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DAP calls for legislative changes to require Anti-Corruption Agency to be more forthcoming in Parliament about its investigations, particularly in cases involving VIPs outstanding for more than three years Media Statement by Lim Kit Siang (Penang,  Tuesday): The answer by the government in Parliament yesterday that investigations against MCA President and Transport Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ling Liong Sik by the Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) and for alleged involvement in commercial offences are confidential is most unsatisfactory and unacceptable. It also makes a mockery of the "Mr. Clean" reputation of the Acting Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and his well-known speech at the Oxbridge Society on March 6 calling on Malaysians to fight corruption when he denounced the "Ugly Malaysian" and the "First World Infrastructure, Third World Mentality" malaise in Malaysia. In a written reply yesterday to DAP MP for Seputeh, Teresa Kok, on the various outstanding police and ACA investigations into Ling, the Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister's Department, Douglas Uggah Embas said details would not be made public until charges are filed in court under the Anti-Corruption Act 1997. He also said the ACA was still investigating several reports filed against the minister to date. DAP calls for legislative changes to require the ACA to be more forthcoming in Parliament about its investigations, particularly in cases involving VIPs which had been outstanding for more than three years. The ACA is in danger of getting into the Guinness Book of Records is having the longest unresolved corruption reports! In Ling's case, I had lodged a report nearly six years ago on 13th June 1997, asking for full ACA investigations as to how Ling Hee Leong, son of MCA President and Transport Minister, could at the age of 27 embark on corporate acquisitions exceeding RM1.2 billion in a matter of months and whether there had been improper use and influence of his father's political and Ministerial position. On 4th June 2002, I had lodged a police report at the Dang Wangi police station against Ling, asking for police investigations as to whether he had committed an offence of obstructing ACA investigations under Section 19 of the Anti-Corruption Act as a result of Soh Chee Wen's disclosures in his interview with Malaysiakini, which is an offence liable on conviction to the maximum sentence of RM100,000 fine or ten years' jail or both. What have happened to all these reports and their investigations? Even if the ACA and police could not complete their investigations into Ling, they should be able to explain to Parliament what were the difficulties and obstacles causing these files to remain in the "Incomplete but Open" basket! (18/3/2003) * Lim Kit Siang, DAP National Chairman