Leaks related to anti-graft agency probes can be reported to police: Malaysia deputy law minister
A screengrab of Deputy Minister in Prime Minister's Department (Law and Institutional Reform) Ramkarpal Singh in parliament on Jun 14, 2023.
KUALA LUMPUR: Any leaks related to investigations carried out by the country’s anti-graft agency can be reported to the police, said Malaysia’s Deputy Minister in Prime Minister's Department (Law and Institutional Reform) Ramkarpal Singh on Wednesday (Jun 14).
“Of course, MACC (Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission) does not allow any leaks of its investigations.
“But if there are leaks and so on, this can be dealt with by making a police report … and the matter will be investigated further,” Mr Singh told parliament during the Ministers' Question Time.
He was responding to Tasek Gelugor Member of Parliament (MP) Wan Saiful Wan Jan who asked how the government plans to stop the leaks of information in the MACC.
“Lately, a lot of information leaked by unnamed sources from the MACC has been published in the news,” said Wan Saiful.
“What is the government's plan to help improve MACC's weakness in stopping this flood of … leaks so that we can ensure the people … trust that the investigation carried out by MACC is transparent and not for other purposes?”
He also noted that the leaks raise the question of whether information was intentionally leaked by the MACC.
Last Thursday, Minister in the Prime Minister's Department (Law and Institutional Reform) Azalina Othman Said said in parliament that leaks from anonymous sources in the MACC are in no way related to the agency itself, according to Free Malaysia Today (FMT).
Subsequently, Ms Azalina in a parliamentary written reply, stated that the MACC Act prohibits any information on the agency’s probes from being revealed until charges are filed in court.
Wan Saiful, who is the former Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu) information chief, pointed out that he “had an experience” with the MACC.
On Feb 21, Wan Saiful claimed trial and pleaded not guilty to accepting and soliciting bribes of almost RM7 million (US$1.6 million) in relation to the government’s Jana Wibawa aid programme. He was also charged with soliciting an unspecified amount for a road project worth RM232 million.
The Jana Wibawa aid programme was an economic generation project during Malaysia’s COVID-19 movement control order. It was a stimulus aid package that was meant to help Bumiputera contractors.
The probe into Jana Wibawa began after Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim found in his capacity as finance minister that high-expenditure projects such as Jana Wibawa did not go through a tender process.
“The costs were too high, so I released this information (to the MACC) through the finance ministry,” Mr Anwar said on Feb 2.
Others who have been questioned as part of MACC’s probe into Jana Wibawa include Bersatu president Muhyiddin Yassin and International Trade and Industry Minister Tengku Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz.
Commenting on the charges against Wan Saiful, Muhyiddin claimed that his party is the victim of “selective prosecution”.
“We actually expected that this would be done by the PH (Pakatan Harapan)-BN (Barisan Nasional) government to weaken Bersatu after seeing growing support for Perikatan Nasional,” said Muhyiddin, according to FMT.
Several bank accounts belonging to Bersatu are currently frozen by MACC. On May 30, the party applied to challenge this in court, according to local media.
