I have no clue if these people are corrupted or not, but I just felt that ACA could do better with their investigation methods.

According to reports ACA has done some investigations in those 3 cases by questioning the alleged parties and checking their bank statements and assets etc… nothing wrong with that; but do you think people will ever admitted to give or accept bribe? Do you think people will use direct banking to transfer money in bribery? Do you think people who accept bribe will put the assets they bought (with those money) under their own name?

Any person who watches enough Hong Kong series can tell that people are smarter than that… not just in TV, but in real life as well.

I can’t really suggest how ACA can improve their investigation, because I don’t have the expertise and resources to do so. However ACA should be filled with people and network that are capable to trace oversea accounts and accounts of people that are related to the alleged parties… not just investigations that can be done by amateurs like you and me.

I guess the biggest question though… is how independent ACA was acting when conducting investigations against those VIPs. ACA could be capable of conducting better investigations, but do they want to do so against the big guns? I don’t know.

Update July 31 – Former Sabah ACA director Mohamad Ramli Abdul Manan, who lodged the report against former ACA chief Zulkifli Mat Noor, claims that Zulkifli was cleared of corruption allegations only because the attorney-general failed to investigate the claims thoroughly. [Malaysiakini]

Mohamad lodged a report early this year alleging misconduct by Zulkifli by way of corrupt practices and sexual misconduct as well as irregularities and abuse of power.

Update August 2 – An anti-corruption watchdog (Transparency International Malaysia) has demanded full public disclosure of the basis for the government’s dismissal of corruption allegations against former Anti-Corruption Agency director-general Zulkipli Mat Noor and police chief Musa Hassan. [Malaysiakini]

Articles worth reading regarding this issue…

Wanted – White Paper on “All-Clean Verdict” for Musa, Zulkipli and Johari
Malaysia’s Attorney General Hears No Evil, Sees No Evil

What concerned me though, is on how he was arrested (I am not going into the arrest details, you can read it from Tian Chua instead) and the reason for his arrest…

Mohd Johari Baharom’s involvement

Nat was arrested on Friday afternoon (July 13) under Official Secret Act (OSA) and is remanded for 4 days under Section 8 of the Official Secret Act (OSA) over allegation of possession of documents pertaining to Johari Baharum’s alleged involvement in corruption. [Jeff Ooi]

It’s quite apparent that Nat’s arrest is a result of the order from Deputy Internal Security Minister Mohd Johari Baharom, who has just been cleared of his corruption investigation a few days ago.

Johari actually has a decent point to fight against slandering, but the timing of the order make it extremely fishy, as if it’s a personal rage rather than act of wisdom. Besides, there are much more serious cases (rising crimes etc.) to be focused by the Internal Security Ministry and the police force.

Why is Nat arrested?

OSA is a joke, it is as rubbish as the Internal Security Act (ISA). The originally idea of OSA is to prevent leakage of confidential government documents (official secrets) that could harm the country. However the huge problem with OSA is that there are no clear definitions on ‘official secrets’…

Basically if an authorized person (cabinet, minister and some others) decided to name something official secrets, they are official secrets. It could be some really important documents or a love letter from the mistress… it will be protected under the act regardless; even the judiciary have no rights to question the decisions.

Samy Vellu has previously revoked the act when asked to present the documents regarding highway deals to the public. You can see how convenient the act is to protect the government VIPs from any corruption allegations, and how foolish the act is.

[Learn more about OSA from lawyer-blogger Malik Imtiaz Sarwar]

Back to Nat… there are no clear indications on what ‘official secrets’ he possessed, but since that the case is investigated by the Cyber Crime Unit, we can assumed that it has to be something related to his blog.

According to Susan, Nat was arrested because of a blog comment that linked to Johari’s alleged corruption. If this is true, it’s a real joke indeed.

Should we report on suspected corruption?

This raises another concern… should we report on suspected corruption if we somehow have some leads to some issues. It could come from an email, a blog comment, or some documents that were slipped through the door or mailbox, who knows… it might happen. So what are we going to do with those data? Should we report to Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) or what?

If we do report to the ACA and the alleged politician was found not guilty, we could end up like Nat thanks to the wonderful Official Secret Act… and if the proofs are solid enough, we could end up being blown off by C4 explosive before the case is actually opened. Wonderful.

All the best to Nat

I don’t know him, but I hope he is innocent of any charges, and my best wishes to his family and friends.

Update July 18 – Nat is released, but lots of questions remain unanswered.