Kit Siang: Dzulkifli too junior to head MACC

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PETALING JAYA: Dzulkifli Ahmad is too junior to be appointed as the head of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission(MACC), according to DAP adviser Lim Kit Siang.

Questioning his fitness to be chief commissioner, Lim said Dzulkifli had to be upgraded to the Jusa A Superscale civil service grade in order to qualify to be head of the MACC.

(Dzulkifli takes office tomorrow on a five-year contract, succeeding Abu Kassim Mohamad, who left with two years remaining on his contract.)

Lim also pointed out that Dzulkifli had played a key role in helping clear Prime Minister Najib Razak over the affairs of 1Malaysia Development Bhd and reports of a RM2.6 billion deposit in Najib’s personal accounts.

Dzulkifli was seated next to the Attorney-General, Apandi Ali, at the Jan 26 press conference where Apandi announced there were no grounds to file charges against the prime minister, Lim said in a speech at a party event in Serdang on Saturday night,

Lim said that the simultaneous removal of the three top officers of the MACC was a decapitation of the agency.

The chief commissioner, Abu Kassim Mohamad, left two years ahead of the end of his contract. Two deputy commissioners also left, Shukri Abdull is scheduled for retirement in October and will pursue his studies at a local university while Mustafar Ali was transferred to be director-general of Immigration.

Lim said the departure of the three men “was supposed to mark the end-game of a year-long strategy to remove all obstacles to the Prime Minister, Najib Razak”.

He said the US Justice Department had thrown “a wrench in the works” by filing a complaint over US$1 billion in assets said to be acquired with funds embezzled from 1Malaysia Development Berhad and destroyed Najib’s well-orchestrated plan since last year to make his twin mega scandals vanish into thin air”.

Lim also questioned Dzulkifli’s fitness by saying that Dzulkifli supposedly was unable to identify the “Malaysian Official 1” cited in the Justice Department suits.

The Justice Department has said that only those directly concerned with the assets had been named in the complaint. Those named were businessman Jho Low, movie financier Riza Aziz and two Abu Dhabi officials.