Charles Santiago

The RCIs appear useless — The Malaysian Insider

Posted: 25 Oct 2011 01:55 AM PDT

Source: The Malaysian Insider

October 25, 2011

OCT 25 — Again, the Attorney-General (A-G) is not pursuing legal action in another case that has been investigated by a Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI). This time, it is against the anti-graft officers who drove Teoh Beng Hock to suicide.

Why? Because there was no police report lodged over the matter, Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz said yesterday.

The de facto law minister said the A-G was not compelled to prosecute any of the three Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) officers implicated in the political aide's death due to the lack of investigative evidence and witness accounts.

But the minister in the Prime Minister's Department gave his assurance that the A-G would take action if any evidence or testimony surfaced.

It also happened with the RCI investigating the Lingam tape. Nothing was done after the royal panel found there was evidence that lawyer Datuk V.K. Lingam had committed criminal misbehaviour.

So why bother having an RCI? Why bother using the King's name to get a panel of eminent persons to sit and call for witnesses, deliberate on the evidence, issue a report and nothing gets done after that. It is a waste of time and money.

We do understand that the MACC probe into the three officers by a special investigative team was still ongoing. But shouldn't there be a criminal investigation? Haven't the police been called in for far more trivial cases?

Is the RCIs a way for the government to get breathing space and ease the tension when the situation turns against it? Is it to buy time and for people to forget that someone has died or an injustice appears to have been perpetrated?

Whatever happened to 1 Malaysia, People First. Performance Now. Are we going to accept that investigations cannot be done for lack of a police report. Haven't the police themselves lodged report to initiate an investigation?

Why won't the police do this? Is it because it is related to the MACC?

Putrajaya should be more careful about such things. One day soon, all this subterfuge and double talk and cavalier answers will come back to roost.