Exercise in Banality

Ministers "sacked". Jobs lost. Positions given up. Office ransacked. Reputations sullied.

And then, our MACC came out with this banal of a most obvious statement:

The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) today said investigations revealed that the RM2.6 billion alleged to have been depositedinto the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak's account was from donors and not from the 1MDB.

Huh? I mean, whazzup there Yo?! You guys high on sumthin’?!

If you know the moollah came NOT from 1MDB then it’s no longer alleged, ain’t it right?

MI second main man Jahabir Sadiq puts things more succinctly:“MACC RM2.6 billion probe states the obvious, yet says nothing.”

The statement from MACC is akin to 1MDB’s Arul Kanda’s "Dr Mahathir got it wrong" about the company’s RM3b cost of debt servicing.

Then Husni Hanadzlah came out and officially states that it’s in fact somewhere between RM2.4 to RM2.7b annually.

Of course I am paraphrasing both la…

Like, whazzup really?

Playing on pure semantics.

And of course, the donors are anonymous as at this point in time though everybody’s on the gravepine thinks it’s from the Middle East.

RM2.6b into a personal account anywhere would ring alarm bells so hard that eardrums within the vicinity would shatter.

Here? We take bleeping bloody forever to come with a statement that IT DIDN’T COME FROM SO AND SO.

Banal.

We should have an institution set up here specializing in teaching this art we seem to have really mastered.

Salva Veritate (Saving the truth)

The handphone belonging to the late Teoh Boon Hock has apparently been discovered.

Police were however tightlipped on this issue so far.

In NST: “I do not want to reveal where it was found because the information is crucial to our investigations,” said Selangor Police Chief.

The Sun meanwhile learnt that “Teoh's handphone which … appeared to be missing was handed over to police along with his other belongings by a MACC investigating officer who had earlier recorded a statement from the deceased on Friday.”

That this “discovery” is crucial to investigations is spot on.

This would be purely speculative but if what The Sun “learnt” is correct, questions must be asked as to why the MACC is still holding on to the handphone of the deceased, who is said to be a mere witness, even after he was allowed to leave.

For all we know, it could be for the simple fact that the keeper of these kept items has gone off as it was way after office hours.

A person’s handphone is easily a personal extension of himself with a myriad of information contain within.

A normal person would undoubtedly place a call, or place an SMS to a loved one at the very least, when they are freed after being subjected to an eight hour long “hiatus”.

(The Malay Mail today (no link, apologies) says its 11 hours. My God!)

We await further revelations on this.

The Sun also had another interesting highlight in their columnist page, courtesy of Citizen Nades who was writing on Hong Kong’s Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) which the MACC is said to be fashioned from.

“We were shown rooms where suspects and witnesses had their statements taken. They are equipped with video recording equipment and ICAC’s No. 2, Daniel Li was quick to explain the presence of a convex mirror in a corner of the room.

“That mirror will show all the people present in the room and no one can make complaints that our officers were intimidating them while their statements were being recorded.”

At the end of the session, the interviewee is given a copy of the recording (which would help prepare his defence) while the investigating officer gets another and a third is sealed and deposited in the vault.

“That’s because if the contents are disputed by the prosecution or the defence, the courts accept the sealed copy as authentic,” said Li.”

Wow. That would really be going by the book. There’s no way you can mishandle a suspect or even a witness if such is in place.

No more allegations of abuse can be thrown against our overworked enforcement officers then.

That would have provided both side the confidence that whatever they say will stand up in the eyes of the law.

Justice is about fairplay, and nothing in fairer than such transparency.

Shouldn’t this be the way forward, then?

Scenes from DC Comics "The Killing Joke"

The Longest While

From NST’s report today on PC by MACC’s deputy commissioner Abu Kassim Mohammad:
“Teoh never showed signs of being under pressure throughout the eight hours of questioning.”

“It was normal for the questioning to last more than eight hours.”

"He was a very cooperative, friendly, good and helpful witness.”

"When he came in, he was not escorted, unlike suspects who are guarded around the clock, even when they go to the toilet.”

Incredulous is the word that comes to mind when I read this piece.

Truly blessed are those who stay Saintly while being grilled for eight hours.

According to news report the deceased was finally allowed to go home in the wee hours of the morning, which meant that the questioning went on throughout the whole night.

Eight frigging hours.

With total strangers who wants to probe you for information.

Crucial information on allocations, on public funding. On alleged mishandling.

Saintly is a good word to be used here.

Here’s one witness who would not fit the criteria gushed out by AKM: Kajang municipal councilor Tan Boon Wah.

His alleged "They called me a stupid Chinese... Are you from China? You can't speak Malay?” line of questioning would make eight hours pass by very, very slowly.

Eight God-awful hours.