This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on November 8, 2017

KUALA LUMPUR: DAP lawmaker Tony Pua yesterday questioned the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission’s (MACC) fear in investigating the scandal surrounding 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB).

“Malaysians have been waiting long for MACC to launch its investigations into 1MDB, especially after similar investigations have already begun in the US, Switzerland and Singapore,” Pua told a press conference at the Parliament building.

Pua had earlier asked Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak in Parliament why MACC announced in June that it would not be carrying out investigations regarding the misappropriation of funds and abuse of power in the 1MDB scandal.

Following this, Datuk Paul Low, who is a minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, said in a written response to Pua dated Nov 1 that “investigations weren’t carried out because of existing investigations being done by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) and the police”.

“The PAC, which barely scratched the surface of the 1MDB scandal, has no prosecutorial powers. BNM, on the other hand, was investigating 1MDB purely under the Financial Services Act and certainly did not deal with the parties who had profited from the scandal,” Pua said.

“At the same time, while the police may have been investigating the criminal elements in 1MDB, MACC has power, laws and jurisdictions which are completely different from the police to tackle corruption cases,” he added.

“What type [of] ‘independent commission’ worth its salt is MACC if it leaves investigation, especially a scandal of such scale, to other agencies?”

Pua lamented that multiple reports had been lodged with MACC regarding the 1MDB scandal, including those filed in December 2014 by then Umno Batu Kawan division deputy chief Datuk Seri Khairuddin Abu Hassan.