Several members of the Malaysian Bar came out in full support of council president Abdul Fareed Abdul Gafoor who earlier voiced his concern over Latheefa Koya’s appointment as head of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC).
Perhaps the Bar president has his way of doing things and is hopeful that Latheefa will take off where Richard Malanjum and Thomas applied brakes by reopening the bungalow files and taking Guan Eng to task for the multibillion Penang Undersea Tunnel corruption and power abuse scandal.
Note: A serious typo was edited at 9.35 pm, 6/6/2019
PETALING JAYA: Several members of the Malaysian Bar came out in full support of council president Abdul Fareed Abdul Gafoor who earlier voiced concern over Latheefa Koya’s appointment as head of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC).
In a written response to Malay Mail, Muhammad Rafique Rashid Ali reportedly defended Abdul Fareed following criticism by lawyer Siti Kassim that the Malaysian Bar president’s criticism was ‘political’.
However, one wonders why all the brouhaha when none of these lawyers had anything to say when the Penang High Court discharged Lim Guan Eng of two charges – that he used his former position as Chief Minister of Penang to approve the conversion of land, and that he gained gratification by buying a bungalow below market value.
The acquittal came after Guan Eng’s lawyers contended that the charges were politically motivated and filed representations to the Attorney General’s chambers for the cases to be dropped after Pakatan Harapan swept into power in May 2018.
Neither Siti Kassim nor Abdul Fareed batted an eyelid when it was revealed that the cases were dropped because the prosecution felt it could not succeed due to the emergence of fresh evidence that weakened its case considerably.
The duo also kept calm when it was revealed that the MACC failed to act on a 6.3 billion corruption and power abuse scandal involving the construction of a non-existent undersea tunnel in Penang.
On the 24thof February 2019, Raja Petra Kamarudin commenced a series of publications to prove that the MACC conspired with Attorney General Tommy Thomas – the man Siti Kassim was spotted doing the ‘tango’ with – to sweep the discoveries under the carpet.
The United Kingdom (UK) based blogger splashed documents that were said to be from the MACC’s files that proved Lim Guan Eng received 10 per cent of the tunnel project cost through a kickback scheme involving several Pakatan Harapan leaders.
The project involved behind-the-counter deals between Guan Eng and the driver of the Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) awarded the project, Dato’ Zarul Ahmad Mohd Zulkifli.
The project courted controversy in 2017 when the previous Penang government under Lim Guan Eng chose to remain vague over claims of impropriety by the state’s then opposition and dished out lies supplemented with unconvincing clarifications, contradictions and flip-flops.
Abdul Fareed has been exceptionally vocal in recent days following his election as Malaysian Bar president and has portrayed himself to be a champion of truth and justice.
On the 16thof March 2019, he called on Thomas to explain why murder charges against Vietnamese Doan Thi Huong were not dropped as the case was high-profile and had attracted a lot of attention.
Perhaps the Bar president has his way of doing things and is secretly hopeful that Latheefa will take off where Richard Malanjum and Thomas applied brakes.
Perhaps he is provoking Latheefa so that she will prove herself fit for the job by taking Guan Eng to task for the multibillion Penang Undersea Tunnel corruption and power abuse scandal.
Perhaps Siti does not want that to happen as Latheefa May end up pulling elephants out of the tunnel and discover that Thomas had adopted one of them.
Anything is possible in Malaysian politics these days.
RJ RITHAUDEEN
