Lim Kit Siang
The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has proven that he and top UMNO leaders have nothing to fear from the Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) as it is not an independent creature but totally beholden to the wishes of the Prime Minister’s Department.
This is the conclusion to be drawn from the summary manner Abdullah dismissed the accusation that he and his deputy Datuk Seri Najib Razak had abused their power to hold onto the top two posts in the coming Umno polls.
He claimed that the Umno power-transition plan was decided by the party’s supreme council and announced to members.
Abdullah has missed the point altogether.
Abdullah and Najib cannot be exonerated or exculpated from the ACA report lodged against them last week by Umno Selangor veteran leader Datuk Mazlan Harun for abuse of power just because the UMNO leadership-transition plan had been endorsed by the Umno Supreme Council, or that it had been announced publicly rather than “quietly conspired”.
If the Umno leadership-transition plan constituted political corruption, unlawfully and unethically using government machineries to garner support among Umno members in a bid to sustain their positions in the coming party elections, then an independent ACA is duty-bound to act as the explanations given by the Prime Minister – that it had been endorsed by Umno Supreme Council and announced publicly – are utterly immaterial and irrelevant to the ACA report of abuse of power lodged by Mazlan.
But after the pronouncement by Abdullah yesterday that he is innocent of any form of political corruption, would anyone believe that the ACA would dare to do more than going through the perfunctory process of opening a file?
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