#JUSTSAYING: Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad has appointed an ex-politician to clean up corruption in Malaysia, and he’s done it without asking anyone. So is Latheefa Koya the right person?

Following is a transcript of the video: 

Latheefa Koya, a 46-year-old lawyer and human rights activist born in Kerala, India, is now the second most important person in Malaysia. 

That’s right. The second most important person in Malaysia after Tun Dr Mahathir. 

How so? Because her job now is to investigate and build a case strong enough to prosecute all the people whose greed nearly bankrupted the country. Because corruption and corrupt politicians were the main reason behind Malaysia swapping its government for the first time in 61 years. 

NARRATOR: A victory that even Malaysia’s most enthusiastic opposition supporters considered far-fetched. 

TUN DR MAHATHIR MOHAMAD: We are not seeking revenge. What we want to do is to restore the rule of law.  

And because if Latheefa Koya doesn’t do her job well enough -- within the next four years -- there is every chance Malaysia could fall back into her old ways. 

And corrupt politicians will say, ‘I told you so’, before returning to government and offering sugar cubes in return for billions from the people again. 

So it is no surprise that there was lots of opposition to her nomination. 

Some of which included the fact that she was, until her appointment, a card-carrying member of the political party PKR. That she worked for former Finance Minister Tun Daim Zainuddin’s law firm, a person whose role in Malaysia Baru continues to be questioned, until today, and that Tun Mahathir basically appointed her unilaterally, with little or no consultation with other people. 

TUN DR MAHATHIR MOHAMAD: We don’t have a parliamentary select committee. 

REPORTER: The current parliamentary select committee on legal appointments? 

TUN DR MAHATHIR MOHAMAD: Yes, but they can’t function legally yet. So at the moment, we go to the old idea of making appointments, that is the Prime Minister decides.  

These are valid reservations, especially those relating to her impartiality or Tun M’s solo decision. 

Critics rightly question and ask, why impose high standards of governance on others but lower them when it came to your own appointment -- whatever the reasons or however pressing the urgency? 

Many say Pakatan should know better than this. 

And while U-turning on fiscal matters is one thing when matters are out of your control, a key appointment such as this is quite another, as both procedure and promises were basically ignored. 

Still, when all things are considered and a larger lens is applied to the issue -- if we’ve already taken a gamble with this new government of unproven fresh faces, why not do the same with Latheefa Koya? 

I mean, how much worse can she be compared to her predecessors? And how long would her appointment have taken if Tun M had gone through a Parliamentary Select Committee?

So, why don’t we instead put her to the test? Let’s see how she performs in her first twelve to twenty four months, and then assess her then? 

There are so many cases to investigate, it’s not as if she’s accepted a job in a retirement home. From Teoh Beng Hock to SRC International to Sarawak state, there are literally hundreds of cases to get her teeth into. 

If anything, the difficulties she faces might be technical in nature, such as getting the buy-in from her lower-downs among the MACC rank and file, if the reports of her direct, no-nonsense personality are to be believed.

I mean, here she is, defending then Suaram’s Cynthia Gabriel. If you recall, Suaram had lodged a corruption complaint over the Scorpene deal, and instead of investigating the alleged wrongdoing, police went after the whistleblowers instead. 

LATHEEFA KOYA: Police should stop being agents of certain people and do the real investigation. Go after those who have been shooting people, go after the real criminals, go after those who are named in the scandal of Scorpene, go after those people. If you really are serious about investigating and stopping time, go after them, not against Cynthia, and don’t waste our time.   

Yep that was Latheefa. Garang or not? 

Back to the issue. Other challenges she might face include learning the ropes in terms of getting things done in Malaysia’s bureaucracy, and the compressed timeline, because she will have a busy two years ahead of her, which is the duration of her contract. 

There are the ongoing high-profile bribery cases involving former PM Datuk Seri Najib himself, and his wife Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor. There’s the trial of Umno treasurer Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor and former Sabah Umno chief Tan Sri Musa Aman, both of whom are already scheduled for trial. 

And then there are the other 'big fish' that have already been charged, including ex-Deputy PM DS Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, former FELDA Chairman Tan Sri Isa Samad, former Treasury Sec-Gen Tan Sri Irwan Serigar. 

VIDEO CLIP OF TAN SRI IRWAN SERIGAR DANCING 

Yep -- that guy. Can u imagine -- he was in charge of the country’s coffers! 

And there’s also ex-1MDB CEO Arul Kanda, and of course, not forgetting Datuk Rizal Mansor, Rosmah’s former aide. 

And that's just the tip of the iceberg, ‘cause the extent of the rot was far and wide, as many Malaysians now know. 

Our position in Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index has been slowly dropping, as the chart shows, and our current lowly ranking of 61 should be among Latheefa’s first ports of call. As does the ultimate goal of realising the government’s goal of having a clean and fair government under the National Anti-Corruption Plan 2019-2023. 

In fact, Malaysia’s corruption levels and our MACC are often compared with Hong Kong and its own anti-corruption body, the Independent Commission Against Corruption, or ICAC. 

Back in the Seventies, HK was a cesspool of scumbags, riddled with corruption, just like how Malaysia is today. 

NARRATOR: (In Cantonese) In 1997, Hong Kong was reverted to China. During the years between 1962 and 1972, the total amount of bribes was estimated to be HK$10 billion, equivalent to HK$500 billion of today’s money. 

Today though, it’s a very different affair in Hong Kong. Hong Kong has a ranking of 14 in Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index, better than Iceland, France, Belgium, Ireland and Japan. So, in more ways than one, Hong Kong’s ICAC has done its job. 

Malaysia? Well, we’re like Hong Kong in the Seventies. We’re still in the dark ages where corruption is concerned.  

Except that now, with a globalised financial system and the cooperation of big global banks like Goldman Sachs, the game is much more clever. 

HASAN MINHAJ: Goldman helped 1MDB appear more legit than they actually were. It’s like awards on movie posters. Like, you don’t ever read that leafy circle. You just trust it once you see it. It could say anything in there, and in this case, that leafy circle was Goldman Sachs. 

So, Mahathir has hired Latheefa to deal with this mess, and to fulfil his government’s promise to clean up the country. 

We trusted him enough to make him our Prime Minister, right? So let’s trust in his judgement with Latheefa Koya. 

Just Saying. 

*The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect the view of The Edge Media Group 

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