifly and questioned Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s commitment towards eradicating corruption, Ramli said. As examples of public disquiet, he cited a column by former Inspector-General of Police Tun Hanif Omar in the Sunday Star openly attacking the ACA as an ‘unreliable’ and ‘useless’ agency. He also cited an interview in the Sun of former senior civil servant Tan Sri Ramon Navaratnam. He quoted Ramon as saying: “We want to make the ACA independent…Now it is like another government department. But sometimes independence is one thing but you put the wrong fellow there also is no use.”
The former Anti-Corruption Agency has been superseded by the independent Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission. However the MACC is now embroiled in further controversy and suspicion after the death of political aide Teoh Beng Hock in mysterious circumstances. Teoh Beng Hock was found dead at the foot of the building housing the MACC office in Shah Alah, on the 14th floor. He had been questioned overnight, as a witness, by the MACC. An inquest into his death is continuing.
© 2010 uppercaise
The images of the Ramli Manan letter posted by Raja Petra can be viewed by clicking the Page numbers at the bottom of this posting. They are reposted in the cause of free speech and a free press as Malaysia Today often comes under cyber-attack and links may not work.
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