Mahathir should personally speak up on Shafee’s court testimony that he had  in June 1998 personally ordered the ACA to drop investigation  into the then EPU  director-general, Ali Abul Hassan and to state the outcome of the ACA investigation 

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Media Statement
by Lim Kit Siang 

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Replying to the adjournment speech by Keadilan MP for Kemaman, Abdul Rahman Yusof, Douglas said investigations continued even after Datuk Ahmad Zaki Husin took over as ACA  director-general from Datuk Shafee Yahaya.

He said the fact that the ACA had continued with investigations showed that the case has not been closed as alleged by some.

Douglas said:  "Therefore, the allegation that Dr Mahathir had abused his power to cover up corruption and interfere with the due process of the law is very irresponsible."

It is most shocking and outrageous to read Douglas’ lame response to the testimony by the former ACA director-general, Datuk Shafee Yahya during  the Anwar Ibrahim trial on 12th June 2000  that the Prime Minister had personally ordered the ACA to drop an inquiry into   Ali.

Shafee said the incident happened in June 1998 - three months before Mahathir sacked Anwar – after the agency raided the office of the director general of the  Economic Planning Unit (EPU) and found a large sum of money.

Shafee said Mahathir   called him up after the raid and  he  was "told off". The Prime Minister’s words were: "How dare you raid my senior officer's office?", accused him of "trying to fix" the official and wanted to know whether he had acted under the instruction of Anwar.

What did Douglas mean when he told Parliament yesterday that investigations into Ali continued even after Datuk Ahmad Zaki Husin took over as ACA  director-general from Datuk Shafee Yahaya in April 1999?

Parliament and the nation are  entitled to answers to the following questions:
 

1. Did the ACA continue investigations into Ali in the ten months between June 1998 when Shafee said Mahathir directed that investigations be closed and April 1999 when Ahmad Zaki was appointed the new  ACA director-general - and if so, the nature of the investigations in terms of persons interviewed, statements recorded, etc.
2. Were investigations into Ali continued in the 18 months since Ahmad Zaki took over as ACA director-general, and if so, what were the nature of the investigations, the number people interviewed, statements recorded and the number of man-hours spent on this case by the ACA.
3. If Ali’s case had not been closed in June 1998 as alleged by Shafee, and had in fact continued even after Ahmad Zaki had taken over the ACA, why is such a simple case still outstanding after such a long time?

Douglas should not expect MPs and the Malaysian public to be so gullible as to accept a bald claim that investigations into Ali had not closed and had continued on its face value.  Douglas should be prepared to produce proof that the ACA had in fact continued investigations into Ali in both periods between June 1998 to April 1999 and between April 1999 till the present.

The strangest thing about Shafee’s testimony of the Prime Minister’s inteference to order the ACA to close investigations into Ali is the deafening silence of Mahahtir on the matter.

Mahathir has never been known to be coy about  making comments, including passing judgement on Anwar Ibrahim’s sex life  which he used as justification for  the sacking of his former Deputy Prime Minister, but which the prosecution recently admitted in open court  were "mere hearsay" as reason why Mahathir was  not competent to be subpoenaed as a witness in Anwar’s sodomy trial.

Mahathir should break his silence and personally speak up on Shafee’s court testimony that he had  in June 1998 personally ordered the ACA to drop investigation  into the then EPU director-general after the ACA raided and found RM100,000 cash in his office and explain  what has happened to the  ACA investigations into the case.

(14/7/2000)