Pulling the wool over our eyes

Pulling the wool over our eyes
THE STRAIGHT TIMES
by Ibnu Hakeem

The police seem to be going down in a never-ending spiral of goof-ups, incompetence and plain stupidity. Just last month a judge ticked off the police in Ipoh for bungling a murder investigation which saw the easy acquittal of the accused. There was strong indication of criminal negligence on the part of the police when it was stated in court, amongst other things, that the forensic team visited the murder scene six days after the murder.

In another more recent mind-boggling exhibition of police stupidity, over 49,000 psychotropic pills conveniently went missing from the police evidence docket which resulted in the easy acquittal of a drug pusher. How do you ‘misplace’ or lose 49000 pills?

Now we come to this mind-boggling case of Datuk Zulkipli Mat Noor, the chief of the Anti-Corruption Agency and a high ranking ex-police officer. The police have resubmitted the investigation papers on sexual crimes and assault allegedly committed by Zulkipli against a housewife in 1997.

IGP Tan Sri Musa Hassan has been quoted as saying that the police investigated the complaints lodged by the woman in the Dang Wangi station. But surely Musa Hassan would know that this was the second report lodged by the woman (Ezam said third). As has been widely discussed in the Blogs, this is the report which does not have the word ‘rogol’ or rape in it. Musa would also know that the woman had lodged another earlier police report in Mambau, Negeri Sembilan, which was never investigated by his police boys. Hence, the woman had to lodge another report. That earlier report which was never investigated is believed to state the word ‘rogol’.

Here Musa too is taking the ‘by the book’, ‘technically correct’ approach towards the matter. He said he has again handed the investigation papers of the Dang Wangi report to the AG. Yes Tuan, we know that, but this is the SECOND report that does not have the word ‘rogol’ in it. What about the FIRST report the woman lodged in Negeri Sembilan - the one that has the word ‘rogol’ and which was never investigated by your boys there? Going by the book, you will say ‘no investigation papers, therefore nothing to submit to the AG’. You will be technically correct, but the public wants to know why your boys did not investigate the woman’s FIRST report in Mambau, Negeri Sembilan? Why did your boys only investigate the SECOND report lodged in Dang Wangi? Is it because someone ‘coached’ the woman to drop the word ‘rogol’ and instead write ‘tendang’, ‘pukul’, and such?

Musa’s evasive handling of this matter reminds us of Tan Sri Nor Mohamed Yakcop’s evasive, by the book, technically-correct replies to the Public Accounts Committee over the ECM Libra-Avenue Capital merger last Monday. Nor Mohamed kept repeating the technically-correct answer that the Securities Commission had approved the merger. We all know this. What the public wants to know is who in the first place within Government gave the initial approval or the first green light to sell Avenue Capital? Nor Mohamed is being very evasive about this simple question.

In this same way, Musa keeps harping that “Investigation into the report in 1997 was properly and orderly carried out and promptly filed with the A-G Chambers. We sent it again today and will wait for their reply.” Again Musa is being technically correct but Musa is ignoring the fact that six years later, in 2003, the head of the ACA in Sabah, Mohd Ramli Manan, had discovered the allegations and had informed the then IGP, Tan Sri Bakri Omar. Again no action was taken by Bakri. In case Musa is confused, let us assure him (before he assures us) that no doubt Bakri was an individual and a different human being, but he was still the IGP. Why didn’t the IGP investigate the matter in 2003 when the Head of the ACA in Sabah brought up this issue again?

Why was there NO investigation by the Police over the first report lodged by the woman in Mambau, Negeri Sembilan?

And other than the allegation of rape, what about the six houses in Pagoh, the petrol stations, the overseas holidays, the construction contract in Johor, and other accusations against the ACA Director? And we are not yet touching on the lavish cars that Musa Aman, the Sabah Chief Minister, bought for Zulkipli’s in-laws in Kota Belut. Why would a Chief Minister buy your in-laws expensive cars? It is obvious that the ACA will shy away from investigating all this because the allegations are against the head of the ACA. Making it worse is the fact that this man was a high ranking police officer seconded to the ACA.

The Minister in the Prime Minister's Department, Tan Sri Bernard Dompok, who heads the Parliamentary Select Committee on Integrity, has said Zulkipli and those who made allegations against him would be asked to present their cases before the committee. Does this mean that the woman will also be called to give evidence? She should.

We have already seen how the Public Accounts Committee is being fed bananas by monkeys. It is therefore doubtful what exactly the Parliamentary Select Committee hopes to achieve. Bernard Dompok has already made the following meaningless statement: “the duty of the committee was only to determine if there were elements of integrity involved in the allegations, following which the committee would make the necessary recommendations to parliament”. What exactly is an ‘element of integrity’ and what would Parliament do? Can the Parliamentary Select Committee determine the ‘element of integrity’ without hearing the woman in person? After all, the allegations started from her. If they do not hear directly from her then it becomes hearsay. Then they too will be fed bananas by monkeys.

But Bernard does not seem perturbed at all because he is quite convinced that his is ‘not a committee that makes a final decision’. Then who will? Well, hold on to your seats because Bernard says, ‘if the need arose’ he would make his recommendations to the Prime Minister. Ayoyo!