Macc S Watergate Scandal

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Datin Seri Rosmah is supposed to appear in court this morning, but was postphoned to 3 PM today.

MACC held a press conference, in which the trailer released yesterday mentioned of explosive audio revelation. True to the suspicion, the audio implicated Rosmah and the court collaborated to conveniently postphone her court appearance.

In the press conference, MACC Chief Commissioner, Latheefa Koya revealed publicly 9 sets of audio clipping of telephone conversations.

It involved former Prime Minister, Dato Najib Tun Razak, former MACC Chief Commissioner, Tan Sri Dzulkifli Ahmad, head of state of UAE, Dato Azeez Raheem, Rosmah and few others [see here].

Latheefa said MACC is making the audio recording public for the interest of the public of attempts to cover-up and subversion of justice.

She is not disclosing the source and the authencity of the recording will be verified on further investigation.

It means MACC is giving it to police to investigate. One law enforcement giving another law enforcement agency to investigate on probably their investigation finding.

In the past, bloggers making revelations of wrongdoing would claim someone left documents at the doorstep or on the car windshield wiper.

Surely, it could not be the same.

There are only few enforcement agencies with the capability to do tapping of telephone conversation.

Any formal tapping for purpose of investigation and collecting of evidence require authorisation of Deputy Public Prosecutor.

Usually tapping done by Special Branch are illegal thus not made public in court. By passing to police, MACC intend to take to court.

It begs the question why reveal evidence to public?

Should MACC not be required to do so, why then they not disclose the source and be responsible for their action?

Reactions


A few reactions on Facebook indicate MACC action may have serious legal implication and future operation of law enforcement.

Facebooker Salahuddin Bin Hisham immediate questions posed were below:
KERJA BODOH TIPAH KOYA. PC REVEALED NOTHING NEW.Perhaps new names. Issues...1. Was the audio tapping authorised by any DPP? 2. Could this be subjudice agst ongoing trials and lead to mistrial? 3. MACC has disclosed evidence not verified yet in court. It means police or MACC or Customs must disclose and update public on ongoing investigation. Sancity of evidence compromised.4. Security of our system of intelligence and information gathering open to public and enemy scrutiny.Cukup setakat tu. Politically, the intention is obvious. Obviously, kerja bodoh.  An UMNO Supreme Council member, Dato Armand Azha responded immediately at 12:00 PM:
Hari ini kita lihat suatu permainan politik yang amat merosakkan sebuah badan bebas negara MACC dijadikan alat politik.

Sebentar tadi MACC ini telah dedah rakaman audio semasa PC dakwa konspirasi jenayah tertinggi dikatakan suara Ds Najib dan beberapa individu.

Bukankah kes ini masih berjalan dimahkamah? Bukankah ini contempt of court dibuat oleh MACC ni.

Sebagai sebuah badan bebas kerajaan sepatutnya hanya perlu buat PC, rakaman audio tersebut sepatutnya serah pada pihak PDRM untuk dibuat siasatan

Paling real bagi saya, rakaman suara laju jer kata kenal pasti, rakaman video di Sandakan aka Semburit sampai skang tak leh selesai sedangkan terang2 beberapa NGO telah pergi luar negara untuk dapatkan laporan forensik tak sampai satu minggu.

Rakaman pula dikatakan dapat rakaman daripada pihak yang tidak dikenali dan tak pasti siapa. Kenapa tak persoalkan siapa yang buat rakaman tersebut? Camana lar MACC boleh buat kerja terdesak ini. Buat PC terus dedah terus patutnya serah pada PDRM, dimana intergriti MACC dalam isu ini.

MACC CONTEMPT OF COURT, pada pendapat saya.

Ini semua bagi saya adalah utk jatuhkan momentum BN di PRK KIMANIS. Satu game plan yang busuk ciptaan Rejim Pakatan.

Ikhlas

Dato Armand Azha Hj Abu Hanifah
MKT UMNO Malaysia
Ketua UMNO Bahagian Subang
8hb Januari 2020
12 tghariReaction on content

A message from Acik reads below:
1. Surprised that phone calls were recorded. This is a serious breach of protocol as DSN was PM then. Recording the PM's phone calls is already a major breach of security.

This is a scandal by itself which the authorities should be investigating.

2. The phone calls are innocuous. There does not seem to be any major breaches of security.

None of the recordings show DSN asking for any investigations to be stopped or changed.

In fact, some of these recordings are deemed helpful to DSN case.

For example, one of the phone calls is with a witness in the 1MDB case and clearly contradicts the witness claims that he was merely taking instructions.

The recordings also clearly show that DSN was unaware of the actual going-ons in the 1MDB case and was being updated.

As all of 1MDB's partnerships are with overseas partners, DSN has the requirement to know what was going on and to take necessary steps to resolve these with the foreign countries rulers.

The loan document referred to in the phone conversation already exist and was lodged with the bank.

there were actually 2 agreements. The first one in 2012 when Aabar BVI transferred the money.for investing in Riza's movies. It was signed by Mohd Badawy, CEO of Aabar.

This agreement was lodged with the lawyers and the banks that year.

Then in later 2015, Aabar BVI was closed down when Riza wanted to pay back the money.

So he asked Abu Dhabi to sign a new agreement so that he can pay back the money as per original agreement.

You can't sign a new agreement in year 2016 to backdate and submit back to the USA as evidence.

SPRM should not be making a false conclusion that there was attempt to fabricate evidence based on parts of a phone conversation.

3. Has MACC nothing better to do? This is clear sub judice of several ongoing cases in court and the lawyers will apply to the court to cite her for sub judice.The conversation between the Crown Prince and Najib is also consistent with Najib’s statement that he was not aware the money was from 1MDB and that Rizal thought it was investment from Mansour and Najib pleaded to the crown prince to finalise it into a loan agreement.

The recording contradicts Amhari statement in court saying he does not know anything about the IPIC settlement.

Thus far, the recordings could actually prove that Najib never covered up. And also that it is a dirty tactic to mould negative perception.

Wiretapping scandal


A legal practitioner consulted felt there are potential complication to MACC action to make public these audio recordings.

To tender as evidence in any court, there will be a chain of evidence to be revealed in court.

Handling of evidence would become an issue; who put the recording together, how was the recording made and so on will need to be revealed in court.

Latheefa Koya may need to offer herself as witness. And, the royalties of UAE will be required to present himself in court to verify the audio

The revelation itself will severe relations between Malaysia and UAE. More enemies for Malaysia

The revelation in court could open a can of worm. It would reveal and compromised our intelligence operation and capability to the world

In the future, police, MACC, and Custom will be answerable to the public to reveal their investigation finding in a similar vein as revealed by these audio recording. 



It is an unprecedented level of transparency never practise by any law enforcement in the world.  

It will means government can do tapping on anyone and anytime. A similar incident, the Watergate Scandal of the 1970s brought down President Richard Nixon of the US. 
Once set as precedent, the next government to replace the PH government will resort to tap on anyone it wishes.

It will turn information gathering operation for security reasons used as tool for a police state as envisioned by George Orwell in his classic 1984 novel entitled 1984

There have been a reshuffle in MACC with the roles played by Dato Azam Baki is taken over by the Dato Ahmad Khusairi as Director for Investigation and Dato Aziz Aban to be the new Director for Surveillance.
Is it the new politically motivated practise introduced by these new Directors?

The Director for AMLA, Dato Zamri is already failing to get any conviction for his rampant application of forfeitures

Overkill and mistrial
Politically, it is looking as though government side desperately need to pin down Najib as soon as possible to enable a political plan to be executed immediately.

[Do refer to past few postings here and here together with Raja Petra's latest here.]
Najib will certainly be painted as weak and under the control of Rosmah. It serve the purpose of Mahathir to weakened Najib's political support within UMNO grassroot and among UMNO MPs

The audio recording may not have any legal value and its admissibility in court questionable. If it is to be given to the police for investigation, why must it be exposed

Evidence are adduce in court and making public only tainted it. By making it a subject of public, the sanctity of the evidence is under question and it is subjudicial.

If the audio is a new evidence, it openned up room for Najib to take action for contempt against Latheefa.

He could get his cases thrown out on a mistrial. Latheefa's overzealousness to hammer the final nail on Najib's political could end up acquiting him.

This highlights a major problem in this country; stupidity.

Things are done without thoroughly pondering and thinking on the implication and outcome. Sloppy work is indicative of stupidity.

If not, it is a case of trying to be clever (or in Malay, memandai). Otherwise, someone in MACC is on the take. 
Talk among senior media people is that the matter raised is nothing new. It is purely trial by media.

Apparently, anytime there is a by-election, there will always some new accusation or slander made against Najib

To Mahathir, only politics matter. When did he ever care for the rule of law?

To be updated
Updated 8:15 PM

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