Will MACC be placed under parliamentary oversight? - Hafiz Hassan

• Published date: 02 February 2023
• Publication title: Malay Mail Online

A former anti-graft chief once warned individuals against using the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) as a political tool.

MACC chief commissioner Latheefa Koya issued the warning following a statement by the Opposition that the MACC should be fair in investigating corruption cases even if it involved people from the ruling government.

'MACC for a long time was used as a political tool, people lodge reports just to get at each other.

'We strive to be professional and we do not want to be used for this platform,' she told reporters.

Yesterday, Bersatu secretary-general Hamzah Zainudin said the MACC was being used as a political tool to destroy Perikatan Nasional (PN) after the anti-graft body froze two of Bersatu's bank accounts.

It's the same old, same old vitriol against the MACC, irrespective of the government of the day.

The MACC was also called out by PKR deputy president Rafizi Ramli in November for being a political tool to investigate him but not taking any actions against cases of corruption that he had revealed in recent weeks, including alleged wrongdoing involving the littoral combat ship (LCS) scandal.

Rafizi had revealed in a ceramah that his office was 'raided' by the MACC, with his staff being questioned for up to seven hours.

The 'raid' was confirmed by the MACC, with the anti-graft body saying that it seized some documents from Rafizi's office as part of its investigation into his asset declaration regarding his data analytics company Invoke Solutions Sdn Bhd.

In April, it was then DAP leader Lim Guan Eng who questioned if the MACC had 'become a political weapon used or misused by vested political interests' as observed in a series of what he called 'omission and commission' that allowed select...