Royal Commission Report into police naked earsquat scandal, the RM764 million Daim “Metramac patronage” and the RM32.5 million aggravated CBT of Halim Saad and Anuar Othman – triple tests of national integrity plan

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Media Statement
by Lim Kit Siang  
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(Parliament, Monday): In his recent interview with Bangkok Post, the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi  reiterated his commitment to eradicate corruption.

The Royal Commission Report into police naked earsquat scandal, the RM764 million Daim “Metramac patronage” and the RM32.5 million aggravated CBT of Halim Saad and Anuar Othman (the latter two highlighted in the Court of Appeal judgment on the Metramac case last week)  have surfaced as  triple tests of Abdullah’s  resolve and the  national integrity plan.

According to Datuk Hamzah Md Rus, the secretary to the Royal Commission on the police earsquat scandal, the 345-page commission report will not see public light at least until after the Cabinet meeting on Wednesday although it will be submitted to the Yang di Pertuan Agong and the Prime Minister today.

This violates the first principle of integrity with regard to transparency, as it is the practice of  commissions of inquiry in First-World countries to make public their reports and findings simultaneously they are submitted to the appointing authorities.

Why should the Cabinet act as a “super censor” to decide whether the Royal Commission Report should be made public, which itself is proof that Malaysia has yet  to have an Integrity Cabinet to spearhead the reform campaign for national integrity.  Royal Commissions of Inquiry are not to serve the interests of the Cabinet or ruling political parties but the nation and its reports and there should be no censorship or delay in the publication of its recommendations.

The Prime Minister has the power and duty to “walk the talk” with regard to his commitment to integrity by directing the immediate publication of the Royal Commission Report on the police earsquat scandal, as well as to adopt the transparency principle that henceforth, it is to duty and responsibility of commissions of inquiry to make public their reports and findings simultaneously they are submitted to the appointing authorities.

The submission of the Royal Commission Report on the police earsquat scandal raises the question about the outcome of the earlier report of the  larger Police Royal Commission and its 125 recommendations to create a clean, efficient, professional world-class police service, which was submitted eight months ago in May last year.

Despite repeated questioning in Parliament, nobody knows what are the recommendations which had been accepted and implemented and those which had been rejected or simply put into “cold storage” – including the most important recommendation of all, the establishment of an Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC).  

The Court of Appeal judgment on the Metramac case concerning the Cheras toll concession raised three questions about integrity, viz:

• Firstly, how could a shell company without adequate  funds be awarded a privatization contract worth hundreds of millions of ringgit?  According to the judgment, Syarikat Teratai K.G. Sdn. Bhd, with Dato” Fawziah and her mother as the only two shareholders,  was awarded the privatization of certain roads in and around Kuala Lumpur by City Hall of Kuala Lumpur in 1987. They did not have the “large sum of money required to carry out the works”, resulting in restructuring of the concessionaire with “reputable institutions of undoubted financial liquidity” bringing in the much needed MR65 million capital to “commence the project”.  
   
• Secondly, the patronage by the then Finance Minister, Tun Daim Zainuddin, for his two protégés Halim Saad and Anuar Othman, favouring them with a RM764 million compensation by the Federal Government,  and
   
• Thirdly, the finding by the Court of Appeal that Halim Saad and Anuar Othman were probably guilty of “an aggravated form of criminal breach of trust, an offence which carries a maximum 20-year jail term with whipping and fine upon conviction” to the tune of RM32.5 million.

Will the Cabinet give full authority to all the relevant agencies to institute all necessary proceedings and investigations to come up with answers to these three important questions of integrity?

(16/01/2006)