Press Statement (2) by DAP Secretary-General and Member of Parliament for Bagan, Lim Guan Eng in Pulau Pinang on 7 September 2020.
Will Azam Baki Also Play Ignorant to the Latest Case Of a Deputy Minister Appointing His Brother and Family Member As Civil Servant in His Own Ministry?
The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) has stated that it is not a crime for a politician, Deputy Minister or Minister to issue a support letter. However, MACC Chief Commissioner Azam Baki must clarify whether the support letter by Deputy Defence Minister Ikmal Hisham Abdul Aziz recommending his own son as a board member of Pharmaniaga constitutes corruption.
Ikmal issued a support letter for appointing his son as the board member for Pharmaniaga on Jun 5 to the Minister of Defence, Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri. Ismail have minuted the letter with an ‘approval’ to the appointment of Ikmal’s son to the Chairman of the Lembaga Tabung Angkatan Tentera (LTAT), which is controlled by the Defence Ministry. LTAT is the largest shareholder in Pharmaniaga.
It is clear that Ikmal has performed an offence by abusing his position as Deputy Minister for the gratification of his son. In fact, Ikmal himself confessed that he wrote the support letter to appoint his son and will retract the letter. However, it is now already too late and such offences must be charged by MACC.
Now, new allegations have surfaced regarding another Deputy Minister who has appointed his brother and family member as civil servants within his own office. All of this are allowed to happen because of the failure of Azam Baki to take action to those who abused their positions for personal gain, which is a toxic cocktail of abuse of power, nepotism and corruption emerging in the Perikatan Nasional (PN) government.
Will Azam Baki investigate this new case? Or will Azam Baki play ignorant as he did in the Deputy Minister of Defence’s case? Don’t let the MACC motto of “fairness, firmness, trustworthy” become nothing but empty words, replaced by the perception of “antara dua darjat” or “double-standards” between VIPs and regular Malaysians.
Lim Guan Eng,
DAP Secretary-General,
Member of Parliament for Bagan.
