MACC's heavy burden - negative public perception

It was high drama when the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission chief and former Bar Council president faced off over the question of the anti-graft body's independence.

Former president and veteran lawyer Ambiga Sreenevasan (below) had chief commissioner Abu Kassim Mohamed boxed in at the question and answer session after the latter's presentation in the 15th Malaysian Law Conference, when she accused the MACC of not being "truly independent".

"I think there is a good reason why MACC is seen as the hatchet man of the government. The perception is still there. You cannot compare yourselves to Hong Kong's Independent Commission Against Corruption.

"The five advisory committees have no power to haul the MACC up if they are found to be non-compliant," she said.

However, Abu Kassim managed to hold his own, insisting that the MACC had adopted the model similar to the famed ICAC at time their inception.

"But it is only when you report to the parliament as a whole, and parliament alone, that you truly become independent," she shot back.

Willing to bow out

Ambiga later urged the MACC to make it compulsory for all members of parliament, the judiciary and cabinet ministers to declare their assets to it.

"The wider the network the better," she said.

The graft czar was grilled some more by Ambiga who challenged him to investigate federal ministers.

"It's not that I would, I am doing it, 100 percent. I assure you, if there is a case and we're not investigating properly, I'm willing to go down," he said, drawing applause from the hall of 300 lawyers and legal experts.

Earlier in his presentation titled "Challenges Ahead for MACC", Abu Kassim (right) lamented that the biggest hurdle for the one and a half-year-old commission continues to be public perception.

"Every time the Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index comes out, they will come to me. But the index also looks at other aspects like freedom of information, procurement processes, the judiciary, powers of parliament and so forth.

"And then they think that I fast track investigations of people from certain political parties," he said.

He then claimed that out of the 15 politicians charged in court for corruption last year, 12 were from the ruling coalition.

"The first big action by the MACC when we were formed in 2009 was to address the issue of money politics in the ruling party. We arrested more than 20 people then.

"The youth wing even demonstrated against the MACC, saying that we have no business investigating their internal affairs," he said.

Alluding that things do not go his way in bringing the corrupt to justice some times, he said that the public is still not aware of the actual role of the MACC.

"Three months after we announced the formation of the five consultative committees in MACC, one of the committee member actually came up to me and asked me why we were not charging a particular person.

"He was shocked to hear that we don't have the powers to prosecute, only to investigate," he said.