Zaki said that the ACA investigations was headed by its Director of Investigatons, Abdul Razak Idris.
However, Zaki was unable to give further details about the investigations as he said investigations were still at the preliminary stage and he had not been informed of the full details.
This is understandable, but Zaki should be able to explain what has happened to ACA investigations also headed by Razak Idris into the allegations by former Bank Negara assistant governor Datuk Abdul Murad in his statutory declaration in October last year that former Deputy Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim had amassed RM3 billion in 20 "master accounts" while in government.
At that time, Zaki had immediately announced ACA investigations into Murad’s allegations, with Razak himself lodging a police report on the basis of Murad’s statutory declaration so that the ACA could start formal investigations.
Malaysians can still remember that Zaki had declared at the time that "almost every paragraph of Murad’s statutory declaration contained some information on corruption and corrupt practices".
He said: "We consider Murad’s statements as information on corrupt practices and they are serious because they are in a sworn statement. We will ask Murad to give us more information on the statements he made."
Zaki even said that the ACA might send its officers overseas to investigate Murad’s allegations on the US-based Asia Pacific Policy Centre.
It is now some four months since the ACA lodged a report to enable it to start investigations into Murad’s allegations, which cannot be in a preliminary stage any longer.
Zaki should inform the Malaysian public the status of the ACA investigations into Murad’s allegations that Anwar had amassed RM3 billion in 20 "master accounts", whether the ACA has uncovered any instance of corruption arising from Murad’s allegations, whether Murad had been interrogated and if so how many times and the outcome, why the ACA had never sought to interrogate Anwar Ibrahim in Sungai Buloh Prison all these four months, and whether the ACA had sent any officer overseas in connection with the investigatons.
Zaki should explain what has happened to Razak Idris’ investigations into Murad’s allegation of RM3 billion in 20 "master accounts" against Anwar Ibrahim if the Malaysian public is to have confidence in the ACA investigations into the RM10.6 million Mitsui kickback to Telekom Malaysia.
If after four months, the ACA had not been able to find any evidence
of corruption against Anwar, then Zaki should answer two questions:
If Zaki is selective in giving information about ACA investigations, then this would be another reason why the ACA has lost public confidence in its independence, professionalism and integrity - and Zaki would be behaving no better than a politician in the Barisan Nasional.
(20/2/2000)