Media Statement (2) by Lim Kit Siang in Petaling Jaya on Thursday, 20^th August 2009: 

DAP condemns arson attack on MACC vehicle and advises Nazri against making baseless insinuations of DAP involvement

DAP condemns the arson attack on a Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) vehicle today.

As reported by Malaysiakini, four Molotov cocktails were thrown at the Klang MACC office at around midnight, destroying a four-wheel drive vehicle belonging to Selangor MACC.

MACC officers only realized the damage to the vehicle, a Nissan X-Trail, when they reported to work this morning.

There must be a full and thorough investigation to bring to book the culprits from whatever quarter responsible for the arson as no rational Malaysian regardless of race, religion or political affiliation wants to see any degeneration of Malaysia into growing lawlessness.

I must advise the Minister in the Prime Minister�s Department, Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz against making baseless insinuations of DAP involvement, as is evident from the following Malaysiakini report:

Attending a press conference in Putrajaya later, Nazri did not rule out "underworld connection" to the arson attack.

He said that it was well known that the Selangor MACC was investigating claims that some state exco members had links with the underworld, as alleged by Wangsa Maju PKR MP Wee Choo Keong.

"If there was no investigation on the underworld links, this would never have happened. This goes to show what Wee had suggested exists," said Nazri.

"Such attacks are usually done by cowards...and samseng (gangsters) only," he added.

I agree with Nazri in condemnation of the arson attacks as the work of �cowards and gangsters� but he should not set the bad example of going overboard to make wild insinuations as to the perpetrators or it would encourage Malaysians to do likewise, bringing back memories of the Reichstag (German Parliament) fire in 1933 which had been blamed on the Gestapo as it was the event which precipitated the Nazi takeover of Germany.

Nazri�s further statement that MACC officers should not hesitate to use their weapons if the need arose cannot but be alarming � in the wake of recent controversies concerning the proper conduct and behaviour of MACC officers resulting in the mysterious death of Teoh Beng Hock at MACC headquarters.

In regarding the Pakatan Rakyat as the �enemy� and the Barisan Nasional as their �ally�, the MACC has fully veered from and betrayed its statutory objectives as

(i) its sole enemy should be corruption, whether Barisan Nasional or Pakatan Rakyat; and

(ii) the greater the corruption the bigger the enemy to MACC, and not as publicly stated by the MACC Chief Commissioner, Datuk Seri Ahmad Said Hamdan, that MACC makes no difference between corruption of tens of ringgit from those of hundreds of millions of ringgit!

MACC should step out of the Barisan Nasional�s masterplan to destroy the Pakatan Rakyat, particularly to topple the Pakatan Rakyat Selangor state government, as its one and only objective is to declare war against corruption and not to be catspaw of Umno/Barisan Nasional to declare war against Pakatan Rakyat.

*Lim Kit Siang, DAP Parliamentary leader & MP for Ipoh Timor